Book Reviews
Review of The Upswing – Can We Bridge Again?
Though Robert Putnam has served since 1979 as dean and then distinguished professor of political science at the Kennedy School at Harvard, most Americans—including me—only became aware of his keen analytical descriptions of U.S society in 2000, when he published...
Review of “What to Expect When You’re Expecting Robots”
When my oldest daughter was born prematurely, her life depended for a mercifully short but crucial time on a ventilator. Her lungs needed the help of automation if they ever were to have a chance to breathe on their own. It is a memory that has stayed with me...
Review of Kate Crawford’s Atlas of AI
Among both those who are giddiest and those who are most terrified about technological change, there’s this phrase that gets thrown around a lot: technological singularity. The singularity, they say, is a point in the future—perhaps the near future?—when global...
Book Review: Genius Makers, An Accessible Account of How We Got Deep Learning
Genius Makers: The Mavericks Who Brought AI to Google, Facebook, and the World, by New York Times Technology Reporter Cade Metz is a highly entertaining and enjoyable account of the long back story behind the rise of modern deep learning approaches (neural networks)...
Masters or Slaves? – Book Review
Masters or Slaves? AI and The Future of Humanity asks a fundamental question in a crucial moment of human civilization. How will AI impact, and finally shape, humanity's future and, mainly, the humanity of the future? The author's background and experience in both...
Review: 2084: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity by John C Lennox (2020)
John Lennox is an emeritus professor of mathematics at Oxford University, and often ventures into the intersection of faith and technology. In this book Lennox offers an overview of AI in order to establish a framework for discussion, then ventures into the promises...