Hm, I’ve had this … borrowed … for a while, and none of the entries seemed to be that interesting, or offer me something that will help me better understand AI or consciousness. And this review/summary confirms that I probably shouldn’t place it high on my priority list—except for the story about the monkey communication (7). That sounds interesting, if a bit sad.
Also, on number 11, did you mean to read all of GEB? Because if so, I’m going to have to reiterate my objection: it’s entertaining, but not good rationalist reading, at least not per unit length. You won’t learn about the issues of what is evidence, what is knowledge, how do you know when you understand something, etc. And even when it does get to the part about counterfactuals, it doesn’t have anywhere near the insight that you can get from even a summary of Pearl’s work.
But if you just meant to read “Prelude, Ant Fugue”, I’d have to agree; it’s an important lesson about how you can look at a collection of organisms on different levels, and thus see the human body as a big colony, with human cells more analogous to ants than to ant cells.
Anyway, the length of your review/summary makes me feel reassured about my planned review and summary of Gary Drescher’s Good and Real, which looks like it’s going to be pretty long, but definitely not as long as reading the book!
Hm, I’ve had this … borrowed … for a while, and none of the entries seemed to be that interesting, or offer me something that will help me better understand AI or consciousness. And this review/summary confirms that I probably shouldn’t place it high on my priority list—except for the story about the monkey communication (7). That sounds interesting, if a bit sad.
Also, on number 11, did you mean to read all of GEB? Because if so, I’m going to have to reiterate my objection: it’s entertaining, but not good rationalist reading, at least not per unit length. You won’t learn about the issues of what is evidence, what is knowledge, how do you know when you understand something, etc. And even when it does get to the part about counterfactuals, it doesn’t have anywhere near the insight that you can get from even a summary of Pearl’s work.
But if you just meant to read “Prelude, Ant Fugue”, I’d have to agree; it’s an important lesson about how you can look at a collection of organisms on different levels, and thus see the human body as a big colony, with human cells more analogous to ants than to ant cells.
Anyway, the length of your review/summary makes me feel reassured about my planned review and summary of Gary Drescher’s Good and Real, which looks like it’s going to be pretty long, but definitely not as long as reading the book!