Category Archives: Computers and Internet
The Coming Wave
AI and biotechnology could solve humanity’s toughest problems — or trigger chaos, collapse, and dystopia. Mustafa Suleyman’s The Coming Wave warns we’re not ready. Can we contain what we’ve unleashed? This thoughtful book explores the risks, contradictions, and urgent questions posed by tomorrow’s most powerful technologies. Continue reading
Nexus
Why are humans so good at acquiring information and power but not wisdom? In Nexus, Yuval Noah Harari explores how human information networks enable large numbers of people to cooperate over great distances and how those networks often prioritize order over truth and wisdom. AI could make matters even worse. Continue reading
The Carbon Footprint of Using ChatGPT
There’s a growing concern that our increasing use of artificial intelligence is putting a strain on electricity grids around the world. More use of AI means companies like Google, OpenAI, and Meta are building more data centers stuffed with more … Continue reading
A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines
A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines is a novel about the parallel lives of two of the 20th Century’s greatest mathematicians, Kurt Gödel and Alan Turing. Through fictionalized accounts, it explores the power of genius, the price it sometimes exacts and the limitations of our ability to discover the truth. Continue reading
The Worlds I See
Dr. Fei-Fei Li may not be a household name, but for over twenty years she’s been a driving force behind the advancement of artificial intelligence, particularly computer vision and deep learning. Her book, The Worlds I See, is both a personal memoir and a history of AI. Continue reading
God, Human, Animal, Machine
A chatbot called ChatGPT, released last year by OpenAI, has brought new intensity to the controversy about artificial intelligence. If you haven’t used ChatGPT yet, I encourage you to try it. I’ve included some helpful links at the end of … Continue reading
Twitter and Tear Gas
The brutal murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer on May 25, 2020 sparked widespread protest across the US. In Seattle, where I live, demonstrations centered in an area called Capitol Hill. For nearly a month protesters occupied … Continue reading
Atlas of AI
Whether you know it or not, artificial intelligence has become a pervasive force in our everyday lives. When your favorite online retailer shows you “products related to this item,” or the GPS system in your car guides you along the … Continue reading
Always Day One
Always Day One: How the Tech Titans Plan to Stay on Top Forever by Alex Kantrowitz takes its title from an Amazon corporate motto. “It’s always Day 1” is designed to inspire Amazon employees with a startup mentality; lean, fast, … Continue reading
Dematerialization in The Cloud
Whenever you log on to Facebook or YouTube or your bank or your favorite online game, you’re connecting to computers in some data center somewhere on the planet. All those servers and all those data centers consume a huge amount … Continue reading
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