Robin Hanson

Papers

Total Citations

100

H-Index

About

Robin Hanson is a visionary economist and social scientist whose work bridges economics, physics, and computer science to explore the future of intelligence and society. His key research areas include the economics of brain emulations, the fundamental limits of computation and communication, and the social implications of advanced artificial intelligence. Hanson’s most influential contribution is his book *The Age of Em* (2016, 61 citations), which offers a rigorous, detailed analysis of a world where human brains are scanned and emulated on computers, examining how such “ems” would reshape work, love, and life. He also made foundational contributions to the thermodynamics of information processing in his paper “Reversible Agents Need Robots Waste Bits To See, Talk, And Achieve?” (2005, 35 citations), which identifies fundamental entropy costs for agents observing, communicating, and achieving goals. Hanson’s work is notable for its interdisciplinary rigor and provocative, yet grounded, predictions—he combines economic modeling with physical constraints to challenge assumptions about future technologies. With over a century of citations across his corpus, Hanson is a leading voice in futurism and a must-read for anyone interested in the economics of radical technological change.