In this latest offering, the renowned futurist revisits his groundbreaking concept of technological singularity. However, the eagerly anticipated updaIn this latest offering, the renowned futurist revisits his groundbreaking concept of technological singularity. However, the eagerly anticipated update to the nearly 20-year-old seminal work falls short of expectations over and above the revised date when he expects Singularity to arrive. Instead, the book feels hastily assembled. Absolutely, the new date – before the end of this decade – will likely make this book a must-read piece of work for many, but it is likely that most, like this reviewer, will walk away not much smarter.
The book's primary shortcoming is its lack of fresh insights. Rather than delving deeper into the evolving landscape of technology and its implications for the singularity, it rehashes familiar territory. The author misses a golden opportunity to provide better justifications for why he expects machines to be better than humans in almost all aspects by 2029 and not 2045. More importantly, the book fails to discuss the implications of machines working on themselves.
At the least, the update book should have re-examined the core concepts of singularity in light of the vast amount of new information available since the original publication. A glaring omission is the lack of discussion on recent technological breakthroughs. The book overlooks innovations in mobile telephony and social media that were not expected in the first work, which is perhaps ok, but also highly topic-relevant developments in deep tech. Notably absent is any meaningful exploration of neural networks, including RNNs, CNNs, and the game-changing advent of transformer and post-transformer technologies. These advancements have profound implications for machine intelligence, intentionality, and purpose-driven AI – topics that are supposed to be what the book is all about. Instead, the book veers into well-trodden territory, offering a broad overview of technological progress over centuries and projecting exponential growth into the future—a topic extensively covered in numerous other books, TED Talks, and industry reports.
A significant portion of the book is devoted to societal progress, summarizing work better articulated by other authors like Steven Pinker. While interesting, the author's optimism about technology's impact on employment and his speculations about future innovations across various fields don't offer much novelty either.
On the positive side, the author's unwavering optimism and recounting of technological advancements do provide some valuable insights. His ability to picture potential future developments across various sectors is commendable, even if not groundbreaking.
Overall, the book may become the book of the season for most readers, but it serves more as a general recap of well-covered subjects than a pioneering work like its predecessor.
“Determined” by Robert Sapolsky could have been a thought-provoking exploration of the age-old question of free will had its implications not gone too“Determined” by Robert Sapolsky could have been a thought-provoking exploration of the age-old question of free will had its implications not gone too extreme for the criminal justice system. For some part, the book’s approach is grounded in neuroscience and evolutionary biology, offering a scientific perspective on the long-standing mind-body problem and the nature of consciousness. However, the author’s ad hoc extensions into the moral realms jangle because of the deep logical flaws (even if one agrees with the conclusions).
In the first part, the author adeptly navigates the complexities of the brain, illustrating how many factors, including genetics, environment, and biochemical processes influence our choices and behaviors. He convincingly argues that scientific evidence does not support the notion of a separate, non-material "self" or "soul" that supposedly drives our actions. Instead, he presents a compelling case that our decisions and behaviors result from intricate neuronal interactions and chemical processes within the brain.
The book does well in concluding how factors beyond our conscious control largely predetermine choices we make. The arguments are not original and are better made in many other works, but the author also does well in covering various grounds. The book offers a wealth of empirical evidence and real-world examples. The writing is neither as scholarly nor as entertaining as the best one reads in popular literature with conclusions original only for the uninitiated, but overall, even the well-read on the subject will find the breadth covered impressive.
Unfortunately, all of these lead the book to question the validity of traditional notions of accountability and punishment within the criminal justice system. This is where arguments veer into the territory of excessive reductionism, where the author applies principles derived from the micro-scale of neuroscience to macro-scale moral and ethical frameworks.
In one of the earlier sections, the author proves that rules of one domain (in his case, quantum indeterminacy) cannot explain emergent properties of a higher domain (in his example, any supposed indeterminism of our neuronal behavior). For complex systems, the reverse is also true. Effectively, the author who relies on strong reasons should not have used micro-scale neuroscience conclusions on free will to macro-scale moral and ethical frameworks where free will has a different meaning. In other words, the book dismisses the possibility of higher-order ethical frameworks that cannot be solely reduced to their biological underpinnings despite using precisely the same framework all through to describe our behavior for its own conclusions.
There are other contradictions in arguments that want the justice system policymakers to focus on the violators’ inability to really choose what they did. If, as the author contends, we are all devoid of free will, then those tasked with reforming the justice system are equally constrained by deterministic forces. This logical inconsistency undermines any normative conclusions from purely descriptive premises.
Ultimately, "Determined" serves as a cautionary tale for overzealous reductionism; while intellectually stimulating, it also demonstrates the perils of extrapolating scientific findings into realms where they may not neatly apply. Take a different example: the universe will eventually end. This can be used, if one intends to, to render any action meaningless in a nihilistic leap. Just as one wouldn't console a grieving person by reminding them of the inevitable mortality, we cannot use the universe's deterministic nature – assuming true - to excuse inaction or apathy in the face of pressing moral and ethical challenges. The scientific pursuit of truth is invaluable, but it must be tempered with recognizing the complex, emergent phenomena that shape our lives and give them meaning.
The idealism and zeal exemplified by Adrian Hong are, arguably, exactly what the world needs, especially when prevailing attitudes are overly logical The idealism and zeal exemplified by Adrian Hong are, arguably, exactly what the world needs, especially when prevailing attitudes are overly logical and patient. However, the very naivety that fuels their purpose can also pose significant risks, not only to themselves but also to others, as they pursue their ambitious goals. "The Rebel in the Kingdom" masterfully explores this double-edged sword of passion and peril.
The book inspires hope and simultaneously highlights the dire circumstances faced by certain societal segments, often ignored by most of us. Through a narrative that meticulously details the efforts and failures of a small, determined group, the author captures the tragic yet hopeful essence of their journey. This saga, marked by both profound despair and a glimmer of optimism, makes "The Rebel in the Kingdom" a compelling read....more
"Same as Ever" is a profound work that challenges our most fundamental assumptions while stating the obvious. From the first page to the last, it read"Same as Ever" is a profound work that challenges our most fundamental assumptions while stating the obvious. From the first page to the last, it reads like a string of eternal verities. It is a title that whispers of stagnation yet explodes with dynamism. Each section dissects the ordinary, revealing the extraordinary within. We are left raw, exposed, and undeniably awake
As much as the message, it is the style. Short sentences repeatedly lay bare the intricate dance between the mundane and the profound. The words, stark and unadorned, resonate with an unsettling familiarity. Quotes appear familiar, yet they appear more applicable than ever to whatever situation one may be in.
To be clear, House’s universal truths are not universal. Each one could be argued. In a different society, each one could be disputed. The author’s implicit context is a certain type of individual in a certain type of society. However, if one sheds the mindset of nitpicking, there is a lot to take away on every page.
One can pick up the book any time and any number of times. And begin reading randomly from anywhere. In no time, one is guaranteed to come across insights that are universally applicable yet deeply personal.
This is a rare gem - a work that enlightens without preaching, that speaks truth without dogma. One will find solace, a path forward, and perhaps, even solutions. This is written for all, and still a personal journey inward. ...more
"The Blue Machine" is an enlightening journey into the uncharted waters of oceanography, a critical and scarcely explored theme. With a blend of deep "The Blue Machine" is an enlightening journey into the uncharted waters of oceanography, a critical and scarcely explored theme. With a blend of deep scientific expertise and captivating storytelling, this work becomes a seminal exploration of the ocean's currents, waves, the life within, and their indispensable role in Earth's ecosystem.
The author, leveraging a background in both physics and oceanography, unravels the complex dynamics in a manner that is both accessible and profound. It demystifies oceanographic concepts by segmenting them into easily digestible chapters. The sections dedicated to energy transfer through waves and examining ocean currents shed light on long-range impacts in ways that would intrigue and educate readers, irrespective of their prior knowledge.
This approach illustrates the vast, interconnected network of the world's oceans. It provides unique insights into phenomena like the transmission of sound waves across hundreds of miles—a stark contrast to the limitations of light waves underwater.
The ocean is a kaleidoscope of biodiversity, from the vibrant coral reefs teeming with colorful fish and invertebrates to the eerie, alien-like creatures that dwell in the deepest trenches. The author's vivid descriptions and captivating examples transport readers to these diverse realms, showcasing the remarkable adaptations that enable life to flourish in even the most extreme conditions. Whether it's the bioluminescent organisms that light up the depths or the bizarre creatures that call hydrothermal vents home, from the intense pressures of the deep sea to the fluctuating temperatures and nutrient levels, life in the ocean must adapt to a range of harsh environments. The book highlights the ingenious strategies employed by various species, such as using specialized tissues and organs to withstand immense pressures or surviving prolonged periods of darkness and limited food availability.
One of the fascinating aspects of ocean life that Czerski explores is the relationship between the size of marine organisms and their biomass. From microscopic plankton to massive whales, the ocean hosts an incredible diversity of living beings, and each adapted to thrive at different scales. This scaling phenomenon offers profound insights into marine ecosystems' intricate balance and efficiency. The author reveals how the laws of physics and fluid dynamics shape how nutrients are distributed, and energy is transferred, ultimately determining the abundance and distribution of life in the ocean.
In many ways, the blue machine is a fascinating application of fundamental laws of physics that are different from the manifestations we are used to. By exploring fluid dynamics, thermodynamics, and mechanics, the book shows how these forces shape the ocean's behaviour over time.
The book celebrates the ocean not just as an element, but as a vital part of life for countless communities overland through the impact on the weather, seasons, shorelines, and involvement in the carbon cycle. Moreover, the book does not shy away from addressing the pressing issues of melting ice caps, global warming, and the potential exacerbating role of the oceans in climate change. Through this lens, the author calls attention to the delicate balance we must maintain to protect this invaluable resource.
"The Blue Machine" is a compelling call to recognize the beauty, complexity, and critical importance of the oceans to life on Earth. With its rich blend of scientific insight, vivid storytelling, and a palpable passion for the subject matter, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in the mysteries that lie beneath the waves. ...more
Jay Owens's Dust sets out to illuminate the often-overlooked role of dust in our environment and, consequently, climate crises. But, the title turns mJay Owens's Dust sets out to illuminate the often-overlooked role of dust in our environment and, consequently, climate crises. But, the title turns misleading as the environmentalist author cannot yield to the topic's primacy and keeps veering off to ideas, views, and narratives dear to her heart. The need to connect them to "Dust" weakens those discussions, as she is forced to return to the topic that is not precisely her real love, if not the area of expertise.
Effectively the book is a wide-ranging exploration of the environmental damages wrought by humanity. The disjointed essays touch on important topics like soil erosion, expanding drylands, melting glaciers, and other critical issues facing the planet. One travels back in time and across geographies, leading to some great discussions at times. The chapter on the Dust Bowl's legacy was this reviewer's favorite. This is where the author describes the lingering devastation of the Dust Bowl, demonstrating how once-thriving farmlands can be reduced to barren wastelands.
Unfortunately, these high points only emphasize how lacking the overall scholarly analysis of dust as a singular phenomenon ends up being. Compared to how authors like Mark Kurlansky (Salt), Helen Czerski (The Blue Machine, about the oceans), or Vaclav Smil (Energy and Civilization) exhaustively chronicle the histories, compositions, cultural impacts, and future implications of their respective subjects, Owens takes a decidedly scattershot approach. Discussions about dust's origin, composition, variations across time and geography, and potential mitigation strategies are hinted at but never fully realized. This book may feel somewhat superficial for a reader seeking a comprehensive understanding of dust.
Without a doubt, the author's cries for help on critical issues like soil degradation, water scarcity, to air pollution need to be heard. Some of her views against modernity will not be agreeable to all, but they do not make the need to focus on these eco-crises and their damages any less valid.
All that said, the book is almost as if the author or the publisher wanted to graft a ubiquitous, novel subject like dust to discuss these topics in a different garb. Unfortunately, the approach does not work.
In the landscape of literature exploring the evolution of intelligence, "A Brief History of Intelligence" stands out as an essential read for anyone vIn the landscape of literature exploring the evolution of intelligence, "A Brief History of Intelligence" stands out as an essential read for anyone vested in the fields of evolution, artificial intelligence, philosophy, or spirituality. The author masterfully interweaves modern AI terminology to demystify the complexities of our brain's evolution. This novel approach sets the book apart from traditional evolutionary texts, presenting a fresh and engaging perspective.
The book's core thesis lies in their five-stage classification of how the brain evolved. This framework, viewed through the lens of modern AI creation and popular terms used by its community, invites a refreshing understanding of evolutionary principles. While purists may find room for debate, its contextual relevance to today's AI advancements is undeniable. This book opens doors to profound learning experiences, challenging and expanding the reader's understanding.
While not covered in the book, its arguments have profound implications for long-standing philosophical concepts of the mind and soul. With a deep dive into the mechanics of neural development, age-old arguments about duality or free will may come to seem as outdated as ancient theories of elemental composition. Of course, philosophical works retain value for a plethora of reasons, but engaging in such debates without the insights presented within A Brief History of Intelligence might be considered akin to philosophizing over what the world is made of without knowing anything about chemistry.
Another striking point emerges from the book (once again not sufficiently discussed in the book): the pace of technological advancement in machine intelligence. Artificial intelligence has surged through developmental stages in mere decades that took nature billions of years to traverse. It's easy to draw parallels between early transistors and primordial neurons, or between ChatGPT and the rise of human cognition – yet predicting what lies ahead with such exponential progress poses near-insurmountable challenges.
The following are this reviewer’s notes or takeaways for future reference in his language:
1. Uniformity of Neurons: A groundbreaking revelation is that all neurons, across various animal species, are fundamentally the same.
2. Distinct Evolutionary Paths: The book highlights the simultaneous evolution of neurons, gastrointestinal systems, and muscles in animals, contrasting this with non-neuronal organisms like fungi. Neurons played a fundamental role in animal evolution, driving them apart from fungi and other non-sentient life forms.
3. Valence and Early Brain Development: The exploration of early multicellular life forms and their preferences steered by electrochemical processes sheds light on the genesis of early brain structures.
4. Neuromodulators: The roles of serotonin and dopamine in emotional response and arousal are intricately detailed. The book also delves into the stress-induced release of adrenaline and the calming effect of opioids after prolonged stress.
5. Associative Learning: The neural underpinnings of Pavlovian learning and synaptic connections formed through repetitive reinforcement.
6. Vertebrate Brains: The common six-part brain structure dating back to the Cambrian era.
7. Learning and Neural Connections: Discussing the credit assignment problem in machine learning and associative learning, the book underscores the fundamental neural mechanisms of learning. The adage "neurons that fire together wire together" is emblematic of this concept.
8. Temporal Credit Assignment and Reinforcement Learning: The challenges of linking actions to delayed rewards and the evolution of reinforcement learning strategies, including TD learning, are thoroughly examined.
9. Basal Ganglia: The inhibitory mechanisms gating actions based on fluctuating dopamine levels.
10. Continuous Learning vs. AI Development: A critical distinction is made between the continuous learning abilities of human brains and the static nature of AI, where learning ceases once the system is deployed.
11. Solving Invariance Problems: The book explores how brains have evolved to solve pattern recognition and reinforcement learning challenges, leading to the development of complex sensory abilities in higher animals.
12. Exploration and Exploitation in Brain Evolution: The evolution of curiosity and risk-taking behaviors in advanced vertebrates is linked to the development of spatial mapping and vestibular mechanisms.
13. The Neural Dark Age and Neocortical Development: A significant period of stagnation in brain evolution is followed by the emergence of the neocortex, now a major component of the brain, highlighting its adaptability and repurposing abilities. After a nearly 500 million years gap, the brain sizes exploded to nearly 1000 times in a short period.
14. Cortical Repurposing: The adaptability of neocortical columns based on sensory inputs.
15. Model-Based vs. Model-Free Learning: The transition from basic reactive learning to advanced predictive and causal learning, embodying counterfactual thinking and planning, is a pivotal development in brain evolution.
16. Social Hierarchies and Politics in Brain Evolution: The development of hierarchical social structures, driven by alliance formation rather than sheer strength, marks a significant evolutionary step, particularly in primates.
17. Theory of Mind and Knowledge Transmission: The ability to infer others' intentions and emotions (theory of mind) and its role in social learning and teaching underscores a crucial advancement in cognitive evolution.
18. The Enigma of Language Evolution: Tracing the evolution of language remains a challenge, with significant gaps in understanding the transition from our closest Homo genus ancestors to modern humans.
There is a lot more in the book. With the advent of GenAI, there have been some amazing, great books, and this book will likely find a space on the top shelf, almost irrespective of what comes later. This reviewer read the book twice and feels that it is not enough....more
As one of AI's pioneering founding mothers, Dr. Fei-Fei Li is destined for the history books. While shaping the AI's true history-defining years of thAs one of AI's pioneering founding mothers, Dr. Fei-Fei Li is destined for the history books. While shaping the AI's true history-defining years of the first quarter of the twenty-first century, she had a unique vantage point to narrate the evolution that has now turned into a revolution. The chronicle of the neural network renaissance sketched in the book should prove a trove for future scholars tracing AI's origins. Alas, this book's desultory storytelling does not do justice to the topic. It will go down as not only incomplete but also inadequate in the goodness of time.
The book is best when it captures the emergence of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and then Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) awakened from the field's winter slumber, breaking past roadblocks in ImageNet and WordNet. The author superbly shows the critical role played by her teams and their heroic labors in generating vast human-curated datasets. For some reason, the author shies away from more detailed technical and technological factors, which would have made the book a far greater source of historical importance.
The author's weaving of this with her personal narrative does not work. The book overreaches in painting personal setbacks as the stuff of Greek tragedy. As much as the author tries, her story is not of an extreme underdog. This person is blessed with great intellect and has always been a part of the world's best institutions. She was rarely hindered because of her gender or ethnicity. Yes, she has her own occasional setbacks and personal tragedies, but not of the kind that make compelling narratives. Like her Congress appearance, the endeavor to make everything a rough climb has almost anecdote ending with a damp squib. They serve occasional purposes in providing a base for some of the author's ethical AI pursuits, but once again, not of a kind that will set either the goals or the work apart from those of many others.
The biggest weakness is where the book stops - just at the time of the arrival of the LLMs, which, as we know it today, dwarfs all that came before. The book is akin to an early 20th-century treatise on electromagnetism that stops at 1905 and Einstein's emergence in physics. The book excels in showcasing neural networks' sporadic successes and pitfalls before taking absolute center stage, but it still appears like the tales of early Korolev rockets before Apollo's glories.
Despite its excessively negative message, "Invention and Innovation" remains a relevant book even for the most optimistic innovators and entrepreneursDespite its excessively negative message, "Invention and Innovation" remains a relevant book even for the most optimistic innovators and entrepreneurs. As the author meticulously documents through numerous examples throughout history, the process of innovation carries monumental risks that are too often blithely ignored by those in the field and the media hype around innovations that succeed. From harmful chemicals like DDT and CFCs that showed early warning signs of danger, to speculative projects like the hyperloop transit system critiqued through hard data, the book illuminates the sobering reality that many innovations fail or lead to unintended consequences.
However, the author misses two critical points. First, societies and communities that fail to innovate historically suffer far more across metrics of health, life expectancy, poverty and more compared to those that do attempt innovation, despite its risks. Second, given the unpredictable nature of pioneering new ideas, optimists and dreamers willing to accept some failure must lead the charge into uncharted territories. Innovations rarely emerge from the risk averse. We need visionaries willing to stumble in their pursuit of new frontiers.
Interestingly, in predicting pessimistic outcomes for fields like AI, the author forgets his own lesson that innovation defies prediction. By definition, progress leaps irregularly with "first times" that disrupt the repetitive patterns of history. While failure repeats for decades, suddenly one day our planes flew. Just since this book's late 2022 publication, AI has experienced a transformational phase shift with models like DALL-E 2 and ChatGPT demonstrating new canvases of intelligence. The author would likely be stunned by the field's exponential growth in the past 18 months, let alone its future trajectory.
Problems will always remain. No matter how many innovations, it is unlikely anyone will live forever. We all will have things that will make us frustrated, angry, depressed, or feel like being unfairly treated no matter what is invented or not. There will also be uber-optimists whose proclamations grab the attention, but who do not represent the serious workers in various innovation fields. The book does injustice to the majority in innovation fields who are well aware of the issues raised in here but still believe that the world can be made better.
In conclusion, despite substantive flaws, the book's overriding purpose reminds us that headlong innovation requires caution and wisdom to avoid catastrophe. While optimists drive progress, the pessimists who spotlight potential dangers are equally essential. For innovators most of all, studying the perilous history of innovation remains imperative to navigate its inherent risks en route to unprecedented breakthroughs....more
"Beyond Measure" ambitiously tackles the important yet massive topic of measurement and its implications. In the end, the author's inability to fully "Beyond Measure" ambitiously tackles the important yet massive topic of measurement and its implications. In the end, the author's inability to fully deal with the topic's unwieldiness dominates.
Through vivid storytelling and cogent analysis, the author attempts an engaging intellectual journey that finds its north star in the history and impact of standardization and the metric system. In the first section, he shines a light on the painstaking efforts of pioneers who, over centuries, brought rigor and universality to weights and measures - efforts that enabled innovation and scientific breakthroughs we take for granted today. However, this is the same history that one has been told under different topics in many science books that start their narratives a few thousand years ago.
The meatiest sections are in the middle, where the author discusses various standardization efforts of the last few centuries. They are filled with intricate detours into fascinating historical anecdotes and quirky trivia. With infectious zeal, one learns the winding paths humanity has taken in its quest to quantify and understand the world. From tales of French revolutionaries who nearly got guillotined over the meter stick to insight into how Einstein's theory of relativity shattered classical notions of absolute time and space, the author has some wonderful sections on how the development of measurement standards has been anything but straightforward.
Yet, the treatment of the subject sometimes feels constrained, focusing heavily on historical anecdotes related to measurement without sufficiently expanding the discourse beyond this territory that will be familiar to readers of the popular science genre. While the stories themselves are engaging, the overarching connection and progression of ideas seem to taper off.
In the grand scheme, the book is a patchwork of fascinating facts and historical vignettes that occasionally coalesce into a coherent narrative on the importance of measurement. The fault is more with the nature of the subject, perhaps. In our world of extreme quantization of everything, we are learning that there is huge value, even in imprecise and subjective measurements, as long as we measure and verify repeatedly and differently. The book could have tackled some of these topics, like countless other topics, but that too would have been unwieldy. In the end, the author took it upon himself to write about something where he simply could not have won!...more
"Outlive" is a compelling exploration of longevity, serving as a clarion call to the fundamental shifts we must embrace in our quest for a life not ju"Outlive" is a compelling exploration of longevity, serving as a clarion call to the fundamental shifts we must embrace in our quest for a life not just longer but richer in quality.
The primary message in some ways, and which the book absolutely succeeds in delivering as an urgent wake-up call, is that longevity should be a continuous study; this isn't a novel concept, but the urgency and clarity with which it's presented here are invigorating.
Through medical 2.0 and 3.0, the author finds his own way to present prevention as better than cure. Once again, the book doesn't claim to reinvent the wheel but reinforces the necessity of discipline across various life stages to augment our later years with vigor and vitality.
This meticulously researched book proves that nurturing a long, vibrant life requires discipline at every stage. While the author's precise protocols around diet, exercise, and lifestyle may not be agreeable to all, they do not hurt the main messages. We need to get serious about the science of aging and make it a cornerstone of education and daily habits.
The author takes a rigorously scientific approach underpinned by the latest research around measurable biomarkers of aging. For some readers, the exhaustive detail on proteins, metabolites, and glucose variability may be overwhelming, particularly when we know how each body is different as are the unique circumstances in their environments. But these sections illuminate how modern tools can help unlock deeply personalized anti-aging strategies. The book pushes us to become far more observant of our own bodies and behaviors. While generalized guidelines have some merit, the cutting edge of longevity lies in closely monitoring individual cues and optimizing regimens accordingly.
Certainly, Outlive will jolt many readers into at least a few immediate changes, whether rethinking dietary proportions and activity levels, adopting health-monitoring tools, or sleeping. However, old habits die hard. As the author notes, lasting transformation requires revisiting the core principles again and again until they become automated. This speaks to the book's broader value - it provides a framework for evaluating new longevity findings over the coming decades. Science continues progressing rapidly, but the basic building blocks of movement, nutrition, mutual care, and purposeful living endure.
In summary, while the impact of "Outlive" may seem ephemeral, peaking in the aftermath of its reading, the book is a critical reminder of the long-term commitment required for sustained well-being.
In Musk, Walter Isaacson once again draws the perfect biographical subject to follow his earlier tomes on titans like Einstein, Jobs, and da Vinci. ThIn Musk, Walter Isaacson once again draws the perfect biographical subject to follow his earlier tomes on titans like Einstein, Jobs, and da Vinci. The book's greatest triumph is in humanizing this larger-than-life figure. Musk emerges not just as a genius inventor but also a quintessential risk-taker haunted by inner demons. Musk of the book cannot hold onto almost any personal relationship, which, in his typical double-edged fashion, makes him a successful, ruthlessly efficiency-seeking business leader in the workplace and an emotionally laden individual in personal affairs.
Mr Musk's risk-taking, thankfully, is razor-focused on technologies that could revolutionize our world. More than just an innovator, he is a true believer willing to bet big on ideas, both outrageous and avant-garde. For each one of his successes, there are likely more failures (particularly over time). Yet fortuitously for us, his early wins afforded him the means and goodwill to keep swinging for the fences.
Here is the man who parlayed early successes like Zip2 and PayPal into ever more audacious pursuits - SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, and Twitter. If the book is to be believed, each gamble was an impetuous roll of the dice rather than a calculated risk. For every Tesla that brings electric vehicles into the mainstream, there's a Boring Company digging tunnels to nowhere or mini-subs for rescue that never materialize. Thankfully, the hits have dwarfed the misses: what fails becomes a footnote in the financial statements, overshadowed by ventures that not only succeed but change the way we live, think, and dream about the future.
Mr Musk's public persona is almost as electrifying as his Tesla coils. The author unravels the less likable elements but without the glee of a critic. He also balances them with some misunderstood parts, including his libertarian streak, business successes of a particular way of managing staff, and efforts on activities surrounding the Ukraine war.
Still, he is a leader who demands much and forgives little. His demeanor often teeters on the edge of the morally ambiguous or excessively self-serving. Unfortunately, as the author begins as well as concludes, these darker shades are part and parcel of the drive that propels Musk to greatness, and there could not have been any other way.
The book cannot provide a closure to the saga that will likely enthrall the world for decades to come. Its account offers a portrayal woven with praise and criticism, allowing the reader to form an informed opinion on what has happened so far. It serves as a seminal text for understanding a man who occupies the intersection of technology and audacity, continually challenging us to reimagine the scope and purpose of human endeavor. The Musk saga has many thrilling chapters ahead: one gets a feeling that in the goodness of time, this book will exist as a book written too early! ...more
Oxygen is an intriguing evolutionary journey, examining how the rise of oxygen shaped the course of life as we know it. The book - spanning geology, bOxygen is an intriguing evolutionary journey, examining how the rise of oxygen shaped the course of life as we know it. The book - spanning geology, biology, genetics, and biochemistry - provides a different perspective on how complex life may have emerged. The unique lens allows the author to explain periods of evolutionary stagnation and explosive evolutionary events like the Cambrian explosion. Oxygen is not only essential for life as we know it, but has also played a major role in shaping the course of evolution.
As this reader understood it, in Earth's largely anoxic (oxygen-poor) environment three billion years ago, the primordial soup gave rise to prokaryotic organisms, such as bacteria and archaea. When cyanobacteria evolved the ability to photosynthesize, the atmosphere reduced to an oxidizing one loaded with oxygen. The Great Oxidation Event 2.4 billion years ago wreaked havoc on anaerobic life, leading to the first mass extinction. But the abundance of oxygen also opened new possibilities, setting the stage for eukaryotic cells to evolve around 2.7 and 2.2 billion years ago through endosymbiosis. From this, through eukaryogenesis to mitochondrial evolution, one goes through many unique details (not all easily understandable) to appreciate the role played by oxygen.
In between, the author connects oxygen to aging and disease susceptibility. The author hypothesizes that mitochondria play a direct role in regulating the pace of aging due to chronic oxidative stress. Manipulating mitochondria and free radical generation remains an active area of aging research even twenty years hence, though the relationships are proving more nuanced than once assumed. The notion that impaired mitochondrial function can accelerate aging remains convincing, though anti-oxidant vitamins have not panned out as hoped.
The true gem is the final chapter. This concluding section masterfully synthesizes the various threads of the narrative, bringing together the diverse elements of the story into a cohesive whole. This chapter should have been at the start, setting the stage for the detailed exploration that follows. The book's main flaw is excessive detail, which, while informative, overwhelms anyone unfamiliar with biochemistry's intricacies. The details often take the book far away from the central themes....more
Before the review, it is important to mention that this reviewer has rarely agreed with any books more than this one on almost any topic. I have writtBefore the review, it is important to mention that this reviewer has rarely agreed with any books more than this one on almost any topic. I have written on at least a dozen topics covered in the book in various past reviews and my LinkedIn posts with almost identical conclusions on AI's impact. Now on to the long review:
Mustafa Suleyman's The Coming Wave offers a compelling narrative of the promises and perils of artificial intelligence, emphasizing the urgency of collective action to mitigate its risks before they spiral out of control. The book excels in illustrating the far-reaching impacts of AI, although these sections are short and sporadic. It falls short in its central theme of potential solutions.
As the founder of DeepMind, Suleyman provides an insider's, authoritative perspective on the recent advances. While AI optimism pervades the book, with the topic being its risks, these sections' message on transformative power is often too hurried.
That said, the book convincingly argues that we have moved beyond the rudimentary applications of AI, such as chatbots and photo editing tools, to a new era where machines can think on their own. Techniques like deep learning and transformers have enabled AI to tackle complex real-world tasks like protein folding, autonomous driving, and understanding of human languages that were far beyond their capabilities until now. The author effectively argues these are not incremental advances but a paradigm shift – AI can now learn and reason independently in ways that were unimaginable even a few years or even quarters ago. Many who feel AI has been around for years completely miss this point: various giant thresholds have been crossed, and we all need to think about AI anew to appreciate its impact from hereon truly.
The main positive effect of AI is how it has begun to turbocharge innovation across sectors globally. It can deal with the complexity of orders higher than ours and exponentially rising. In this reviewer's language, we have been tackling all the life's NP-hard problems at a particular level defined by the limitations of our 100W-powered biological neural networks, aka brains. Our solutions have been the best so far, as nothing in our toolkit could process the most elementary of our level complexity issues, let alone anything higher. This last fact is no longer true.
In other words, machines of higher capabilities will have repeated relooks at the complicated problems of all life's domains, with the promises of solutions that will revolutionize fields as far away as synthetic biology and robotics to drug discovery and new chemicals and everything in between including quantum computing, battery alternatives, superconducting candidates, etc. Whether linked to machine vision or solving micro-scale climate tech issues, supply chains, policy regulations, and finance - none of our domains will likely remain untouched. More importantly, the changes will be hyper-paced, with the risks of better technologies around the corner forever even before any new solution settles, all accentuated by these technologies building on each other, with quantum computing plus AI an obvious hyperscaling candidate.
This ability to acquire and deploy knowledge at a more complex level makes AI a universally applicable technology. Suleyman illustrates this through examples like AlphaFold cracking protein folding, then showing how the same system can learn physics or math.
On the one side, The Coming Wave refreshingly looks beyond common Silicon Valley chat/edit examples of AI's emerging impact. On the other, the book's focus is squarely on risks. The author balances every positive prognostication with a historian's lens, cautioning against blind techno-optimism. He convincingly argues against optimists who ignore logical risks through the simplistic interpretation of history based on a small number of data points, most famously those who love to site a Malthus or a Ludd.
The author's starting point is simple: AI should not be contained, given the positives, but it cannot be contained given the distance we have already covered in our world of competitive nations, corporates, and ego-driven people. Paradoxically, his eventual suggested solutions are too idealistic and rhetorical to have any chance of succeeding in a world where no two central authorities have the same moral, ethical, political, or legal framework, not just across nations but even within the same nation between rival parties.
To this reviewer, the author should have focussed on the best defensive strategies given his technological skillsets and understanding. Good, conscientious folks should continuously work on mitigating risks by building rival technologies - like anti-virus or anti-missile technologies - that perpetually monitor early signs of malfeasance. Yes, policymakers, too, must come together to do their best on global guardrails, but it is unlikely high-level global agreements can prevent much of anything the author warns about through the book.
Other societal risks, like technological unemployment, are more important, but they do not get the same treatment as risks of malintent or machine errors. Most discussions on these topics, including issues like bias, transparency, and privacy invasions, have little freshness.
In fairness, few books could offer definitive solutions to challenges this enormous and complex. If anything, this ambiguity leaves readers recognizing their own role and agency in shaping the AI future. The book succeeds most in giving readers a conceptual foundation to wrestle with the coming wave.
The book dwells heavily on historical examples to frame AI. While partly instructive for context, extended discussions about innovations like electricity feel dated and distracting compared to the remarkable technological forces described elsewhere. More perspective from the bleeding edge of research could have reinforced the book's vital message around AI's transformational potential.
The discussions on the complexity above are my own, although they mirror those of the author's. Before leaving the review, let me add some more personal views on the same topic, although this has no connections with anything in the book. The book does not recognize that we have likely built a completely different form of intelligence using the latest neural network methods, one that is likely far superior to human intelligence and constantly improving. This new intelligence may or may not beat The Turing Test. We may constantly encounter examples where humans do things better or differently, but this will not contradict our machines' new ability to deal with higher forms of complexity.
It is the machines' ability to deal with a higher level of complexity that is revolutionary and transformative. Ever since Turing, the arguments that machines would need to mimic human behavior to be considered intelligent have been fundamentally flawed and, at times, regressive. We don't need to understand a dolphin's language to know that we are more intelligent, and similarly, machines don't need to mimic us to surpass us in intelligence.
Lastly, through unsupervised learning, machines create their own languages, classifications, tags, etc., to analyze structures like genes, proteins, vision, and everything else. This allows them to approach various scientific queries in ways our languages, including coding languages, were incapable of. For example, deciphering a gene would never be possible using our language dictionaries and any human-driven categorization. The same happens in LLMs through machines' indecipherable ways of dealing with tokens and converting them into usable symbols. This is another new methodical change with far-reaching implications everywhere....more
The Self-Assembling Brain is a fascinating examination of the intersection between neurobiology and artificial intelligence. As the title suggests, thThe Self-Assembling Brain is a fascinating examination of the intersection between neurobiology and artificial intelligence. As the title suggests, the author Jonas Hielsinger posits that the brain - let's call it BNN or biological neural network for this review - is a self-assembling system with simple low-level rules resulting in incredibly complex high-level behaviors and cognition. Through dense yet lucid descriptions of cutting-edge research in neuroscience, the author makes the case that understanding how the brain wires itself may hold the key to advancing AI or artificial neural networks, henceforth called ANNs - again for this review.
The core argument underpinning the book is that neurobiology and AI are deeply intertwined fields with much to learn from each other. It emphasizes the need for collaboration between experts across disciplines to unlock the secrets of ANNs and BNNs. In some ways, the author's views are too biased toward the potential payoff of connections between the fields. The book could have benefited from more focus on the enormous divergence that has grown between these fields by now, but it still does not take away anything from the enormous value it provides, regardless.
The book truly shines while discussing the details of neuroscience. A particular highlight is the in-depth discussions of how simple local learning rules, evolved over millions of years, lead to the complex phenomena we associate with cognition and consciousness. Take language acquisition as an example – babies are not explicitly programmed with grammatical rules but rather absorb the statistical regularities in the speech patterns around them. The brain, a BNN, is wired to detect and internalize these regularities through brute repetition, unlike how we train ANNs these days.
The book illustrates this and other similar concepts through clever hypothetical dialogues between experts at the start of each chapter. In one exchange, an AI researcher presses a neuroscientist on how children acquire language without direct instruction. The neuroscientist explains how the rapid formation and pruning of neural connections allow the BNN to build statistical models reflecting the environment. While fictional, these dialogues neatly encapsulate the core themes around self-assembly and help make the later technical sections more intuitive.
An early section analyzes systems like our BNNs that are fundamentally unpredictable despite relying on simple deterministic rules. And, then, there is the reverse. Networks of neurons in lower-level areas operate largely randomly at an individual level yet produce reliable signals when aggregated. Out of disorder emerges order. The book covers the opposite phenomenons exceptionally to describe various aspects of both neural networks' complexity.
The book argues that grappling with these chaotic systems holds lessons for AI researchers seeking to build adaptable, resilient models. The brain achieves robustness despite – or perhaps because of – underlying chaos and randomness percolating through its networks.
While the author makes a strong case for collaboration between neuroscience and AI, the rapid progress of artificial intelligence over the past decade suggests the arrow of learning between the two fields has reversed in crucial ways. This reviewer feels that back when ANNs were in their infancy, AI researchers had much to gain from understanding the workings of organic BNNs. Insights into biological neural architecture and plasticity accelerated early ANN development. However, ANNs today operate unconstrained by the limitations of their organic counterparts - they do not have to be energy efficient or constructible from genetic code. They are not survival maximizers without a goal. The environments and design parameters for ANNs are now so distinct that neuroscience, for all its intricacies, likely has more to learn from AI than vice versa moving forward. While exceptions exist, the utility of modeling AI systems on detailed neurobiology has also diminished because of the incompleteness of our understanding of low-level brain function.
In summary, while conceptual inspiration clearly flowed from neuroscience to AI originally, ANNs have evolved so dramatically in recent years that they operate under very different principles and design constraints compared to BNNs. While fascinating, the complex mechanics of actual brain processes seem unlikely to offer meaningful shortcuts for today's leading AI techniques.
Such disagreements aside, here is a book where one learns in every para. The details are exhaustive but also fascinating when one begins to think how evolution has produced a gadget of such intricacy. The book not only succeeds at conveying the awe-inspiring complexity and magic of the BNNs but also throws light on how we will struggle to truly understand and master ANNs despite being their creators. ...more
Mr. Hoel is an expert on neural networks and has solid and unique views on consciousness. These views are more robust in refuting past theories, as is
Mr. Hoel is an expert on neural networks and has solid and unique views on consciousness. These views are more robust in refuting past theories, as is generally true with most experts on such subjects. In his own views, the author has surprisingly many concrete arguments in support owing to his theoretical and computational background. Unfortunately, the debut book for general audiences lacks the lucidity its topic deserves for lay readers.
The book ambitiously tackles the nature of consciousness through theories of emergence, information, and causality. The core argument that consciousness emerges from recursive information processing achieving a certain level of complexity in neural networks is interesting but not extraordinarily new. However, the author's examinations of integrated information theory, causal emergence across scales, and scientific incompleteness contain superb insights.
The main weakness is the writing itself. The writer tends to get lost in convoluted historic arguments and theoretical mathematics. The book would benefit greatly from more practical examples and analogies to supplement esoteric theories. Without this, the book often comes across as more textbook than popular science.
For example, Mr HoelMr Hoel makes a superb point early in the book, supporting the emergent nature of consciousness on the back of evolutionary science. The book analyzes it through the lens of information theory. If we accept consciousness emerged via evolution, as most scientists do, then it cannot be anything but an emergent phenomenon arising from a more complex organization of matter. Since primitive organisms early in evolution lacked the rich inner experience of modern humans, our consciousness must have emerged gradually from more complex neural information processing. This simple yet profound point uses basic evolutionary assumptions to elegantly frame consciousness as an emergent property requiring no exotic new physics, just increasing biological complexity and causal information integration.
Unfortunately, the author undercuts his own compelling point by miring it in excessive historic speculation. He tries to judge when humans reached modern "thoughtfulness" by controversially analyzing early literature's self-reflective content. But this literary navel-gazing only muddles the crisp clarity of his evolutionary insight. As the book quips, "Homer's Iliad, for example, demonstrates little introspective capabilities," unlike modern authors. Such arbitrary comparisons only distract without strengthening his scientific case for consciousness as an emergent phenomenon. This tendency towards irrelevant historic detours plagues the stronger scientific arguments in later chapters as well. For example, his fascinating analysis of causal emergence across scales is obscured by digressions into abstract mathematics that is unlikely to engage general readers. The book fails to provide almost any concrete examples on the fascinating subjects of scale and causal emergence, scientific incompleteness, computational irreducibility, etc.
The standout chapter explores how causal emergence produces new layers of complexity. For readers fascinated by emergence, this chapter provides a mesmerizing scale-jumping journey from quanta to qualia. It represents the book's most thrilling glimpse into the writer's unconventional insights on consciousness. Using math, he proves the emergence of different types of causality at a higher level compared to the interplay at the constituent levels. This is subsequently used to argue that consciousness represents another level of emergent causation arising from billions of neurons integrating into the recursive information processing of a brain. When these neural networks achieve sufficiently complex, interdependent architecture, self-awareness emerges from their dynamic information flows.
Mr Hoel's formidable intellect and visionary insights are evident throughout the book. However, truly transformational ideas require articulate expression to ignite their potential fully. "The World Behind the World" smothers too many of its insights in dreary abstraction for the average reader. Though the uneven prose hampers this book's impact, the originality of its core ideas still shines through. The author needs to be followed as his ideas and eloquence mature in tandem in the coming years....more
Picking up a Smil book is always intimidating. His books are veritable encyclopedias - dense forests teeming with data and details. A book titled "SizPicking up a Smil book is always intimidating. His books are veritable encyclopedias - dense forests teeming with data and details. A book titled "Size" scared me more. Now, one was facing more than exhaustive research and voluminous content: there was an enormous, all-encompassing topic, too. Still, I was curious to see how Smil would weave together the vast tapestry of how size matters across different disciplines.
True to his reputation, Smil unleashes a flood of facts and measurements about size and scale in the natural and man-made worlds. Smil covers size extremes across physics, biology, engineering, and more, from tiny quarks to blue whales, bacteria to skyscrapers. The breadth leaves the reader gasping at the richness of information.
Given the sprawl of information, seeing the author developing compelling themes throughout the book is heartening. He develops compelling themes and threads, tying together the gargantuan and the minuscule, the living and the inanimate, into a coherent, captivating narrative, particularly in allometric and metabolic scaling topics. One learns about fundamental models like Kleiber's Law and the Square-Cube Law to explain growth patterns and limitations across size scales from cells to cities.
The book is at its best when it goes about dismantling our preconceived notions and debunking widely accepted principles. The Golden Ratio, apparently, does not exist anywhere. Even the laws we learn from the book turn out to be barely useable approximations, roiled often by the small, like Barro Colorado Island ants that break the Square-Cube Law, as much as by the large, like larger plants who do not have higher metabolic rates per unit mass compared to smaller plants. The author loves to reinforce how in nature, the devil is in the details - and in those wonderful, never-ending exceptions that make life so fascinatingly diverse and intricate, and his books full of surprises.
Later sections teach us about the modern implications of size - technologies, cities, and the author's favorite topic, energy use. He brings his engineering perspective to analyze trends and challenges related to humanity's increasing scale.
Despite the theme focus, there is no running away from the flood of information. The academic tone of the prose is not light. In the end, "Size" lives up to Smil's reputation with an exhaustive and enlightening look at a topic of importance. Persistent readers will be rewarded with insights into the principles of biology, engineering, and more. ...more
Few books are ever as well-timed as The Heat Will Kill You First in this sweltering, record-breaking summer of 2023. As cities across the globe face iFew books are ever as well-timed as The Heat Will Kill You First in this sweltering, record-breaking summer of 2023. As cities across the globe face intense heat waves, wildfires, droughts, floods, and other extreme weather, this book provides a sobering look at the devastating impacts of climate change. If any book hopes to convert a climate-change denier, it may be this one, primarily because of its perfect timing.
Intense heat waves are one of the most obvious and less discussed outcomes of global warming. They get more attention as the driver behind impacts such as wildfires, hurricanes, and droughts. The book shows how heat is an invisible, stealthy, and also direct force that can kill in various ways, such as hyperthermia, dehydration, and carbon monoxide poisoning. Worse, it disproportionately affects the underprivileged, which is also why it gets less attention amongst the most influential.
Rather than inundating the reader with statistics on rising temperatures and anthropogenic global warming, the book takes a more intimate, human-centered approach. Through a series of essays and reported stories, the author puts readers on the ground in communities battling the consequences of extreme heat. From a hospital in Phoenix struggling to treat growing numbers of patients with heat stroke, to a village in India running out of water, to polar bears feeling lost in their changed environment or the trekkers losing lives midway because of the scorching heat, the stories excel at driving home the severity of the climate crisis in the here and now.
All that said, for those already attuned to the realities of climate change, there is little new information or arguments. Much of the on-the-ground reporting might feel like familiar territory to those who regularly read climate journalism. Furthermore, the book's impressionistic approach, while impactful in conveying personal narratives, may not provide the explanatory depth sought by those already convinced of the urgency of the climate crisis. This is by design, but limits the value for the believers. For readers looking to spread awareness and spur action among doubters, the biggest utility is in the book's gift or recommendation value!, particularly given the headlines these days!...more
Starry Messenger is an intellectual roller coaster, replete with thrilling peaks of insight and, equally also, with monotonous plains of the mundane. Starry Messenger is an intellectual roller coaster, replete with thrilling peaks of insight and, equally also, with monotonous plains of the mundane. There are many notable pit-stops at various intellectual junctions, from science to sociology, but it is also a ride that struggles to maintain a clear route.
Tyson is the maestro in this symphony of thoughts, adeptly wielding the baton of his keen intellect and crisp prose. His knack for making complex subjects palatable to the layman shines through in every chapter. These chapters are an assorted platter of opinion essays. It educates the reader about various topics, dotted with bite-sized wisdom encapsulated in Tyson's characteristic punchlines.
The essays are like meandering stargazing sessions, covering everything from race and democracy to gambling and vegetarianism. While the topic of diversity is commendable, it results in an inconsistent rhythm. Tyson sometimes veers towards the preachy, turning an otherwise enjoyable discussion into a sermon. The tone is jarring sometimes to even this reviewer, who agrees with the author on most of his writing.
In conclusion, the breezy, informative book is Tyson's trademark work, except that not on topics one associates him with. ...more
Wanting is a thought-provoking book in parts, but its most significant utility is its knack for compelling introspection. That our desires are not as Wanting is a thought-provoking book in parts, but its most significant utility is its knack for compelling introspection. That our desires are not as original as we credit them with is not a massively original message by itself. Introducing mimetic desire as a revolutionary idea feels like a rebranded take on what we've long intuited. One is still forced to think about which of one's yearnings result from others' influences, and in those self-reflections, many readers could find their joys or utility.
Mimetic desires are a social phenomenon. In its simplest form, it means we often want what others want. In cruder terms, we're prone to coveting what our neighbors prize. As parents have lectured children from time immemorial across cultures, these things lead to an insidious cycle of competition and rivalry, which can spiral into conflict, violence, and even war at the darkest depths. More common manifestations are self-destructive behaviors, addiction, and consumerism. Of course, at times, they can also be a force of good.
This reader found the section on scapegoating particularly striking - not for its originality, but for its resonant echoes of memories past, casting them in a new light. For other readers, different chapters may stir their depths; the book's breezy narrative is sure to inspire a reflective pause. ...more
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