Deep Utopia cover art

Deep Utopia

Life and Meaning in a Solved World

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Deep Utopia

By: Nick Bostrom
Narrated by: David Timson
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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

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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
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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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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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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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This book is just weird. I’ll freely admit I didn’t read about it properly before purchasing, I Just bought it on the strength of Superintelligence, expecting a similar non-fictional exploration of an interesting topic. This is not that. It starts with ahat seems like a transcript of a Q&A section of a talk with Bostrom, then gets going with a fictional story. I couldn’t concentrate on the story because I found the narrator so annoying.

Annoying narrator

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Enjoyed the Authors other works, couldn't even finish listening to this one, I tried.
Another example of an interesting mind falling foul to the opportunity to cash in on their notoriety. I hope he stops at this one,

Narcissistic jibberish

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