Many intelligences: What do robots, starfish and toasters think about? by Matteo Loglio

Intelligence is one of the many forces in the universe: it lets us understand, communicate and collaborate. But don't think that human beings are the only intelligent species on the planet! Octopuses, starfish and elephants, as well as trees in forests, all have different kinds of intelligence from ours. And there is yet another kind of intelligence, the kind that humans are learning to create in laboratories: artificial intelligence.

At the moment it can do simple things, but it is already helping us in many different ways (it even knows how to compose new music!). As time goes by, the objects we use every day will become more and more intelligent: imagine cars communicating with each other to avoid accidents, or alarm clocks able to wake us up when we are feeling less sleepy... What will they think? How will they treat us? And how do we treat other kinds of intelligence?

With Many intelligences, Matteo Loglio lets us peek into the future and imagine a world where pots, cars and toasters will be as intelligent as we are (or maybe even more so). Without forgetting our current task: being the most intelligent beings on the planet also means being responsible for all the others.

Age range: 6 years and up