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Showing posts from July, 2019

To Be A Machine

Adventures Among Cyborgs, Utopians, Hackers, and the Futurists Solving the Modest Problem of Death By Mark O'Connell "A globe-spanning investigation into the Transhumanist movement, considering the tech billionaires, scientific luminaries, and DIY body-hackers attempting to prolong, improve, and ultimately transcend the limits of human life" Publisher : New York : Doubleday, [2017] ISBN : 9780385540414, 0385540418

Four Futures

Visions of the World After Capitalism By Peter Frase It is easier to imagine the end of the world,' the theorist Fredric Jameson has remarked, 'than to imagine the end of capitalism.' 'Jacobin' Editor Peter Frase argues that technological advancements and environmental threats will inevitably push our society beyond capitalism, and 'Four Futures' imagines just how this might look. Extrapolating possible futures from current changes the world is now experiencing, and drawing upon speculative fictions to illustrate how these futures might be realized, 'Four Futures' examines communism, rentism, socialism, and exterminism-or in other words, the socialisms we may reach if a resurgent Left is successful and the barbarisms we may be consigned to if those movements fail. Publisher : London : Verso, 2016 ISBN : 9781781688137, 1781688133

Whiplash

How to Survive Our Faster Future By Joichi Ito This "brilliant and provocative" (Walter Isaacson) guide shares nine principles to adapt and survive the technological changes shaping our future from the director of the MIT Media Lab and a veteran Wired journalist. The world is more complex and volatile today than at any other time in our history. The tools of our modern existence are getting faster, cheaper, and smaller at an exponential rate, transforming every aspect of society, from business to culture and from the public sphere to our most private moments. The people who succeed will be the ones who learn to think differently. In WHIPLASH, Joi Ito and Jeff Howe distill that logic into nine organizing principles for navigating and surviving this tumultuous period: Emergence over Authority Pull over Push Compasses over Maps Risk over Safety Disobedience over Compliance Practice over Theory Diversity over Ability Resilience over Strength Systems over Objects Filled with incre...

Heart of the Machine

Our Future in A World of Artificial Emotional Intelligence By Richard Yonck "Futurist Richard Yonck argues that instilling emotions, the first, most basic, and most natural form of communication, into computers is the next leap in our centuries-old obsession with creating machines that replicate humans. But for every benefit this progress may bring to our lives, there is a possible pitfall. Emotion recognition could lead to advanced surveillance, and the same technology that can manipulate our feelings could become a method of mass control. And, as shown in movies like Her and Ex machina, our society already holds a deep-seated anxiety about what might happen if machines could actually feel and break free from our control. [This book] is an exploration of the new and inevitable ways in which mankind and technology will interact." Publisher : New York : Arcade Publishing, [2017] ISBN : 9781628727333, 1628727330

The Inevitable

Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future By Kevin Kelly An expert tech writer discusses the forces and trends that will revolutionize daily life through the upcoming technological advances of the next thirty years. Publisher : New York, New York : Viking, [2016] Copyright : ©2016 ISBN : 9780525428084, 0525428089

Machines That Think

The Future of Artificial Intelligence By Toby Walsh "A scientist who has spent a career developing Artificial Intelligence takes a realistic look at the technological challenges and assesses the likely effect of AI on the future" Publisher : Amherst, New York : Prometheus Books, 2018 ISBN : 9781633883758, 1633883752

We Are Data

Algorithms and the Making of Our Digital Selves By John Cheney-Lippold We are Data" explores what identity means in an algorithmic age: how it works, how our lives are controlled by it, and how we can resist it. Algorithms are everywhere, organizing the near limitless data that exists in our world. Derived from our every search, like, click, and purchase, algorithms determine the news we get, the ads we see, the information accessible to us and even who our friends are. These complex configurations not only form knowledge and social relationships in the digital and physical world, but also determine who we are and who we can be, both on and offline. Algorithms create and recreate us, using our data to assign and reassign our gender, race, sexuality, and citizenship status. They can recognize us as celebrities or mark us as terrorists. In this era of ubiquitous surveillance, contemporary data collection entails more than gathering information about us. Entities like Google, Faceboo...

The Robot in the Next Cubicle

What You Need to Know to Adapt and Succeed in the Automation Age By Larry Boyer It's called the Fourth Industrial Revolution--a revolution fueled by analytics and technology--that consists of data-driven smart products, services, entertainment, and new jobs. Economist and data scientist Larry Boyer lays out the wealth of exciting possibilities this revolution brings as well as the serious concerns about its disruptive impact on the lives of average Americans. Most important, he shows readers how to navigate this sea of change, pointing to strategies that will give businesses and individuals the best chance to succeed and providing a roadmap to thriving in this new economy. Boyer describes how future workers may have to think of themselves as entrepreneurs, marketing their special talents as valuable skills that machines cannot do. This will be especially important in the coming employment climate, when full-time jobs are likely to decrease and industries move toward contract-based ...

The Master Algorithm

How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World By Pedro Domingos A thought-provoking and wide-ranging exploration of machine learning and the race to build computer intelligences as flexible as our own. In the world's top research labs and universities, the race is on to invent the ultimate learning algorithm: one capable of discovering any knowledge from data, and doing anything we want, before we even ask. In The Master Algorithm , Pedro Domingos lifts the veil to give us a peek inside the learning machines that power Google, Amazon, and your smartphone. He assembles a blueprint for the future universal learner--the Master Algorithm--and discusses what it will mean for business, science, and society. If data-ism is today's philosophy, this book is its bible. Publisher : New York : Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group, [2015] ISBN : 9780465065707, 0465065708

Hello World

Being Human in the Age of Algorithms By Hannah Fry By weaving in relatable, real world stories with accessible explanations of the underlying mathematics that power algorithms, Hello world helps us to determine their power, expose their limitations, and examine whether they really are improvement on the human systems they replace. Publisher : New York : W.W. Norton & Company, [2018] ISBN : 9780393634990, 039363499X

On the Future

Prospects for Humanity By Martin J. Rees "Humanity has reached a critical moment. Our world is unsettled and rapidly changing, and we face existential risks over the next century. Various outcomes--good and bad--are possible. Yet our approach to the future is characterized by short-term thinking, polarizing debates, alarmist rhetoric, and pessimism. In this short, exhilarating book, renowned scientist and bestselling author Martin Rees argues that humanity's prospects depend on our taking a very different approach to planning for tomorrow. The future of humanity is bound to the future of science and hinges on how successfully we harness technological advances to address our challenges. If we are to use science to solve our problems while avoiding its dystopian risks, we must think rationally, globally, collectively, and optimistically about the long term. Advances in biotechnology, cybertechnology, robotics, and artificial intelligence--if pursued and applied wisely--could emp...

Talk to Me

How Voice Computing Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Think By James Vlahos "A New York Times Magazine writer explores the Next Big Thing in tech--the impending revolution in voice recognition--and shows how it will upend Silicon Valley and transform how we use computers, the Web, and much more.Every decade or so brings a seismic shift in how people interact with tech, from the PC to the internet to the smartphone. James Vlahos shows that we are on the cusp of the next shift: to voice computing. Siri and Alexa are early forms of this technology, but the day is coming when we'll talk as fluently with our phones, appliances, cars, etc. as we do with any human. Vlahos explains the enormous AI challenges that voice computing presents, and unpacks its vast economic, cultural, and psychological impact. He reveals how Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and other titans are competing fiercely to create the new voice-driven interfaces. Amazon has devoted an entire secret building to ...

The Age of Spiritual Machines

By Ray Kurzweil Ray Kurzweil is the inventor of the most innovative and compelling technology of our era, an international authority on artificial intelligence, and one of our greatest living visionaries. Now he offers a framework for envisioning the twenty-first century--an age in which the marriage of human sensitivity and artificial intelligence fundamentally alters and improves the way we live. Kurzweil's prophetic blueprint for the future takes us through the advances that inexorably result in computers exceeding the memory capacity and computational ability of the human brain by the year 2020 (with human-level capabilities not far behind); in relationships with automated personalities who will be our teachers, companions, and lovers; and in information fed straight into our brains along direct neural pathways. Optimistic and challenging, thought-provoking and engaging, The Age of Spiritual Machines is the ultimate guide on our road into the next century. Publisher : [Not ide...

The Second Machine Age

Work, Progress, and Prosperity in A Time of Brilliant Technologies By Erik Brynjolfsson A pair of technology experts describe how humans will have to keep pace with machines in order to become prosperous in the future and identify strategies and policies for business and individuals to use to combine digital processing power with human ingenuity. Publisher : New York : W. W. Norton & Company, [2014] Copyright : ©2014 ISBN : 9780393239355, 0393239357

Fundamentals of Deep Learning

Designing Next-generation Machine Intelligence Algorithms By Nikhil Buduma With the reinvigoration of neural networks in the 2000s, deep learning has become an extremely active area of research, one that's paving the way for modern machine learning. In this practical book, author Nikhil Buduma provides examples and clear explanations to guide you through major concepts of this complicated field. Companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Facebook are actively growing in-house deep-learning teams. For the rest of us, however, deep learning is still a pretty complex and difficult subject to grasp. If you're familiar with Python, and have a background in calculus, along with a basic understanding of machine learning, this book will get you started. Examine the foundations of machine learning and neural networks Learn how to train feed-forward neural networks Use TensorFlow to implement your first neural network Manage problems that arise as you begin to make networks deeper Build ne...

AI Superpowers

China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order By Kai-Fu Lee Dr. Kai-Fu Lee--one of the world's most respected experts on AI and China--reveals that China has suddenly caught up to the US at an astonishingly rapid and unexpected pace. In AI Superpowers , Kai-fu Lee argues powerfully that because of these unprecedented developments in AI, dramatic changes will be happening much sooner than many of us expected. Indeed, as the US-Sino AI competition begins to heat up, Lee urges the US and China to both accept and to embrace the great responsibilities that come with significant technological power. Most experts already say that AI will have a devastating impact on blue-collar jobs. But Lee predicts that Chinese and American AI will have a strong impact on white-collar jobs as well. Is universal basic income the solution? In Lee's opinion, probably not. But he provides a clear description of which jobs will be affected and how soon, which jobs can be enhanced with AI, and most impor...

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism

The Fight for A Human Future at the New Frontier of Power By Shoshana Zuboff "Zuboff tackles the social, political, business, personal, and technological meaning of "surveillance capitalism" as an unprecedented new market form. It is not simply about tracking us and selling ads, it is the business model for an ominous new marketplace that aims at nothing less than predicting and modifying our everyday behavior--where we go, what we do, what we say, how we feel, who we're with. The consequences of surveillance capitalism for us as individuals and as a society vividly come to life in [this] pathbreaking analysis of power. The threat has shifted from a totalitarian "big brother" state to a universal global architecture of automatic sensors and smart capabilities: A "big other" that imposes a fundamentally new form of power and unprecedented concentrations of knowledge in private companies--free from democratic oversight and control" Publisher : ...

Originals

How Non-conformists Move the World By Adam M. Grant "Reading Originals made me feel like I was seated across from Adam Grant at a dinner party, as one of my favorite thinkers thrilled me with his insights and his wonderfully new take on the world." --Malcolm Gladwell, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Outliers and The Tipping Point "Originals is one of the most important and captivating books I have ever read, full of surprising and powerful ideas. It will not only change the way you see the world; it might just change the way you live your life. And it could very well inspire you to change your world." --Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook and #1 New York Times bestselling author of Lean In The New York Times bestselling author of Give and Take examines how people can champion new ideas--and how leaders can encourage originality in their organizations With Give and Take, Adam Grant not only introduced a landmark new paradigm for success but a...

Superminds

The Surprising Power of People and Computers Thinking Together By Thomas W. Malone "If you're like most people, you probably believe that humans are the most intelligent animals on our planet. But there's another kind of entity that can be far smarter: groups of people. In this groundbreaking book, Thomas Malone, the founding director of the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence, shows how groups of people working together in superminds--like hierarchies, markets, democracies, and communities--have been responsible for almost all human achievements in business, government, science, and beyond. And these collectively intelligent human groups are about to get much smarter. Using dozens of striking examples and case studies, Malone shows how computers can help create more intelligent superminds simply by connecting humans to one another in a variety of rich, new ways. And although it will probably happen more gradually than many people expect, artificially intelligent comput...

The Future of the Professions

How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts By Richard Susskind, Daniel Susskind This book predicts the decline of today's professions and describes the people and systems that will replace them. In an Internet society, according to Richard Susskind and Daniel Susskind, we will neither need nor want doctors, teachers, accountants, architects, the clergy, consultants, lawyers, and many others, to work as they did in the 20th century. The Future of the Professions explains how 'increasingly capable systems' - from telepresence to artificial intelligence - will bring fundamental change in the way that the 'practical expertise' of specialists is made available in society. The authors challenge the 'grand bargain' - the arrangement that grants various monopolies to today's professionals. They argue that our current professions are antiquated, opaque and no longer affordable, and that the expertise of the best is enjoyed only by a few. In their pla...

Thinking Machines

The Quest for Artificial Intelligence--and Where It's Taking Us Next By Luke Dormehl "A fascinating look at Artificial Intelligence, from its humble Cold War beginnings to the dazzling future that is just around the corner. When most of us think about Artificial Intelligence, our minds go straight to cyborgs, robots, and sci-fi thrillers where machines take over the world. But the truth is that Artificial Intelligence is already among us. It exists in our smartphones, fitness trackers, and refrigerators that tell us when the milk will expire. In some ways, the future people dreamed of at the World's Fair in the 1960s is already here. We're teaching our machines how to think like humans, and they're learning at an incredible rate. In Thinking Machines, technology journalist Luke Dormehl takes you through the history of AI and how it makes up the foundations of the machines that think for us today. Furthermore, Dormehl speculates on the incredible--and possibly terri...

The Fourth Industrial Revolution

By Klaus Schwab In the bestselling tradition of The Fred Factor and What the CEO Wants You to Know , bestselling author and quality guru Subir Chowdhury ( The Power of Six Sigma ), tackles a question that has haunted him in his consulting work with companies for years. Why is it that some companies improve 50x, while others improve only incrementally? The ideas and training, after all, is the same. What is the difference? That is the question he tackles in this compelling and empowering new book. In The Difference , Subir Chowdhury looks at what distinguishes a company that adopts his quality training processes, and improves 5x, versus a company that adopts the same training and consulting, but increases their profits and quality 50x. The difference, he claims, is this short, engaging, and insightful book, is the people in your workplace, on your staff, in your executive offices. The best processes and training programs in the world will not lead to world-class operations, unless a com...

The Wealth of Humans

Work, Power, and Status in the Twenty-first Century By Ryan Avent "None of us has ever lived through a genuine industrial revolution. Until now. Digital technology is transforming every corner of the economy, fundamentally altering the way things are done, who does them, and what they earn for their efforts. In The Wealth of Humans, Economist editor Ryan Avent brings up-to-the-minute research and reporting to bear on the major economic question of our time: can the modern world manage technological changes every bit as disruptive as those that shook the socioeconomic landscape of the 19th century? Traveling from Shenzhen, to Gothenburg, to Mumbai, to Silicon Valley, Avent investigates the meaning of work in the twenty-first century: how technology is upending time-tested business models and thrusting workers of all kinds into a world wholly unlike that of a generation ago. It's a world in which the relationships between capital and labor and between rich and poor have been ove...

The Fifth Beginning

What Six Million Years of Human History Can Tell Us About Our Future By Robert L. Kelly "In The Fifth Beginning, archeologist Robert Kelly explains how the study of our cultural past can predict the future of humanity. In an eminently readable style, Kelly identifies four key pivot points in the six-million-year history of human development: the emergence of technology, culture, agriculture, and the state. In each example, the author examines the long-term processes that resulted in a definitive no-turning-back change for the organization of society. Kelly then looks ahead, giving us evidence for what he calls a fifth beginning, one that began about AD 1500. Some might call it 'globalization,' but the author places it in its larger context: a 5,000-year arms race, capitalism's global reach, and the cultural effects of a worldwide communication network. Kelly predicts the emergent phenomena of this fifth beginning will include the end of war as a viable way to resolve d...

Turing

Pioneer of the Information Age By B. Jack Copeland June 23, 2012 marks the centenary of Alan Turing's birth, and preparations are being made worldwide for the celebration of his life and work. Turing can be regarded as one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century. But who was Turing, and what did he achieve during his tragically shortlife of 41 years? Best known as the genius who broke Germany's most secret codes during the war of 1939-45, Turing was also the father of the modern computer. Today, all who "click-to-open" are familiar with the impact of Turing's ideas.Here, B. Jack Copeland provides an account of Turing's life and work, exploring the key elements of his life-story in tandem with his leading ideas and contributions. The book highlights Turing's contributions to computing and to computer science, including Artificial Intelligence and ArtificialLife, and the emphasis throughout is on the relevance of his work to modern developments. The s...

The Future, Declassified

Megatrends That Will Undo the World Unless We Take Action By Mathew Burrows "Twenty-five years ago when Mathew Burrows went to work for the CIA as an intelligence analyst, the world seemed frozen. Then came the fall of the Berlin Wall and the implosion of the Soviet Union; suddenly, unpredictability became a universal theme and foresight was critical. For the past decade, Burrows has overseen the creation of the Global Trends report--the key futurist guide for the White House, Departments of State and Defense, and Homeland Security" Publisher : New York, NY : Palgrave Macmillan, 2014 ISBN : 9781137279552, 1137279559

How to Create A Mind

The Secret of Human Thought Revealed By Ray Kurzweil The bold futurist and bestselling author explores the limitless potential of reverse-engineering the human brain Ray Kurzweil is arguably today's most influential--and often controversial--futurist. In How to Create a Mind , Kurzweil presents a provocative exploration of the most important project in human-machine civilization--reverse engineering the brain to understand precisely how it works and using that knowledge to create even more intelligent machines. Kurzweil discusses how the brain functions, how the mind emerges from the brain, and the implications of vastly increasing the powers of our intelligence in addressing the world's problems. He thoughtfully examines emotional and moral intelligence and the origins of consciousness and envisions the radical possibilities of our merging with the intelligent technology we are creating. Certain to be one of the most widely discussed and debated science books of the year, How ...

The Sentient Machine

The Coming Age of Artificial Intelligence By Amir Husain The future is now. Acclaimed technologist and inventor Amir Husain explains how we can live amidst the coming age of sentient machines and artificial intelligence--and not only survive, but thrive. Artificial "machine" intelligence is playing an ever-greater role in our society. We are already using cruise control in our cars, automatic checkout at the drugstore, and are unable to live without our smartphones. The discussion around AI is polarized; people think either machines will solve all problems for everyone, or they will lead us down a dark, dystopian path into total human irrelevance. Regardless of what you believe, the idea that we might bring forth intelligent creation can be intrinsically frightening. But what if our greatest role as humans so far is that of creators? Amir Husain, a brilliant inventor and computer scientist, argues that we are on the cusp of writing our next, and greatest, creation myth. It is...

Who Owns the Future?

By Jaron Lanier Evaluates the negative impact of digital network technologies on the economy and particularly the middle class, citing challenges to employment and personal wealth while exploring the potential of a new information economy. Publisher : New York : Simon & Schuster, 2013 ISBN : 9781451654967, 1451654960

Superintelligence

Paths, Dangers, Strategies By Nick Bostrom 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. Other animals have stronger muscles or sharper claws, but we have cleverer brains. If machine brains one day come to surpass human brains in general intelligence, then this new superintelligence could become very powerful. As the fate of the gorillas now depends more on us humans than on the gorillas themselves, so the fate of our species then would come to 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 AI or otherwise to engineer initial conditions so as to make an intelligence explosion survivable? How could one achieve a controlled detonation? To get closer to an answer to this question, we must make our way through a fascinating landscape of topics and considerations. Read th...

Life 3.0

Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence By Max Tegmark "What jobs should be automated? How should our legal systems handle autonomous systems? How likely is the emergence of suprahuman intelligence? A.I. is the future of science, technology, and business--and there is no person better qualified or situated to explore that future than Max Tegmark. What has A.I. brought us? Where will it lead us? The story of A.I. is the story of intelligence--of life processes as they evolve from bacteria (1.0) to humans (2.0), where life processes define their own software, to technology (3.0), where life processes design both their hardware and software. We know that A.I. is transforming work, laws, and weapons, as well as the dark side of computing (hacking and viral sabotage), raising questions that we all need to address: What jobs should be automated? How should our legal systems handle autonomous systems? How likely is the emergence of suprahuman intelligence? Is it possible to con...

Deep Thinking

Where Machine Intelligence Ends and Human Creativity Begins By Garry Kasparov The former world chess champion who played, and lost, against Deep Blue, a supercomputer, in 1997 discusses why he thinks humans should embrace the competition between themselves and machine intelligence. Publisher : New York : PublicAffairs, an imprint of Perseus Books, LLC, [2017] Copyright : ©2017 ISBN : 9781610397865, 161039786X

HBR's 10 Must Reads on AI, Analytics, and the New Machine Age

AI and data analytics are powering a wave of technological innovations--understand them, cut through the hype, and seize the opportunities. If you read nothing else on how intelligent machines are revolutionizing business, read these 10 articles. We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones to help you see how these new technologies fit together, understand what's coming next, and prepare your company now. In this book you will learn about how: - Data analytics and AI are yielding insights at an unprecedented rate - Machine learning is reinventing management and reshaping the workforce - Unmanned vehicles are evolving from toys into tools - 3-D printing is moving beyond rapid prototyping to industrial production at scale - Augmented reality is transforming both manufacturing and retail experiences - AI assistants and smart speakers are grabbing territory between customers and brands - A broadly coordinated rollout of blo...