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Superintelligence
- Paths, Dangers, Strategies
- Narrated by: Napoleon Ryan
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
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Life 3.0
- Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
- Written by: Max Tegmark
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 13 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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How will artificial intelligence affect crime, war, justice, jobs, society, and our very sense of being human? The rise of AI has the potential to transform our future more than any other technology - and there's nobody better qualified or situated to explore that future than Max Tegmark, an MIT professor who's helped mainstream research on how to keep AI beneficial.
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This performance bit is driving me crazy
- By Dan Thomson on 2018-02-05
Written by: Max Tegmark
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Human Compatible
- Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control
- Written by: Stuart Russell
- Narrated by: Raphael Corkhill
- Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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In the popular imagination, superhuman artificial intelligence is an approaching tidal wave that threatens not just jobs and human relationships, but civilization itself. Conflict between humans and machines is seen as inevitable and its outcome all too predictable. In this groundbreaking audiobook, distinguished AI researcher Stuart Russell argues that this scenario can be avoided, but only if we rethink AI from the ground up. Russell begins by exploring the idea of intelligence in humans and in machines.
Written by: Stuart Russell
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Understanding the Mysteries of Human Behavior
- Written by: Mark Leary, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Mark Leary
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Every day of your life is spent surrounded by mysteries that involve what appear to be rather ordinary human behaviors. What makes you happy? Where did your personality come from? Why do you have trouble controlling certain behaviors? Why do you behave differently as an adult than you did as an adolescent?Since the start of recorded history, and probably even before, people have been interested in answering questions about why we behave the way we do.
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Decent overview, but unsurprising and unoriginal
- By Anonymous User on 2020-02-02
Written by: Mark Leary, and others
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The Big Picture
- On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself
- Written by: Sean Carroll
- Narrated by: Sean Carroll
- Length: 17 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Already internationally acclaimed for his elegant, lucid writing on the most challenging notions in modern physics, Sean Carroll is emerging as one of the greatest humanist thinkers of his generation as he brings his extraordinary intellect to bear not only on the Higgs boson and extra dimensions but now also on our deepest personal questions. Where are we? Who are we? Are our emotions, our beliefs, and our hopes and dreams ultimately meaningless out there in the void?
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Maybe angels are transgender...
- By Count Erklock on 2019-10-12
Written by: Sean Carroll
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Churchill
- Written by: Roy Jenkins
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 38 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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In this magisterial book, Roy Jenkins' unparalleled command of the political history of Britain and his own high-level government experience combine in a narrative account of Churchill's astounding career that is unmatched in its shrewd insights, its unforgettable anecdotes, the clarity of its overarching themes, and the author's nuanced appreciation of his extraordinary subject.
Written by: Roy Jenkins
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Our Final Invention
- Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era
- Written by: James Barrat
- Narrated by: Gary Dana
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Artificial Intelligence helps choose what books you buy, what movies you see, and even who you date. It puts the "smart" in your smartphone and soon it will drive your car. It makes most of the trades on Wall Street, and controls vital energy, water, and transportation infrastructure. But Artificial Intelligence can also threaten our existence. In as little as a decade, AI could match and then surpass human intelligence. Corporations and government agencies are pouring billions into achieving AI’s Holy Grail - human-level intelligence.
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Scary but facinating
- By Cam A. on 2019-03-11
Written by: James Barrat
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Life 3.0
- Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
- Written by: Max Tegmark
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 13 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How will artificial intelligence affect crime, war, justice, jobs, society, and our very sense of being human? The rise of AI has the potential to transform our future more than any other technology - and there's nobody better qualified or situated to explore that future than Max Tegmark, an MIT professor who's helped mainstream research on how to keep AI beneficial.
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This performance bit is driving me crazy
- By Dan Thomson on 2018-02-05
Written by: Max Tegmark
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Human Compatible
- Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control
- Written by: Stuart Russell
- Narrated by: Raphael Corkhill
- Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the popular imagination, superhuman artificial intelligence is an approaching tidal wave that threatens not just jobs and human relationships, but civilization itself. Conflict between humans and machines is seen as inevitable and its outcome all too predictable. In this groundbreaking audiobook, distinguished AI researcher Stuart Russell argues that this scenario can be avoided, but only if we rethink AI from the ground up. Russell begins by exploring the idea of intelligence in humans and in machines.
Written by: Stuart Russell
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Understanding the Mysteries of Human Behavior
- Written by: Mark Leary, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Mark Leary
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Every day of your life is spent surrounded by mysteries that involve what appear to be rather ordinary human behaviors. What makes you happy? Where did your personality come from? Why do you have trouble controlling certain behaviors? Why do you behave differently as an adult than you did as an adolescent?Since the start of recorded history, and probably even before, people have been interested in answering questions about why we behave the way we do.
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Decent overview, but unsurprising and unoriginal
- By Anonymous User on 2020-02-02
Written by: Mark Leary, and others
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The Big Picture
- On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself
- Written by: Sean Carroll
- Narrated by: Sean Carroll
- Length: 17 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Already internationally acclaimed for his elegant, lucid writing on the most challenging notions in modern physics, Sean Carroll is emerging as one of the greatest humanist thinkers of his generation as he brings his extraordinary intellect to bear not only on the Higgs boson and extra dimensions but now also on our deepest personal questions. Where are we? Who are we? Are our emotions, our beliefs, and our hopes and dreams ultimately meaningless out there in the void?
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Maybe angels are transgender...
- By Count Erklock on 2019-10-12
Written by: Sean Carroll
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Churchill
- Written by: Roy Jenkins
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 38 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In this magisterial book, Roy Jenkins' unparalleled command of the political history of Britain and his own high-level government experience combine in a narrative account of Churchill's astounding career that is unmatched in its shrewd insights, its unforgettable anecdotes, the clarity of its overarching themes, and the author's nuanced appreciation of his extraordinary subject.
Written by: Roy Jenkins
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Our Final Invention
- Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era
- Written by: James Barrat
- Narrated by: Gary Dana
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Artificial Intelligence helps choose what books you buy, what movies you see, and even who you date. It puts the "smart" in your smartphone and soon it will drive your car. It makes most of the trades on Wall Street, and controls vital energy, water, and transportation infrastructure. But Artificial Intelligence can also threaten our existence. In as little as a decade, AI could match and then surpass human intelligence. Corporations and government agencies are pouring billions into achieving AI’s Holy Grail - human-level intelligence.
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Scary but facinating
- By Cam A. on 2019-03-11
Written by: James Barrat
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Imperial Twilight
- The Opium War and the End of China's Last Golden Age
- Written by: Stephen R. Platt
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 17 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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As one of the most potent turning points in the country's modern history, the Opium War has since come to stand for everything that today's China seeks to put behind it. In this dramatic, epic story, award-winning historian Stephen Platt sheds new light on the early attempts by Western traders and missionaries to "open" China even as China's imperial rulers were struggling to manage their country's decline and Confucian scholars grappled with how to use foreign trade to China's advantage.
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Well written but not the story I was hoping for
- By Simon on 2022-02-03
Written by: Stephen R. Platt
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Lying
- Written by: Sam Harris
- Narrated by: Sam Harris
- Length: 1 hr and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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As it was in Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, and Othello, so it is in life. Most forms of private vice and public evil are kindled and sustained by lies. Acts of adultery and other personal betrayals, financial fraud, government corruption - even murder and genocide - generally require an additional moral defect: a willingness to lie. In Lying, bestselling author and neuroscientist Sam Harris argues that we can radically simplify our lives and improve society by merely telling the truth in situations where others often lie.
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Sam does an amazing job of explaining lies.
- By Doug Chumley on 2019-06-21
Written by: Sam Harris
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The Alignment Problem
- Machine Learning and Human Values
- Written by: Brian Christian
- Narrated by: Brian Christian
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Today's "machine-learning" systems, trained by data, are so effective that we've invited them to see and hear for us - and to make decisions on our behalf. But alarm bells are ringing. Systems cull résumés until, years later, we discover that they have inherent gender biases. Algorithms decide bail and parole - and appear to assess black and white defendants differently. We can no longer assume that our mortgage application, or even our medical tests, will be seen by human eyes. And autonomous vehicles on our streets can injure or kill.
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A Comprehensive Analysis of AI’s Impact on Society
- By Gary Maksoudian on 2023-09-26
Written by: Brian Christian
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Modern Times
- The World from the Twenties to the Nineties
- Written by: Paul Johnson
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 37 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Beginning with May 29, 1919, when photographs of the solar eclipse confirmed the truth of Einstein's theory of relativity, Johnson goes on to describe Freudianism, the establishment of the first Marxist state, the chaos of "Old Europe", the Arcadian 20s, and the new forces in China and Japan. Also discussed are Karl Marx, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Roosevelt, Gandhi, Castro, Kennedy, Nixon, the '29 crash, the Great Depression, Roosevelt's New Deal, and the massive conflict of World War II.
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Magnificent book, weak reader
- By James on 2023-05-10
Written by: Paul Johnson
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The Hidden Habits of Genius
- Beyond Talent, IQ, and Grit - Unlocking the Secrets of Greatness
- Written by: Craig Wright
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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What is genius? The word evokes iconic figures like Einstein, Beethoven, Picasso, and Steve Jobs, whose cultural contributions have irreversibly shaped society. Yet Beethoven could not multiply. Picasso couldn’t pass a fourth grade math test. And Jobs left high school with a 2.65 GPA. The Hidden Habits of Genius explores the meaning of this contested term, and the unexpected motivations of those we have dubbed "genius" throughout history, from Charles Darwin and Marie Curie to Leonardo Da Vinci and Andy Warhol to Toni Morrison and Elon Musk.
Written by: Craig Wright
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Thinking in Systems
- A Primer
- Written by: Donella H. Meadows
- Narrated by: Tia Rider Sorensen
- Length: 6 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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In the years following her role as the lead author of the international best seller, Limits to Growth - the first book to show the consequences of unchecked growth on a finite planet - Donella Meadows remained a pioneer of environmental and social analysis until her untimely death in 2001. Thinking in Systems is a concise and crucial book offering insight for problem-solving on scales ranging from the personal to the global. Edited by the Sustainability Institute's Diana Wright, this essential primer brings systems thinking out of the realm of computers and equations and into the tangible world....
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Good book with Deleuzian undertones
- By Zac on 2020-10-24
Written by: Donella H. Meadows
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The Wealth of Nations
- Written by: Adam Smith
- Narrated by: Gildart Jackson
- Length: 36 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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The foundation for all modern economic thought and political economy, The Wealth of Nations is the magnum opus of Scottish economist Adam Smith, who introduces the world to the very idea of economics and capitalism in the modern sense of the words.
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a must!
- By Bean on 2022-02-17
Written by: Adam Smith
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Zero to One
- Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
- Written by: Peter Thiel, Blake Masters
- Narrated by: Blake Masters
- Length: 4 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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The great secret of our time is that there are still uncharted frontiers to explore and new inventions to create. In Zero to One, legendary entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel shows how we can find singular ways to create those new things.
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Excellent book for Entrepreneurs
- By FibreHead on 2019-07-12
Written by: Peter Thiel, and others
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The Infinite Machine
- How an Army of Crypto-Hackers Is Building the Next Internet with Ethereum
- Written by: Camila Russo
- Narrated by: Laura Jennings
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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The story of Ethereum begins with Vitalik Buterin, a supremely gifted 19-year-old autodidact who saw the promise of blockchain when the technology was in its earliest stages. He convinced a crack group of coders to join him in his quest to make a super-charged, global computer. The Infinite Machine introduces Vitalik’s ingenious idea and unfolds Ethereum’s chaotic beginnings. It then explores the brilliant innovation and reckless greed the platform has unleashed and the consequences that resulted as the frenzy surrounding it grew.
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Great insight into the personalities behind crypto
- By RG on 2021-11-30
Written by: Camila Russo
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The Red Book: A Reader's Edition
- Philemon
- Written by: C. G. Jung
- Narrated by: Mike Fraser
- Length: 20 hrs
- Unabridged
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The Red Book, published to wide acclaim in 2009, contains the nucleus of C. G. Jung's later works. It was here that he developed his principal theories of the archetypes, the collective unconscious, and the process of individuation that would transform psychotherapy from treatment of the sick into a means for the higher development of the personality.
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Modern Dante
- By Ero on 2020-12-20
Written by: C. G. Jung
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The House of Morgan
- An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance
- Written by: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 34 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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A gripping history of banking and the booms and busts that shaped the world on both sides of the Atlantic, The House of Morgan traces the trajectory of the J. P.Morgan empire from its obscure beginnings in Victorian London to the crash of 1987. Ron Chernow paints a fascinating portrait of the private saga of the Morgans and the rarefied world of the American and British elite in which they moved. Based on extensive interviews and access to the family and business archives, The House of Morgan is an investigative masterpiece.
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legendary book does not disappoint
- By Amazon Customer on 2018-03-28
Written by: Ron Chernow
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The Rise and Fall of American Growth
- The U.S. Standard of Living Since the Civil War
- Written by: Robert J. Gordon
- Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray
- Length: 30 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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In the century after the Civil War, an economic revolution improved the American standard of living in ways previously unimaginable. Electric lighting, indoor plumbing, home appliances, motor vehicles, air travel, air conditioning, and television transformed households and workplaces. With medical advances, life expectancy between 1870 and 1970 grew from 45 to 72 years. The Rise and Fall of American Growth provides an in-depth account of this momentous era.
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Not the best
- By Robert Hoskins on 2023-11-01
Written by: Robert J. Gordon
Publisher's Summary
Superintelligence asks the questions: What happens when machines surpass humans in general intelligence? Will artificial agents save or destroy us? Nick Bostrom lays the foundation for understanding the future of humanity and intelligent life. The human brain has some capabilities that the brains of other animals lack. It is to these distinctive capabilities that our species owes its dominant position. If machine brains surpassed human brains in general intelligence, then this new superintelligence could become extremely powerful - possibly beyond our control. As the fate of the gorillas now depends more on humans than on the species itself, so would the fate of humankind depend on the actions of the machine superintelligence.
But we have one advantage: We get to make the first move. Will it be possible to construct a seed Artificial Intelligence, to engineer initial conditions so as to make an intelligence explosion survivable? How could one achieve a controlled detonation?
This profoundly ambitious and original book breaks down a vast track of difficult intellectual terrain. After an utterly engrossing journey that takes us to the frontiers of thinking about the human condition and the future of intelligent life, we find in Nick Bostrom's work nothing less than a reconceptualization of the essential task of our time.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
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What listeners say about Superintelligence
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Bogdan
- 2020-07-26
Unnecessary Jargon
Has some very good talking points, but uses unnecessarily convoluted language... You end up getting lost half way through a sentence because the author attempts to describe something in a very particular context, and so that it can not be misinterpreted, but instead you just miss the general idea.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Jonathan Martineau
- 2023-10-13
Important book but weak thinking.
The level of speculation is so high, the absence of any discussion on actual concrete dangers of AI to discriminated populations, the underlying eugenic politics, the sci-fi general level of discussion make this book extremely irritating. Basic errors in philosophic thought are also plaguing the account, e.g. the constant contradiction between the author’s warning not to anthropomorphize AI, and the equally constant anthropomorphizations he makes (potential for AI being deceptive, cunning, malevolent, etc.) The biggest flaw is probably the reductive notion of intelligence as somewhat a function of calculation or cognition. Yet to be intelligent is to be alive, and vice versa, as Hegel as shown, and it is also to be embodied, in a situation, in a cultural horizon of meaning, as Heidegger as shown. Reducing intelligence to knowledge and calculation is problematic for a book on so called superintellignece….Difficult to comprehend that this book has come to structure a field. A shame really. The narrator and audiobook production are excellent however.
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2 people found this helpful
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- james
- 2020-07-02
Interesting and fun
It was very interesting and on topic with a very easy to understand main Theme
Only complaint as some one who reads about the subject a lot it almost feels dated still good tho
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2 people found this helpful
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- Rocco Stefano
- 2023-04-18
Bloody Terrible
this is the first book I have ever purchased from audible where the narration was so terrible that I could care less about what was being said. I may have been able to read the book but listening to this person was atrocious and my ears bled
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- Amazon Customer
- 2022-10-23
Very dense, but exceptionally written and read!
This sobering book on the challenges of an intelligence explosion was exceptionally well thought out. A challenge to listen to in long stretches, but the narrator did a great job and added a flourish to the text.
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- Alex
- 2021-07-05
consider me informed and nervous
for anyone with even a slight interest in super AI, this is a must listen! it's really exciting to hear about both the potential for both positives and negatives of the topic! it's a touch nerve wracking considering all the potential futures but it REALLY drives the point home that we HAVE to be careful and take our time!
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- Gary
- 2014-09-12
Colossus: The Forbin Project is coming
This book is more frightening than any book you'll ever read. The author makes a great case for what the future holds for us humans. I believe the concepts in "The Singularity is Near" by Ray Kurzweil are mostly spot on, but the one area Kurzweil dismisses prematurely is how the SI (superintelligent advanced artificial intelligence) entity will react to its circumstances.
The book doesn't really dwell much on how the SI will be created. The author mostly assumes a computer algorithm of some kind with perhaps human brain enhancements. If you reject such an SI entity prima facie this book is not for you, since the book mostly deals with assuming such a recursive self aware and self improving entity will be in humanities future.
The author makes some incredibly good points. He mostly hypothesizes that the SI entity will be a singleton and not allow others of its kind to be created independently and will happen on a much faster timeline after certain milestones are fulfilled.
The book points out how hard it is to put safeguards into a procedure to guard against unintended consequences. For example, making 'the greater good for the greatest many' the final goal can lead to unintended consequence such as allowing a Nazi ruled world (he doesn't give that example directly in the book, and I borrow it from Karl Popper who gave it as a refutation for John Stuart Mill's utilitarian philosophy). If the goal is to make us all smile, the SI entity might make brain probes that force us to smile. There is no easy end goal specifiable without unintended consequences.
This kind of thinking within the book is another reason I can recommend the book. As I was listening, I realized that all the ways we try to motivate or control an SI entity to be moral can also be applied to us humans in order to make us moral to. Morality is hard both for us humans and for future SI entities.
There's a movie from the early 70s called "Colossus: The Forbin Project", it really is a template for this book, and I would recommend watching the movie before reading this book.
I just recently listened to the book, "Our Final Invention" by James Barrat. That book covers the same material that is presented in this book. This book is much better even though they overlap very much. The reason why is this author, Nick Bostrom, is a philosopher and knows how to lay out his premises in such a way that the story he is telling is consistent, coherent, and gives a narrative to tie the pieces together (even if the narrative will scare the daylights out of the listener).
This author has really thought about the problems inherent in an SI entity, and this book will be a template for almost all future books on this subject.
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179 people found this helpful
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- Kendra
- 2014-09-24
A must read that must be read slowly
There is not much math in this book, not many pictures or tables. Usually this is a good indicator that I'll be able to follow along in an audio version. That was not true of this book. I listen to audiobooks while doing menial tasks involving infrequent and brief moments of concentration, with most books I am able to do this easily, but this book requires some pondering and digestion. Any distraction seemed to be enough to miss something important. Perhaps some of this was due to narrator's smooth baratone which - for reasons I don't know - I didn't like. I plan on getting the hard copy and reading this one in silence. This book is definitely a must read, but it also seems it must be read slowly. Put it down, think about it, talk about it with your friends, then and only then on to the next chapter.
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142 people found this helpful
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- Gregory Collier
- 2014-12-09
Pretty hard to listen to for more than a short tim
Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?
I wish it was, but it only takes a couple of minutes before my mind starts wandering and the narrator is just idle background noise.
Would you be willing to try another one of Napoleon Ryan’s performances?
Probably not.
Did Superintelligence inspire you to do anything?
Read the book instead of listen to it.
Any additional comments?
The narrator speaks clearly and eloquently but the tone and meter were just impossible for me to enjoy. He didn't appear to be at all interested or passionate about the subject matter and instead just sounded like he was reading a script full of Star Trek technobabble and was just completely bored.
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40 people found this helpful
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- M. Shivas
- 2016-03-02
Speculation masquerading as Science
What disappointed you about Superintelligence?
The majority of Nick Bostrom's "SuperIntelligence" is conjecture, and much of it is not credible. The narrative lifts off from a thin crust of scientific fact then tail-spins into unimaginative speculation: some AI projects might advance faster than others; governments would seek to gain control if they thought AI would present a strategic advantage; an AI might become so powerful so fast it could take over the world, resulting in a "singleton" new world order, etc. The book reads like an index of unmoving science fiction premises rather than a thought-provoking expedition over the landscape of possibility.
The author attempts to capture the complex challenges underpinning the development of Artificial Intelligence under the umbrella term "recalcitrance". This leads to absurd simplifications like "Rate of change in intelligence equals optimization power over recalcitrance" on which he bases his theories of an AI "explosion". One of the countless implausible possibilities the author describes is that AI projects could be moved to the cloud, as if they could be scaled as easily as websites.
What do you think your next listen will be?
Emperor of all Maladies
Have you listened to any of Napoleon Ryan’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
SuperIntelligence is rich with phrases like "neurotoxic pollutants" that Napoleon Ryan pronounces with an educated bearing that fits the narrative's imperious tone. The book sounds as if it were written, published and narrated by Orwell's Ministry of Information. The section that describes parental attitudes to improving children's intelligence via genetics is particularly callous.
What character would you cut from Superintelligence?
The author
Any additional comments?
One memorable insight revealed is that pundits who predict the creation of an Artificial Intelligence "within twenty years" are safe in the knowledge that their careers will be over by the time their predictions are proved wrong. We can hope that Bostrom's AI explosion results in robots that can write books more credible, and less soulless, than this.
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37 people found this helpful
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- Matthew
- 2015-08-27
Interesting for sure, but kind of boring
Any additional comments?
Every chapter is more or less the author proposing an idea/prediction, and then exhaustively defining and constraining the solution space for that idea. .e.g AI could be done via method X, which would enable A, B, C, D, but would exclude J, K, L, M, N, etc..
Except for that's done over an hour.
So, every detail is treated very well, and it's an interesting process, but near the end I just couldn't take it any more and had to skip parts. :)
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35 people found this helpful
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- Brendan
- 2016-06-26
Book About AI Narrated By AI
I've maintained something of an interest in AI and decided that this book would allow me to go a bit more in-depth. Nope. Whatever degree is required to maintain and understand the analysis that Bostrom puts forward is one that I clearly like. What I mean to say is that Superintelligence is drier than the Sahara and faaaar too long! Worst of all, the narration actually sounds robotic. Bad book, bad narration, bad choice.
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33 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 2018-01-23
It’s a grind
I wasn’t sure how to rate this title, as the actual information found here is the most complete source on the subject matter. However, it is seriously tough to get through. The narrators tone is dull and rather monotone, which is doubly unfortunate as it almost feels like he is reading one long, book sized list of highly technical jargon, specifically designed to lose lamen like myself. This seems like a title it would be better to have a hard copy of, in order to study from, as the combination of the authors writing style and the narrators performance does not make for easy listening.
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23 people found this helpful
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- David
- 2015-07-26
Thorough, With a Mix of Excellence and Other
The book is worth the listen because it is a very good and thorough exposition of one of the major technological problems and risks approaching us in the very near future. Anything that can bring Popular awareness of this and similar issues is a great value.
On the down side the author is so committed to voicing the scholarly non-committal tone that he fails to make definite statements about any topic, even when he could do so.
At times there are logical fallacies in the arguments, and assumptions about the nature of Artificial Intelligences that appear to be groundless, and are not supported by explanation.
There is also a tendency to quote and rely on a variety of "Celebrity" Experts, who have track records in Technology that more recently have led them down allies of almost clownish obsolescence in one case, and over-confidence leading to fallacies and mistakes in their work in the other case.
I would not take this book as 'gospel' on Super-Intelligence. Rather it is a worthwhile entry into the current fieldwork on the subject, such as it is.
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14 people found this helpful
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- Steve
- 2014-10-05
Distracting Narration
What did you like best about Superintelligence? What did you like least?
I am about 1/4 of the way through this book and am not sure I will be able to remember anything about it because the narration is completely mismatched and is extremely distracting. The narrator has a great voice for fiction, but the delivery is annoying for this genre. There's just no way I can stand to finish this book.
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14 people found this helpful
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- Jacob
- 2015-06-11
Brilliant and Terrifying.
Nick Bostrom's, Superintelligence takes you on a journey through a sea of terminology and educated predictions to provide a stark and clear picture of the problems we face as a species as we approach singularity. The book is easy enough to work though and much more theoretical and practical than technical. Absolutely worth a read/listen for anyone worried or curious about how, when, or why machine intelligence will change humanity.
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8 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 2018-07-09
Must read in AI
Well-read, seriously researched book on the existential risk posed by developments in artificial intelligence.
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- DB
- 2017-08-27
Not as exciting as expected
I was disappointed by this book that everybody seems to like and recommend. Rather than giving a personal vision of the future it explores all the possible futures in a rather dystopian way. The style is also quite boring.
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