This book is an anthology of writings by 25 different authors about artificial intelligence, its future, and its impact on society. The editor prefaced the work by asking each of the authors to read a book by the cyberneticist Norbert Weiner, The Human Use of Human Beings. I haven't read that book yet, although it's been on my list for a while. Some time ago I read Weiner's more famous book Cybernetics, although I must admit I largely failed to understand some of the more technical topics.
This book intrigued me because it involved the views of so many members of disparate fields. Represented are artificial intelligence, computer science, academic and professional art, philosophy, neuroscience, psychology, and a few writers who don't really fit neatly into any of the categories. Each of the authors was invited to write submissions of a few pages, and each discussed their thoughts on AI from the viewpoint they have acquired based on their academic research or position in industry, their education, and their general philosophical outlook on AI.
Ultimately, I think the sections written by AI researchers and other scientists were the most informative and interesting to me personally, but the sections by members of other fields were highly informative nonetheless. Two sections written by art academics were really intriguing, and taught me about the position of artists at the frontlines of our society's efforts to cope with novel technologies, something I hadn't considered before.
As with anyone who might read the book, certain sections resonated particularly strongly with me. I think the best overall section was the section by George M. Church, a geneticist. Church's view avoided both the pessimistic doomsday predictions of some authors, as well as the undue exuberance of others, while staying focused on meaningful impacts of AI, including impacts to law, morality and humanity's conception of ourselves. These issues I take to be the primary issues with AI, and they were exactly the issues that Church highlighted, with great attention to the sweep of history with regard to similar issues, such as cloning.
Other fantastic sections were the sections by Stephen Wolfram, W. Daniel Hillis, Hans Ulrich Obrist, and Judea Pearl. Overall, I found the most interesting topics to be issues not of what AI could do to us (the nightmarish scenario dreamed up in movies) but rather what we can do to each other using AI, and how AI can change our perceptions of ourselves. As AI becomes more and more able to replicate the abilities and characteristics of humans, will we lose our sense of exceptionalism? I personally am of the opinion that humans are particularly complex state machines, able to transform highly complicated input into highly complicated and almost idiosyncratic output. However, this is not the view that a majority of the populace holds, and when AI holds up a mirror for us, will people be able to reconcile our privileged view of ourselves?
This book is fantastic reading for anyone interested in AI or the influence of technology on society, and risks posed by new technologies allowed to be tested on the masses, unfettered. Additionally, the authors reference a number of other books, some of which made for really good suggestions. After reading this book I've added to my list Minsky's Perceptrons, Ray Kurzweil, Stephen Toulmin's Foresight and Understanding, Olaf Stapledon's Odd John, Koestler's The Sleepwalkers, and McLuhan's Understanding Media.