Review: Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies

Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies by Nick Bostrom
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hooter: A deep dive into are we really prepared for when Artificial Intelligence does meet the standards our Hollywood counterparts have been showcasing to us in sci-fi genre

Nick takes extremely academic interest in asking numerous probing questions on are we as humankind really prepared for Superintelligence when it implodes/explodes. Reminds me of far reaching questions Asimov had made for robotics , Nick does a similar take with Artificial Intelligence.

What I loved was with each section, a follow up thought that I had was immediately answered in the next section implying Nick logically threaded the book and seemed logical progression for the end reader.

A lot of this is hypothetical because AI is still figuring out cats and dogs but when it does, just like the unfinished fable of the sparrows , will we be ready for it as a race. Also this topic was covered in an episode of Dr. Who when the robots are programmed to ensure there is happiness on the planet, they soon figure the source of unhappiness are humans and if there are no humans, there won't be any unhappiness. How do you program for such outcomes and what is consciousness and morality and how do you program for that or can you even?

The book doesn't have answers but leaves you with a lot of angles to think and ponder over. Finding solutions in these areas would be worthy of a research paper each and a sub domain / industry of their own in the Tech world as there are frontiers to overcome.

If you want to geek up on the problems of the future, this is a good book to get you into that zone of thinking but be prepared to be left with more questions than answers.

View all my reviews

Review: The Confidence Game: The Psychology of the Con and Why We Fall for It Every Time

The Confidence Game: The Psychology of the Con and Why We Fall for It Every Time by Maria Konnikova
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Hooter: An academic look at what traits are common to people who con.

If you ever watched the British TV series "Hustle" and wanted an academic look at that premise, you may like this book. I personally found it too academic for my interest as it reiterated the fact that "yes! we fall for the people who seem the most trustworthy and confident."

Maria deepdives into each scenario / process of conning as it involves building trust and then manipulating you in believing that you are doing everything of your accord and never once does the conner force you to take a decision but leaves you hanging and self doubting till you give in. She breaks it down chapter by chapter but gets confusing after a while with the examples being called back and not too much background on each. As a layman reader, this becomes a challenge to stay connected and hence felt very academic for me as a psychology treatise.

View all my reviews

Review: Gun Island

Gun Island by Amitav Ghosh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hooter: The rare book dealer from New York tries to figure how a folklore in Sunderbans from 17th century is still playing out in the 21st century as he races across the globe.

A mix of folklore and traditions mixed with modern day issues of climate change and migration creates a hodge podge of topics we come across as each character adds their perspective and flavour. Whilst the historical parallels seemed to be the core of the storyline and kept me intrigued as how the fable of bandook saudagar ties back to Italy and opens up a fascinating chapter in history, I felt the modern day topics were forced fitted into the storyline - the LGBTQ angle, climate change, refugee crisis in Europe and a mix of mysticism and outlandish miracles which left me underwhelmed compared to the lovely depiction of the folklore. Manasadevi also is an angle he started with but left it hanging with a brush of spirituality and miracles.

Tipu makes for a very interesting character but we get to see him in sketches whereas Piya is left unexplored and gets more airtime as Deens love interest versus the colourful story she has had in her life. Cinta obviously adds a connect but her storyline seems like a distraction as I felt it didn't really go anywhere except for bring a supernatural angle to the book.

Amitav beautifully captures the vivid imagery draped in culture and tradition across the globe but tries to add those cheap frills to add modern day relevance that's leaves you a little wanting and underwhelmed.

View all my reviews

Review: The Panama Papers: Breaking the Story of How the Rich and Powerful Hide Their Money

The Panama Papers: Breaking the Story of How the Rich and Powerful Hide Their Money by Bastian Obermayer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hooter: A case study on how the rich game the system illegally to keep their money .

One of the largest exposes in history so far, turning wikileaks pale in comparison are the Panama Papers. Authored by the key protagonists of the journalistic expose, this book fcouses on their thoughts as they went through these terabytes of data and tried to make sense of it all. The challenges of working with a global team of ICIJ reporters across the globe , dealing with so much data that they had to get a super computer setup to do simple searches - would be a lovely engineering problem to discuss and solve.

The book also focuses on the various names that cropped up and their backgrounds and connects to people of power across party lines sailing on the same boat. Though after a while you get bored - this creation of passion is an overkill for the regular reader because it gets into a format :

Rich person / Powerful person of Country X creates shell for money earned from Y and gets away scot free by dealing with these Panama based law firm Mossack and Fonseca and Compliance gives a blind eye.

This is a brilliant project that had worldwide implications along with the collaboration, this book tries to capture the breadth of it all and becomes a factual report with sprinkling of the drama that ensued. I am left with a lot more questions after reading the book than answers I had hoped to get.

View all my reviews