Rapture for the geeks

A new book about the singularity, this one by novelist Richard Dooling: Rapture for the Geeks: When AI Outsmarts IQ. From the publisher description:

In this fascinating, entertaining, and illuminating book, Dooling looks at what some of the greatest minds have to say about our role in a future in which technology rapidly leaves us in the dust. As Dooling writes, comparing human evolution to technological evolution is “worse than apples and oranges: It’s appliances versus orangutans.” Is the era of Singularity, when machines outthink humans, almost upon us? Will we be enslaved by our supercomputer overlords, as many a sci-fi writer has wondered? Or will humans live lives of leisure with computers doing all the heavy lifting?

With antic wit, fearless prescience, and common sense, Dooling provocatively examines nothing less than what it means to be human in what he playfully calls the age of b.s. (before Singularity)—and what life will be like when we are no longer alone with Mother Nature at Darwin’s card table. Are computers thinking and feeling if they can mimic human speech and emotions? Does processing capability equal consciousness? What happens to our quaint beliefs about God when we’re all worshipping technology? What if the human compulsion to create ever more capable machines ultimately leads to our own extinction? Will human ingenuity and faith ultimately prevail over our technological obsessions? Dooling hopes so, and his cautionary glimpses into the future are the best medicine to restore our humanity.

Dooling has a website and blog.

Comments

[Eliezer Kurzweil]

I just got this book recently and am on about page 70. I am probably not going to finish it. This book is EXTREMELY disappointing for anyone interested in ideas about coming technology. I definitely made a mistake in buying this book.

The only reason I write this comment is to warn anyone interested in learning something new about technology, artificial intelligence, philosophy, the singularity, or just man's place in the universe as we acquire new technologies.

If you are actually interested in any of the ideas presented in this book you will learn way more by simply reading the Wikipedia entries about them. Don't worry if you think you might be missing out on the humor--this is intellectual vapidity masquerading as humor.

As soon as an issue becomes at all intellectually complex he evades it with a poor attempt of humor.

He begins by talking about truth. Interesting, I thought, I might learn something. Hah! What a fool I was to think that. In the book we see him adopt views about the nature of consciousness because he likes the name of them. OK, maybe chalk that up to irony. As for truth, he checks Wikipedia for the definition(s) of truth and adopts the definition of the philosophical genius Saul Kripke. Why? Because Kripke, like the author, is from Omaha. We never get an explanation of what Kripke's actual definition is--only that it solves the liar paradox, something Dooling finds congenial for reasons he jokes about. Of course, he's not actually interested in an idea other than for the purpose of making a joke. This would be OK!--if it were at all funny. This is like a Dave Barry book about technology that does not realize that it's not actually funny. In fact, I learn from Dave Barry books because he at least has a unique take on things instead of simply recycling ideas over and over again. I did not come across one idea that you couldn't find all over the place.

I was hesitant to buy this book because I wondered if it would say anything new about subjects like AI and the singularity, stuff I am really interested in, although I am by no means an expert. I should have realized.

I wish I could have read this review before I bought the book--it would have saved me some time and money. Read Wikipedia. Even if you are a totally newbie, don't read this. Definitely don't read this crap if you haven't read Ray Kurzweil's books. Read Radical Evolution. Read the blogs Overcoming Bias or Accelerating Future. I swear I'm not a hater, but man, I hate this book. I'm not joking when I say this: I think I now understand what it means to call a writer a hack; Rapture of the Geeks is the work of the hack. From the title on down.

[Kevin Arthur]

Eliezer -- thanks for your review. I just picked up the book from the library so I'll probably post more about the book once I've read it.