Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies

The book is not for beginners on the topic, but easily serves as a comprehensive introduction to AI and Superintelligence, paradoxically. Expect incredibly precise language, but intuitive explanations and concepts that will absolutely expand your mind. In the journey of reading this book, you will develop insights about our future that you probably never thought were possible. You will likely concern yourself about safety, and how seriously important it is that we consider what’s at stake with AI.Bostrom is an impossibly powerful mind, and this book is akin to a bible as far as the topic goes. I strongly encourage anyone interested in being more informed about AI to read it. He really does touch on every single relevant dynamic from what could go right, economics, potential outcomes, various potential solutions, applications in health, war, etc, and so on. There is no stone left unturned and so you undeniably will be well versed on the conceptual aspects of the topic after finishing the book.

I picked this book up because I have a kid at CalTech majoring in AI programming, machine learning. He seems to see only upside, no real concerns about 99% of the population being put put of work, and what I believe is inadequate apprehension about what could go wrong. Mom is a huge fan of Stephen Hawking and he was more than a bit apprehensive about the potential problems with self-learning machines. Most of the books and articles I have read on the topic are cursory or naieve. Nick Bostrom's book is fairly comprehensive and in depth. I am enjoying it as much as an excellent read in philosophy of science., as I am for his expanding the boundaries of the conversation, indeed, broaching it in many areas. I honestly do not know whether he says everything which needs to be said, but he has clearly thought it through and done a good deal of exploring, consulting, conversing ,collaborating. It is far and away the best book I have read on the topic {though there are some good pieces in MIT Technology Review as well).This is a book which is important and timely. We must seriously consider and weigh the potential for harm as well as good before creating a monster. While there may be areas which he has missed, I feel that when I read about a brute force approach to building human level AI by recreating a brain at the quantum level using Schrodinger's equation, the man is clearly pushing the boundaries. If nothing else it is a very good start to an important conversation.I picked this up because I was considering sending a copy to my son, but read it first because he is a busy guy and chooses his side reading carefully. There are books and articles I might mention or even recommend, and others I tell him not to waste his time on, this is one I will be sending him {though I would be very very surprised if someone at Cal Tech did not broach ...all of what is contained here). I will let him determine if it is redundant. It is well written and thorough, and also very approachable. He says in the prologue that overly technical sections may be skipped without sacrificing any meaning. I have not encountered one I needed to skip, and have, in fact, very much enjoyed the level of discourse.Read it if you are in the field to make sure you are covering all the bases. Read it if you are a scientist, philosopher, engineer to enjoy some very good writing. Read it if you are just encountering AI and want to quickly get to speed on the issues. It is not only a book I would recommend, but have, to anyone who would listen ;)

This book is heavily philosophical. While the hardcover is only 260 pages, it is very dense and can become a slow read if you are trying to fully understand each of the steps that the author takes you through to understand all of what the development of "superintelligence" will really entails. I am a layperson in both philosophy as well as computer science. The book took me about a week to read, but I had to skip over some parts (mostly near the end) where there was a vast departure from what I expected the book to be about. This isn't a criticism of course; it's just a good opportunity to try explaining what you get when sitting down to read this incredible work.With this book, the author seeks to discuss just what the subtitle says: paths, dangers and strategies of humans creating a object that is superintelligent. It is not a technical discussion of what is currently happening in this area (for example, there are few mentions of current efforts like IBM's "Watson" or the robots being built by Boston Dynamics). This is a book whose purpose is to walk through (in a very abstract sense) the types, paths, dangers and scenarios related to mankind developing a superintelligence (one with a human-like general intelligence taken to an incredible, unimaginable degree). It is technical only in points such as the ethics of choosing how to program values into a superintelligence system. This isn't sci-fi, so please don't pick this one up thinking its a good companion to your Matrix trilogy collection.Still, I think that this book is exceptional for its philosophical treatment of this issue. It's incredibly thorough and probably encompasses all the issues and concerns that mankind should wrestle with before lunging headfirst toward its first truly human-like AI. The issue of course is that in philosophizing about how the AI expansion may end up, all of this could happen or none of it could. As soon as you read the parts where the author talks about the development of an intelligence that exceeds our own, you realize the disadvantage we have in even guessing how things might evolve and what we could do to control it. Hopefully a lot of the right people read this (soon enough) so that these dangers are hopefully averted. This book is for the Elon Musks of this world, people with the capacity to both make real progress toward AI and understand the issues involved. For the rest of us, this is a lot of high philosophy that deserves attention but will probably be ignored for its low entertainment value.

Libro interessante e che si legge volentieri

It is one of my favorite, I think it is must-read book for everyone in 21st century

Nick bostrom is indeed one of the greatest thinkers of our time. Mere words won't suffice the immortality and greatness of this book. You can get detailed review on goodreads, as about the product, the page quality is brilliant. Received the product in a very good condition

Es tal como quería, es de tapa blanda y muy cómodo de llevar.

5 estrellas porque a mí me encanta el tema, de hecho soy estudiante de filosofía y lo estoy usando para tres ensayos con temas tratados en el mismo libro. A pesar de que hay partes en las que es necesario un lenguaje técnico y una que otra fórmula matemática está escrito de forma muy amigable al lector común.