How to Be Human in the Digital Economy

“Nick Agar hopes that the Digital Age will be followed by the Social Age, because the preservation of humanity depends on it entering the Social Age. Agar's book points to this issue and is therefore of pivotal importance, while Agar`s argument is visionary. Whether his vision of the Social Age will be realized, is going to be revealed to the coming generations. Hopefully.”

Vojin Rakić, Director of the Center for the Study of Bioethics, University of Belgrade, Serbia

“With this book, Agar seals his place as the foremost philosophical defender of humanness in a robust technological age. Agar has now done for the digital world what he did for human biomedical enhancement, mounting a systematic defense of distinctively human values in the face of a technological revolution that promises to transform human nature and society in ways both imagined and unimagined. Agar makes a persuasive case for the unprecedented threat of artificial intelligence to the future of human work and agency. Rather than resorting to dire predictions, however, he lays out normative ideals worth fighting for in an increasingly digital world. This book epitomizes philosophy at its best, carefully integrating disparate threads from history, social science, popular culture, and contemporary philosophies of mind and morality into an eminently readable romp through the blooming buzzing confusion of our technological landscape, from social media to sex bots. It is a refreshingly sober antidote to the unbridled optimism and blinding panic that so often greets technological revolutions, giving us a glimpse of the way forward and offering concrete steps to humanize our technological future. Everyone who feels lost in the maelstrom of technology swirling around them, and all those who feel right at home in the digital age, should read this book.”

Russell Powell, Department of Philosophy, Boston University

“Thoughtful and informative. How to Be Human in the Digital Economy helped me understand the digital revolution and its impact on our societies. This book will be of great interest to a wide range of readers. While philosophically driven, the narrative is nevertheless easy to follow and accessible. The author has skilfully assembled a wide range of ideas and based his central arguments on many sources. I found the overall assumption that the digital revolution should be accompanied by a social revolution to account for the human factor to be very compelling. The topic will certainly receive a great deal of attention in the future, and not only from philosophers of humanism.”

Marius Turda, Professor, School of History, Philosophy and Culture, Oxford Brookes University, UK

“A clarion call to place the value of the human at the heart of the digital revolution. We ignore it at our peril.”

Robert Sparrow, Professor of Philosophy, Monash University, Australia