COM004000 Archives - Duckworth Books

How to Create a Mind

From the world’s preeminent AI futurist: a fascinating account of how mapping the human mind leads to ever more intelligent machines

Ray Kurzweil, described by Bill Gates as ‘the best person I know at predicting the future of artificial intelligence’, offers a provocative exploration of the most important project in human-machine civilisation: reverse-engineering the brain to understand precisely how it works and using that knowledge to create even more intelligent machines.

Kurzweil sets out how the brain functions, how the mind emerges from the brain, and the implications of vastly increased and evolving intelligence in addressing the world’s problems. He thoughtfully examines emotional and moral intelligence and the origins of consciousness and envisions the radical – arguably inevitable – future of our merging with the intelligent technology we are creating, aka ‘the singularity’.

The Singularity Is Near

In his now-classic and hugely influential exploration of the evolving union of human and machine, world-renowned inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil foresees the dawning of a new civilisation where humans will transcend our biological limitations and amplify our creativity by combining our aptitudes with the vastly greater capacity, speed and knowledge-sharing abilities of Artificial Intelligence. This melding of human and machine is what he terms ‘the singularity’.

On the eve of publication of his latest book, The Singularity is Nearer, this new edition of the first instalment of his groundbreaking vision offers a fascinating and thought-provoking perspective on decades of innovation – and what still lies ahead.

Standard Deviations

Did you know that chicken eggs can influence how computers generate random events? Or that humans can postpone death until after important ceremonial occasions? Or live three to five years longer if they have positive initials, like ACE?

All these ‘facts’ have been presented with a straight face by researchers and backed up with convincing statistics. In Standard Deviations, economics professor Gary Smith walks us through the various tricks and traps we so often fall into. Today, data is so plentiful and our reliance on computer analysis and AI so entrenched that researchers spend precious little time distinguishing between good, meaningful deductions and rubbish. Not only do others use data to fool us, we fool ourselves.

Drawing on breakthrough research in behavioural economics by luminaries like Daniel Kahneman and Dan Ariely, and taking to task some of the conclusions of Freakonomics, Standard Deviations demystifies the science behind the statistics.

Youniverse

Your guide to science, from the Big Bang to AI

Whether you wish to discover the basics of science or catch up on its latest developments, this short accessible guide is for you.

YOUNIVERSE describes in simple terms the world you are inseparably a part of: what it is, how it works and your place in it – insofar as these things are known. The text has been vetted by 13 distinguished scientists.

Journey now through time and space, a world of the unimaginably big and the inconceivably small – though the marvels of science.

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