Skip to main content

Life Engineering

Machine Intelligence and Quality of Life

  • Book
  • © 2020

Overview

  • Provides a transdisciplinary perspective on the effects of machine intelligence
  • Showcases the implications of digital disruption on humans, businesses and society
  • Presents the foundations for the emerging discipline of "life engineering"

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

eBook USD 19.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 24.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (8 chapters)

Keywords

About this book

Machine Intelligence is changing every aspect of our lives. Internet traffic and sensors in households, cars, and wearables provide data that oligopolistic companies collect and use to extract patterns of human behavior. Further, active digital assistants are taking over more and more of our everyday decisions. Humanity is on the verge of an evolutionary leap and it is time to determine if this development will benefit people’s wellbeing or will just mean the accumulation of capital and power with no regard for quality of life.

This book integrates the perspectives of various disciplines that are striving to establish resilient foundations – computer science, economics and social sciences, political science, psychology, philosophy, neuroscience, ethics and religion – in order to clarify a number of positions and, as a result, objectify the discussions. Written by Hubert Osterle, a researcher working at the interface of these disciplines, the book promotes debate on the future of man and machine, on happiness and evolution and on the major changes brought about by digital technology. Last but not least, it is a manifesto calling for a new – integrated – discipline to be founded: life engineering.


If you want to think more deeply about what machine intelligence (aka AI) really means for humanity, you should read this book. Hubert Oesterle takes an amazingly broad and multi-disciplinary look at all relevant aspects, from the roots of human behavior to the impact advanced digital assistants might have on our daily lives (and who will control these assistants). Highly recommended!” Andreas Goeldi, Partner at btov Partners

Authors and Affiliations

  • University of St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland

    Hubert Osterle

About the author

Hubert Osterle has been full professor of business and information systems engineering at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. He founded the Institute of Information Management and initiated the executive MBA program "Business Engineering" at the University of St. Gallen. Osterle was editor-in-chief of Electronic Markets and a member of the editorial board of other journals. In March 2015 Osterle received an honorary doctorate from the Wroclaw University of Economics.

Besides his academic achievements, he founded the consultancy company "The Information Management Group” (1989) and the Business Engineering Institute St. Gallen AG in 2003. In addition, Osterle is founder and a member of the supervisory board of CDQ AG.

Bibliographic Information

Publish with us