TO BE RELEASED AROUND SUMMER 2026—STAY TUNED

DESCRIPTION​

 

Rage Against the Autonomous Machine is not a warning about some distant future—it is a wake-up call for now. If AI is being “aligned,” the real question is: aligned with whom? With humanity’s deepest needs, or with the private interests of those who control the infrastructure?

 

To reclaim agency, we must understand how we arrived here. AI expert Thanos Panagopoulos takes readers on a sweeping journey through the long quest for autonomous machines, tracing the historical forces that shaped the present, and the political economy now shaping what comes next. Engaging frameworks such as technofeudalism, techno-imperialism, neo-mercantilism, platform capitalism, and surveillance capitalism, he cuts through Silicon Valley hype and apocalyptic fatalism alike and names the emerging order: autonomous capital, techno-natural monopolies, and a new ruling class—the Intelligarchs. Drawing on both technical expertise and critical theory, Rage Against the Autonomous Machine equips readers with the concepts to think clearly, act deliberately, and resist the normalization of machine rule. It culminates in the DREAM framework: a call to democratize AI before it becomes the operating system of inequality, surveillance, and domination.

 

Whether you are an everyday AI user or a scholar with a sociological, political, or technical background—or feel fluent across all of them—this is the interdisciplinary book you have been waiting for. Deeply academic yet accessible, this book is both a warning and an invitation: a call for action, and a call for wonder.

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AUTHOR​

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Thanos (Aris Athanasios) Panagopoulos is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at California State University, Fresno, where he founded and directs the Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Systems (AIIS) Laboratory. He earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Southampton in the U.K. and was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley.

 

His work spans artificial intelligence and intelligent systems, focusing on human-centered technologies for social good and the socioeconomic, ethical, and political consequences of autonomous systems. Shaped intellectually and politically in Greece during the global financial crisis of 2008 and its aftermath, he bridges technical practice with political economy, philosophy, and critical theory.

 

His first book, Rage Against the Autonomous Machine, examines today’s AI revolution and Big Tech’s dominance, and the growing struggle over autonomy, power, and resistance.​

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