David Wortley's 2012 AI warning returns in updated book edition

An updated paperback of David Wortley's 2012 book Gadgets to God is now available on Amazon, alongside a Kindle edition, as renewed concerns about AI, social media addiction and algorithmic manipulation make the work newly relevant. Wortley also says a self-narrated audiobook is in production.

Why it matters: - The updated edition puts a 2012 warning about AI, digital dependence and algorithmic manipulation back in circulation at a moment when those issues are central to public debate. - The book argues that technology has shifted from humans using machines to machines using humans, a framing that resonates with current concerns about agency, attention and online behavior. - The release targets general readers, policymakers, technologists and others looking for a longer-view perspective on the AI moment.

What happened: - An updated paperback edition of Gadgets to God — Reflections on our Changing Relationship with Technology by David Wortley is now available on Amazon. - The updated paperback is published via Amazon KDP. - The Kindle ebook edition is also available. - A self-narrated audiobook produced by Wortley through ACX, the Audible/Amazon platform, is in production. - The paperback edition revives a book first published in 2012 by Troubador Publishing.

The details: - Wortley says the original book traced humanity’s relationship with technology from steam engines to virtual worlds, social media and AI. - The book’s central warning was that society had drifted into a “boiling frog” effect, in which machines increasingly shape human behavior. - Wortley said in 2011 that he could see “the slow drift from humans using machines to machines using humans.” - He said the updated edition is intended to support a conversation that should have happened a decade ago and is now urgent. - The updated paperback is available here. - The Kindle ebook is available here. - More information and speaking enquiries are available here. - Wortley is 77 and says he has more than 50 years of experience spanning wearable health technologies, digital twins, AI and lifestyle medicine. - Wortley is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Visiting Researcher at Bournemouth University and a Project Supervisor at UCL's Global Business School for Health. - Wortley also serves as Vice President of the International Society of Digital Medicine, Director of the IORMA Futures Health & Wellbeing Technology Centre, Non-Executive Director of WLMES and CEO and founder of 360in360 Immersive Experiences. - Wortley says his health and long career are part of the thesis that technology and humanity can coexist when the relationship is consciously managed.

Between the lines: - The new edition is being positioned less as a nostalgia project and more as an argument that the risks now visible in AI and social media were foreseeable years ago. - Wortley’s personal biography is being used to reinforce the book’s credibility, tying the message to decades of work at the intersection of technology and health. - The timing suggests the publisher sees renewed market interest in books that explain the social effects of AI in plain language.

What's next: - The audiobook is expected to follow once production through ACX is completed. - Wortley is likely to continue using the book as a platform for speaking engagements and public discussion about the human-technology relationship. - The updated paperback and Kindle editions give the book a wider path to readers as AI anxiety and digital wellness debates continue. - He is likely to frame the release as a prompt for a conversation about keeping humans in control of technology.