The Digital Mind

The Digital Mind: How Science is Redefining Humanity is a book authored by Arlindo Oliveira, published by MIT Press in 2017.
The first part of book covers briefly the history of technology and the development of early computer technology, including references to the analytical engine and the contributions of Charles Babbage, Ada Lovelace and Alan Turing. It then moves on to address a number of topics in computing, such as computability, algorithms, computational complexity, machine learning and artificial intelligence.
The second part of the book includes a discussion about cells, evolution, genetics and organisms, focusing on the contributions of Charles Darwin,Gregor Mendel, Santiago Ramón y Cajal, James Watson and Francis Crick. It then proceeds to describe the way neurons work and how they are wired together to create biological brains.
The last part of the book puts together computation and biology, and discusses whether digital minds can be created by algorithms running in computers, either by mimicking natural brains (using mind uploading), by replicating the brain development processes that lead to the creation of complex brains, or by running sophisticated artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms.
The book concludes by discussing the consequences of these technologies in the future of humanity, including topics like the rights and responsibilities of artificially intelligent systems, superintelligence, and even a possible answer to Fermi Paradox, provided by the existence of digital minds.
The book has received warm reviews from Pedro Domingos, the author of The Master Algorithm, and from Srinivas Devadas, Webster Professor of Computer Science at MIT.
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