Out on 22 February 2024

Wise Animals

Tom Chatfield

22 February 2024
9781529079746
336 pages

Synopsis

'Combining compelling storytelling with erudite, compassionate and often profound insight about the human condition, this book will transform how you navigate the world.' – Richard Fisher, author of The Long View

Wise Animals
explores the history of our relationship with technology, and our deep involvement with our creations from the first use of tools and the taming of fire, via the invention of reading and printing, to the development of the computer, the creation of the internet and the emergence of AI.

Human children know no more of modern technology than their ancestors did of older technologies thousands of years ago, and develop in relation to the technologies of their time. We co-evolve with technology as individuals as we have as a species over thousands of years.

Rather than see technology as a threat, this deeply humanist contribution to the debate proposes that we are neither masters nor victims of our technologies. They are part of who we are, and our future – and theirs – is in our hands.

Combining compelling storytelling with erudite, compassionate and often profound insight about the human condition, this book will transform how you navigate the world.
Tom Chatfield is one of the smartest and most original tech thinkers writing today. Both thought-provoking and startlingly original, Wise Animals is his magnum opus.