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One of the short books that I really enjoyed is Understand by Ted Chiang: A SF novel about a brain-damaged person who starts increasing his intelligence to hyper-awareness levels through the use of an experimental drug.
There is one idea that I really liked. About the purpose of knowledge and the ethical implications of intelligence expansion.
Read MoreI have a tendency to avoid hyped books. Sapiens and its sequel, Homo Deus, were definitely part of this category, having been praised by presidents or thought leaders (whatever that means). But an article about the meditative practice of the author, who’s also a jewish gay historian, spiked my interest. So.... I finally read both of them.
Read MoreLet’s continue the series on why the A.I. takeover are overblown. This time I would like to talk about our static worldview and our over-reliance on prediction. Peter Thiel defines definite and indefinite optimists and pessimists in his book, “Zero to One”. He remarks that people who look at the future as slightly-altered continuation of today will tend to focus on conservation of status-quo sprinkled with interventions when some random event disturbs the emotional tranquility of the society ...
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