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Deep Utopia

Life and Meaning in a Solved World

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About this listen

*Gold Medal Winner, Living Now Book Awards 2024*

Bostrom’s previous book, Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies (OUP, 2014) sparked a global conversation on AI that continues to this day. That book, which became a surprise New York Times bestseller, focused on what might happen if AI development goes wrong.

But what if things go right? Suppose we develop superintelligence safely and ethically, and that we make good use of the almost magical powers this technology would unlock. We would transition into an era in which human labor becomes obsolete—a “post-instrumental” condition in which human efforts are not needed for any practical purpose. Furthermore, human nature itself becomes fully malleable.

The challenge we confront here is not technological but philosophical and spiritual. In such a “solved world”, what is the point of human existence? What gives meaning to life? What would we do and experience?

Deep Utopia—a work that is again decades ahead of its time—takes the listener who is able to follow on a journey into the heart of some of the profoundest questions before us, questions we didn’t even know to ask. It shows us a glimpse of a different kind of existence, which might be ours in the future.

©2024 Nick Bostrom (P)2024 Nick Bostrom Philosophy Politics & Government Religious Studies

Critic reviews

“This is a wondrous book. It is mind-expanding. It is poetic. It is moving. It is funny. The writing is superb. Every page is full of ideas.” —Russ Roberts, President of Shalem College

“Fascinating.” —The New York Times

“Yeah.” —Elon Musk
All stars
Most relevant
Nick Bostrom truly illuminates the choices humanity is facing as new forms of intelligence and challenges for our species survival become unavoidable.

An intellectual tour de force

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Bostrom gives a masterclass in meticulous philosophical analysis. The overt aim is a reflection on a world in which the development of artificial intelligence has a benign conclusion, relieving us humans from any material, or even intellectual, preoccupation, thus "solving" the world. But at a deeper level this is a reflection on what are, or should be, our ultimate values and goals in life.

This is not easy material, especially for an audiobook. Bostrom tries to lighten the analysis by introducing characters and witty narratives. Also, the narrator does not have an academic tone. He reads the whole thing as if it was a novel. Initially I found this irritating, but I soon warmed to it, also because this *is* in part a a collection of short stories. Still, a significant amount of effort and concentration is required.

I found the experience rewarding. Recommended.

Fascinating but not an easy read

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The book primarily takes place in two worlds: a fictional story following a sentient fox as it grapples with existential and ethical problems associated with new technologies, and a lecture series given by Bostrom that seems mostly based in reality but with some creative liberties. Aspects of the book also follow some of Bostrom’s students, I’d assume fictionalised versions of them. This format is unusual, but Bostrom makes it work.

Bostrom’s unusual writing style and tendency to go on tangents may be hard to follow for some readers, and at times got in the way of the broader message of the book. Be prepared for weird anecdotes and analogies whose purpose is only clear in retrospect.

True to form, Bostrom’s work is intellectual, fascinating, and on point. If you’re looking to sink your teeth into a book that is quite heavy on philosophy with some deep concepts from other fields mixed in too, this is the book for you.

I’d recommend this book only to readers who are already a fan of Bostrom, as it’s quite dense. If you’re looking to “dip your toe in” Bostrom’s fountain of knowledge, I recommend first starting with “Superintelligence”. It’s a book which is a bit heavier on computer science but much easier to grapple with philosophically.

Excellent, but niche: best for hardcore Bostrom fans

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This was awful. I hated the author’s previous book Superintelligence too so I don’t know why I thought this was going to be any different.

The book is written in such a pompous and condescending way and it’s presentation isn’t helped in the audio book by the choice of the “kindly old uncle” narrator. The animal based allegory is particularly condescending - no doubt Bostrom thought Orwell’s Animal Farm was a great piece of literature (I didn’t). The dialogues with the students add nothing and seem like there are there only to give the author an opportunity for self-aggrandisement. The pretence of the final day as a public lecture, one that was sold-out no less, is laughable. Sure, people are queuing up to hear someone waffle about ‘purpose’.

And that’s my biggest problem with this book. It’s is almost solely focussed on the human need to find purpose in life in some hypothetical technological utopia. Moreover, it grinds away at this issue in the excruciatingly dull level of semantic detail that philosophers love (see Bertrand Russel’s The Problems of Philosophy for a primer on the amount of mind-numbing argument you can get out of the most simple statement or idea).

It’s a shame because the subject of “we have superintelligence and all problems are solved” has so many other areas to explore. The only other area Bostrom touches on is at the start of the book where he supposes that a Malthusian population explosion is still a risk for humanity, even as most developed countries are suffering precipitous population declines. Where are the discussions about economics, about how capitalism cannot possibly survive in a world where labour is redundant. How do nation states resolve the natural resource issue when money has no meaning? None of this is touched. To be fair, the subtitle of the book does indicate its focus, but still, it’s a huge missed opportunity.

Pompous waffle

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Starts promising but it's held back by the distracting side plots and it feel quite surface level. I expected deeper insights from Bostrom but I feel like mostly all of this was thoroughly unsurprising.

Surface level

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