Adam Becker at the Harvard Science Center

Harvard Book Store, the Harvard University Division of Science, and the Harvard Library welcome Adam Becker—science journalist with a PhD in astrophysics and author of the New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice What Is Real?—for a discussion of his new book More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley's Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity. He will be joined in conversation by Jacob Barandes—Co-Director of Graduate Studies for Physics at Harvard University. This event will take place at the Harvard Science Center Hall D, located at 1 Oxford St, Cambridge.

There are two ticket options available for this event. Following the presentation will be a reception and book signing in the Cabot Science Library across the hall from the presentation room.

Free General Admission Ticket: Includes admission for one.

Book-Included Ticket: Includes admission for one and one hardcover copy of More Everything Forever.

This "wild and utterly engaging narrative" (Melanie Mitchell) shows why Silicon Valley’s heartless, baseless, and foolish obsessions—with escaping death, building AI tyrants, and creating limitless growth—are about oligarchic power, not preparing for the future
Tech billionaires have decided that they should determine our futures for us. According to Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman, and more, the only good future for humanity is one powered by technology: trillions of humans living in space, functionally immortal, served by superintelligent AIs.
In More Everything Forever, science journalist Adam Becker investigates these wildly implausible and often profoundly immoral visions of tomorrow—and shows why, in reality, there is no good evidence that they will, or should, come to pass. Nevertheless, these obsessions fuel fears that overwhelm reason—for example, that a rogue AI will exterminate humanity—at the expense of essential work on solving crucial problems like climate change. What’s more, these futuristic visions cloak a hunger for power under dreams of space colonies and digital immortality. The giants of Silicon Valley claim that their ideas are based on science, but the reality is darker: they come from a jumbled mix of shallow futurism and racist pseudoscience.
More Everything Forever exposes the powerful and sinister ideas that dominate Silicon Valley, challenging us to see how foolish, and dangerous, these visions of the future are.

Adam Becker is a science journalist with a PhD in astrophysics. He has written for the New York Times, the BBC, NPR, Scientific American, New Scientist, Quanta, and other publications. His first book, What Is Real?, was a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice and was long-listed for the PEN Literary Science Writing Award. He has been a science journalism fellow at the Santa Fe Institute and a science communicator in residence at the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing. He lives in California.

Jacob Barandes founded and organized the Foundations of Physics @Harvard seminar and workshop series, as well as the New England Workshop on the History and Philosophy of Physics, which are both co-sponsored by the Department of Philosophy. He completed his PhD in the Department of Physics at Harvard University, where he currently serves as Lecturer and Co-Director of Graduate Studies. He is also an Associated Faculty Member with the Department of Philosophy, and a Faculty Affiliate with the Harvard Black Hole Initiative.

Masks are encouraged but not required for this event.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Science Center, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, United States