George Newbern provides a convincing, conversational narration of this audiobook about robot intelligence. There’s a lot to digest. Much of it deals with speculation as to who will be right: those who believe in AI (artificial intelligence machines that may eventually supplant human workers) or those who believe in IA (intelligence augmentation machines that will work with humans). Along the way, all things robotic are analyzed—from driverless cars (who will be liable for the eventual accidents?) to the emergence of the Singularitarians (futurists like Ray Kurzweil who believe that humans will eventually merge with machines). Though narrator Newbern does a balanced job presenting the arguments and facts, perhaps a human narrator might already be passé. Siri, call your agent! R.W.S. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine
Machines of Loving Grace: The Quest for Common Ground Between Humans and Robots
Narrated by George Newbern
John MarkoffUnabridged — 11 hours, 53 minutes
Machines of Loving Grace: The Quest for Common Ground Between Humans and Robots
Narrated by George Newbern
John MarkoffUnabridged — 11 hours, 53 minutes
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Overview
As robots are increasingly integrated into modern society-on the battlefield and the road, in business, education, and health-Pulitzer-Prize-winning New York Times science writer John Markoff searches for an answer to one of the most important questions of our age: will these machines help us, or will they replace us?
In the past decade alone, Google introduced us to driverless cars, Apple debuted a personal assistant that we keep in our pockets, and an Internet of Things connected the smaller tasks of everyday life to the farthest reaches of the internet. There is little doubt that robots are now an integral part of society, and cheap sensors and powerful computers will ensure that, in the coming years, these robots will soon act on their own. This new era offers the promise of immense computing power, but it also reframes a question first raised more than half a century ago, at the birth of the intelligent machine: Will we control these systems, or will they control us?
In Machines of Loving Grace, New York Times reporter John Markoff, the first reporter to cover the World Wide Web, offers a sweeping history of the complicated and evolving relationship between humans and computers. Over the recent years, the pace of technological change has accelerated dramatically, reintroducing this difficult ethical quandary with newer and far weightier consequences. As Markoff chronicles the history of automation, from the birth of the artificial intelligence and intelligence augmentation communities in the 1950s, to the modern day brain trusts at Google and Apple in Silicon Valley, and on to the expanding tech corridor between Boston and New York, he traces the different ways developers have addressed this fundamental problem and urges them to carefully consider the consequences of their work.
We are on the verge of a technological revolution, Markoff argues, and robots will profoundly transform the way our lives are organized. Developers must now draw a bright line between what is human and what is machine, or risk upsetting the delicate balance between them.
Editorial Reviews
06/08/2015
“Loving grace” may be an alternative to relentless usurpation, according to this conflicted examination of the looming robot takeover. New York Times journalist Markoff (What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer) considers the prospects of mass unemployment and human obsolescence from rapidly accelerating automation of labor, and suggests that we have a choice between the warring engineering strategies of “intelligence augmentation” that empowers the human mind and “artificial intelligence” that replaces it. (It’s the distinction, he contends, between Google’s user-friendly search engine and its user-sidelining driverless cars.) He follows this counterpoint through a detailed, engrossing history of robotics that takes in both the technical challenges—getting machines to identify shapes, navigate landscapes, heft boxes, parse legal documents, and perform surgery—and the design philosophies motivating researchers. Markoff’s lives-of-the-roboticists approach emphasizes “human decisions of engineers and scientists” in crafting automation that we can live with, yet this hopeful perspective can seem muddled and evasive: the advances he describes are clearly intended to marginalize and eliminate human labor, with little thought given to social consequences. This revealing look at profound technological and economic developments will unsettle anyone who has a job to lose. Photos. (Aug.)
This thoughtful analysis by Markoff, a reporter for The New York Times, wades into the ethical and philosophical questions that such technological advances inevitably raise.” — New York Times Paperback Row
“Mr. Markoff focuses on the personalities, since technology depends on the values of its creators. The human element makes the subject accessible. (His chapter on the history of AI is superb.)” — The Economist
“Neither alarmist nor affirmative [MACHINES OF LOVING GRACE] contain[s] urgent, compelling and relevant calls to consciously embed our values in the systems we design, and to critically engage with our choices…. Before welcoming our robotic overlords, read [this] book.” — New Scientist
“John Markoff of The New York Times highlights the compelling contrast between AI and intelligence amplification (IA). He chronicles the fascinating and often antagonistic evolution of these fields since 1956, when both terms were coined.” — Nature
“Markoff did his homework and capably tackles interesting things.” — San Francisco Chronicle
“[F]ascinating, informative, thought-provoking…” — San Jose Mercury News
“A detailed, engrossing history of robotics…This revealing look at profound technological and economic developments will unsettle anyone who has a job to lose.” — Publishers Weekly
“Readers who like their history with a little personality will enjoy this detailed exploration of the development of computers and robotics as assistive or control technologies and the people who make it happen.” — Library Journal
“Will robots of the future be our partners or our Frankenstein’s monster? You should read this book. As Markoff explains in this engrossing narrative filled with colorful characters and head-snapping insights, the answer is up to us.” — Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs and The Innovators
“How should we balance what machines can do for us, and what they can help us do ourselves? Markoff hits on one of the central questions in technology today. A fascinating read.” — Tony Fadell, CEO of Nest
“Machines of Loving Grace is the first comprehensive study to place [robots] in the context of the cloud-based intelligence that throws a game-changer at the question: ‘But what will they do for brains?’” — George Dyson, author of Turing's Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe
“I devoured this book like an espionage thriller because the fate of humanity is on the line, and Markoff’s narrative is so engaging.” — Oren Etzioni, CEO of The Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence
“John Markoff has been seeing around the corners of the technology revolution throughout his career. Now he uses his full range of vision and experience to examine whether humans can make peace with the coming wave of smart machines. His view is intelligent, illuminating and, yes, optimistic.” — John Hollar, president and CEO of the Computer History Museum
[F]ascinating, informative, thought-provoking…
Will robots of the future be our partners or our Frankenstein’s monster? You should read this book. As Markoff explains in this engrossing narrative filled with colorful characters and head-snapping insights, the answer is up to us.
Neither alarmist nor affirmative [MACHINES OF LOVING GRACE] contain[s] urgent, compelling and relevant calls to consciously embed our values in the systems we design, and to critically engage with our choices…. Before welcoming our robotic overlords, read [this] book.
This thoughtful analysis by Markoff, a reporter for The New York Times, wades into the ethical and philosophical questions that such technological advances inevitably raise.
John Markoff of The New York Times highlights the compelling contrast between AI and intelligence amplification (IA). He chronicles the fascinating and often antagonistic evolution of these fields since 1956, when both terms were coined.
Markoff did his homework and capably tackles interesting things.
How should we balance what machines can do for us, and what they can help us do ourselves? Markoff hits on one of the central questions in technology today. A fascinating read.
Mr. Markoff focuses on the personalities, since technology depends on the values of its creators. The human element makes the subject accessible. (His chapter on the history of AI is superb.)
Machines of Loving Grace is the first comprehensive study to place [robots] in the context of the cloud-based intelligence that throws a game-changer at the question: ‘But what will they do for brains?’
I devoured this book like an espionage thriller because the fate of humanity is on the line, and Markoff’s narrative is so engaging.
John Markoff has been seeing around the corners of the technology revolution throughout his career. Now he uses his full range of vision and experience to examine whether humans can make peace with the coming wave of smart machines. His view is intelligent, illuminating and, yes, optimistic.
John Markoff of The New York Times highlights the compelling contrast between AI and intelligence amplification (IA). He chronicles the fascinating and often antagonistic evolution of these fields since 1956, when both terms were coined.
Markoff did his homework and capably tackles interesting things.
Neither alarmist nor affirmative [MACHINES OF LOVING GRACE] contain[s] urgent, compelling and relevant calls to consciously embed our values in the systems we design, and to critically engage with our choices…. Before welcoming our robotic overlords, read [this] book.
02/01/2015
Technology and business reporter at the New York Times since 1988 and part of the team that won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting, Markoff tackles a worrisome question: Will robots make life better or just replace us? In response, he tracks back to two Pentagon-financed laboratories established in computing's early days, then forward to meet scientists, entrepreneurs, ethicists, hackers, and others and discuss today's scary new realities and the choices they involve.
George Newbern provides a convincing, conversational narration of this audiobook about robot intelligence. There’s a lot to digest. Much of it deals with speculation as to who will be right: those who believe in AI (artificial intelligence machines that may eventually supplant human workers) or those who believe in IA (intelligence augmentation machines that will work with humans). Along the way, all things robotic are analyzed—from driverless cars (who will be liable for the eventual accidents?) to the emergence of the Singularitarians (futurists like Ray Kurzweil who believe that humans will eventually merge with machines). Though narrator Newbern does a balanced job presenting the arguments and facts, perhaps a human narrator might already be passé. Siri, call your agent! R.W.S. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine
2015-06-03
An examination of philosophies undergirding the impending future of driverless cars and mobile robots. Longtime New York Times technology and business reporter Markoff (What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer, 2005, etc.) focuses on technology's unexpected social impacts, discussing long-running divisions between artificial intelligence and "Intelligence Augmentation," as represented by innovations like Apple's Siri. Even now, "the separate disciplines of artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction rarely speak to one another." Beginning in the 1950s, this competitiveness incubated at MIT and Stanford. Early on, theoretical proponents of AI were marginalized, both by the perception of computers as massive business-oriented mainframes and by the practical successes of NASA, which "established a view of human-machine interaction that elevates human decision-making beyond the fallible machines of our mythology." Yet Markoff argues that several AI "bubbles" kept the obscure specialty alive, through the personal computer explosion of the 1980s and the dot-com developments of the '90s, so that it was primed for a comeback in the smartphone era, as evidenced by the ubiquity of Siri and Google, as well as sudden advancements in robotics. The author's overall argument is clear: that a synthesis is underway between future AI developments and the ubiquity of such technologies now. The author asserts that "programs like Siri…are beginning to make human-machine interactions in natural language seem routine." Markoff acknowledges but doesn't fully explore the likelihood of profound job losses, noting that as companies like Amazon encounter labor issues, "lights-out [robotic] warehouses are clearly on the horizon." The author illustrates his broader argument with real-world examples, ranging from Microsoft's failed interface device "Clippy" to Google's interest in both autonomous vehicles and robotics. Markoff offers a well-researched and controlled narrative, but his approach is jargon-heavy and too biographically focused on individual innovators in AI and computing, an approach used to better effect in What the Dormouse Said. Despite flaws, this should appeal as an earnest attempt to parse the future impact of these radical advances.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940170095520 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | HarperCollins Publishers |
| Publication date: | 08/25/2015 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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