Novacene

Novacene (2019) presents a startling vision of a near-future Earth in which climate change is threatening our existence and artificial intelligence technology has acquired life. The emergence of this new life-form, which will vastly surpass humanity in its intelligence, will mark the beginning of a new age in the history of Earth – an epoch the author calls the Novacene. Extremely ambitious in scope, Novacene shines a spotlight on our particular moment in history and articulates an extraordinary theory about the purpose of the Cosmos and our place in it.

• Environmentalists who fear for the future of the planet
• Luddites who want to put the brakes on technological innovation
• Curious minds ready for a theory about humanity’s purpose in the cosmos

James Lovelock, who turned 100 years old while writing this book, is lauded as one of the most important environmental thinkers of our time. He’s most notably known for his work on the Gaia hypothesis which, when it was first formulated in the 1970s, revolutionized how science would come to conceive of the relationship between the earth and its inhabitants. Over the course of his life, Lovelock has authored more than 200 scientific papers, and written many books in which he expands on the concept of Gaia including Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth, The Revenge of Gaia, and The Vanishing Face of Gaia.