1st Edition
Perceptive Machines The Future of Feeling AI and What It Means for Humanity
Prologue
Part I Introduction – Synthetic Sensory Perceptive Machines
Chapter 1: Minds Without Bodies – The First Age of AI
Chapter 2: The Missing Senses – Why Intelligence Needs Embodiment
Chapter 3: Sensory Frontiers – Digitising the Human Sensorium
Interlude - Becoming Sensate: From Thinking to Sensing Machines
Part II: The Five (and beyond) Synthetic Senses: From Infrastructure to Intuition
Chapter 4: Synthetic Perceptual Technologies - From Theory to Engineering
Chapter 5: Seeing More than We See — AI-Enhanced Vision from Photons to Perception
Chapter 6: Hearing the Hidden World – Sound and Sonic AI
Chapter 7: Virtual Touch and Remote Feeling – Haptics and Digital Skin
Chapter 8: The AI Nose Knows – Digital Olfaction and Emotional Scent
Chapter 9: Tasting the Virtual – Digitised Flavour and Culinary AI
Chapter 10: Towards Synthetic Sensorium – Synthetic Intuition, Sensory Fusion, and the Origins of Machine Perception
Interlude: Crossing the Threshold: From Experience to Meaning
Part III: Reimagining Reality, Identity, and Ethics
Chapter 11: Blurred Boundaries – Virtual vs. Physical Experience
Chapter 12: Privacy of the Senses – Surveillance, Consent, and Autonomy
Chapter 13: Who Feels? AI Consciousness, Rights, and Moral Agency
Chapter 14: The Synthetic Self – Redefining the Human through Perception
Interlude - Becoming Planetary: From Individual Perception to Collective Sensing
Part IV: Futures at the Edge – Society in the Post-Sensory Age
Chapter 15: Society in the Sensorium – New Rituals, Norms, and Cultures
Chapter 16: Designing for Dignity – Ethics-by-Design in the Synthetic Age
Chapter 17: The Augmented Planet – Geo-Sensory AI and Planetary Intelligence
Conclusion: The Future of Feeling AI and What It Means for Humanity
Closing Thoughts: How Synthetic Sensing Will Transform Human Perception, Identity, and Connection
Epilogue: The Synthetic Sensorium Is Just the Beginning of a New Human Story
Glossary of Key Terms
Questions Considered/Addressed
Index
Biography
Rocky Scopelliti is a world-renowned futurologist, best-selling author, and technologist. His pioneering research on emerging technologies and human evolution has shaped global thinking on AI, society, and identity. His books explore the frontier where machines don’t just think—but feel.
“I have had the pleasure to work with and observe Rocky’s work over the last decade. Rocky has always understood the deep impact that technology and innovation has on industries, and the way we live and work. He can translate technological change into insights for business and community leaders. Rocky is both a visionary and a change agent. I have always made time to read his articles and publications.”
David Thodey AO — Chancellor, University of Sydney; Chair of Ramsay Health Care; Chair of Xero; Co‑Chair, Great Barrier Reef Foundation
