In Defense of Limits: Human Time and AI Scale

By Esther Dyson

A hopeful and deeply informed account of how AI can help us realize the immeasurable value of each finite human life.

From the techy-turned-philanthropist deemed the "most powerful woman in the Net-erati" by The New York Times Magazine.

In the age of AI, an era obsessed with measuring, quantifying, and trading everything, how are we to recognize and realize the value of each unique and precious human life? The answer, Esther Dyson tells us in In Defense of Limits, is in the limits we set for ourselves--limits of time, scale, and scope that give each life its value--even as we consider what we can share while we're alive and pass along when we leave. As a journalist and business leader with extensive experience in the realms of finance, technology, and philanthropy, Dyson brings a deeply informed perspective to the search for meaning in a world increasingly influenced by AI. How can we use our own term limits to set priorities and leave our singular mark on the world, particularly in the raising of children, and in formal sectors such as business, government and philanthropy, where the interplay between power and money can corrupt intentions and diminish value?

Observing her own limits, Dyson does not try to explain everything but rather prompts us to ask our own questions and consider our own relationship with AI. At the same time, she encourages us to find a way, singly and collectively, to use AI to our own advantage rather than allow it to implement business models that make use of us. A book about the power of constraints and the need to constrain power, In Defense of Limits makes an urgent argument for making the most of our lives, prioritizing what matters, and finding our own immeasurable value in our finite space and time.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0262059223
• ISBN13: 9780262059220
• Release Date: March 2027
• Publisher: The MIT Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.0" x 9.0"