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Its Favorite Things Another interesting story about a biological bird-like species living in nests that happens to develop a quirk which accidentally gets more and more widely propagated till there only remain birds who have that trait. Like the aliens from the previous chapter’s hypothetical story, there’s a boy-bird and girl-bird discussing what other species…
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You don’t get what you train for The authors start with yet another illustrative hypothetical of 2 aliens observing the early days of our race, and arguing about how humans might evolve, one of them using existing data to predict that humans will evolve extremely slowly, and only in the direction of reproduction and food,…
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Learning to Want The chapter starts with another “parable”, if you will; if a machine is taught to play chess to win every time, does it want to win? Or is it just programmed to do so? Is there a difference? Do humans actually want something they pursue? Or is it their genetics and nurture…
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Grown, Not Crafted This was a very important chapter and concept from my perspective. Again, starts with a brilliant hypothetical situation about a woman wondering if she could beat both her genes and those of her husband and create a baby that’s happy and doesn’t turn out to be a terrible human being, and a…
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No, it’s not a cheap pickup line. Well, it is, in one sense, a pickup line, but I’m certain it’s not cheap. Let me explain. What I’m asking How many millions do you feel you need to accumulate before you consider your future secure, and you can start doing things you actually want to do?…
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Thank you for a thriving earth Thank you for forests and jungles of all kinds teeming with life. Thank you for oceans swimming and diving, joyful and thriving Mammals and fish Microscopic organisms Vertebrates and invertebrates Thank you for reptiles and earthworms Thank you for rich, fragrant, pregnant soil Thank you for birds of the…
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What is random acts of findness? It’s how the Internet and your ADHD feed each other in a loop. You get on the net with some sort of focus, and then follow a link here, and a link there, and you end up on an interesting ride. That is what I’m calling “random acts of…
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I want what I wantwhen I want itIf I don’t get itI throw a fitI’m a child insideI’m looking out from a prison cellinside a prison cellinside a prison cellBut I like it in here’cause outside’s hellor so I tell myself’cause I’m scaredI’m hiding in hereAvoiding the fear
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Humanity’s special power Overview All this time we have considered our intelligence as something that sets us apart from, and superior to, all other species, past and present, that have inhabited the earth. It might be time to move aside. The chapter starts, as most do, with a “parable”: biological life on earth starting as…
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The introduction is aptly sub-titled “Hard calls and easy calls”, a distinction which the authors also painstakingly explain in each chapter. Hundreds of AI scientists signed an open letter in 2023 that stated that “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority”. AI research has yielded jump after jump in the…