Igor R. Efimov

Fantastic book!

Revisado: 10-03-24

I loved this book. It should be required reading in all AI / ML courses. Irrational exuberance about AI will pass, like it has passed about stem cells, nanotechnologies, etc. And like before, we need to keep cool about real possibilities of AI and snake oil of AI.

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A wonderful read about a new field of biology: we are not alone in the universe

Revisado: 09-05-24

Finished the new book "I contain multitudes" by Ed Yong. Excellent account of the current development of a rapidly developing field of biology known as "microbiome". I believe one of the next Nobel prizes will be to this field and specifically to some scientists described in this book.
I remember literally feeling goosebumps, about ten-fifteen years ago, when I listened to Jeffrey Gordon at Washington Univeristy, who was one of the first to discover a new biological universe of microbiome. He showed that our definition of being human has a problem. For every human cell in our body, that is a cell with a human genome, we have about 10 cells in our body, which are not human. These non-human cells are mostly bacteria, fighting with each other and with our cells on occasions, but mostly co-existing in peace to a degree. Until we die. But we cannot digest our food without them, we cannot fight major infections without them. They are part of us.
Ed Yong is not a scientists, and he simplified biology of microbiome to a degree. He also barely mention virome - which is even bigger universe of viruses living in our bodies. But I don't blaim him, very few researchers know more. He presented this field in its amazing glory.
It is an amazing field of biology showing that multicellular organizims are not at all made of cell sharing the same genome. We, animals and plants, co-exist with multitudes of single cell organisms which live with us, fight with us, eat with us and procreate with us. We cannot survive without them, and they cannot live without us. Peace.
A wonderful read!

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Important and engaging book

Revisado: 08-21-24

Important and engaging book by Jonathan Haidt "The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness". Must read!

Many of us, parents and educators, noticed during the last decade that something is different about the new generation or two. Starting from Gen Z, they are completely hooked up on social media and virtual universe via handheld devices, not noticing real life and real people passing by. Unregulated AI-trained algorithms developed by trillion dollar companies conduct 24/7 experiments on children and young adults, studying how to maximize the capture of their attention and their eye balls for many hours every day, and how to sell them to the advertising markets.

This book makes a compelling case that these experiments resulted in growth of a generation with unprecedented level of social immaturity, sleep deprivation, anxiety, depression, self harm, and suicide. And the trend seems to suggest that, if left unchanged, the social media industry will lead the next generation to even more peril. Their "phone childhood" leaves them no chance to develop into a socially mature adult. Being hooked up to the virtual world they do not find friends and do not learn how to communicate in the real world.

There is evidence in the book that the number of hours spent with eyes on the screen of a smartphone per day is proportional to the degree of depression. These is also clear evidence presented that anxiety and depression started to significantly grow after the introduction of smartphone and social media on them.

Parent desperately fight a loosing battle with AI-enabled rewiring of their children into zombies.

Educators are stepping in. Some middle and high schools have already experimented with prohibiting smartphones at school. It clearly improved social skills and academic performance of school children. This book argues that these is a clear need to restrict age of owning a smartphone or having a social media account, to protect vulnerable children and allowing them to develop social skills happening at that age.

Lawmakers seem to be asleep at the wheel, being several generations apart from the generation in trouble.

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An amazing book about senses

Revisado: 08-16-24

An amazing book of Ed Yong “An Immense World”. It surveyed the biology and physics of senses which empower animals to navigate the world, by sensing light, sounds, chemicals, mechanical vibrations, temperature, and even electric and magnetic field. Humans exceed some of the senses of some of the species. But for the most part different species left humans behind their ability to sense beyond the range of human senses. Many animals have much wider range of sound frequencies. Wales can communicate through 10,000 miles using very low frequency of sound, which we cannot sense. Mouse can produce and sense ultrasound way above our limited range. Chemical sensing is much more acute and rich in most mammals compared to humans. Perhaps we are doing better than many, but not all, species in vision. But some species have extra sensors expanding their color vision by orders of magnitude as compared our three receptors. And humans completely or almost completely lack senses of vibration, electric or magnetic fields, which readily senses by insects, birds, or bats.

Humans lack important sensory abilities which makes our world, our technology and our art limited. Perhaps we should think about correcting this biological injustice and develop those missing abilities in the future.

Book is well researched and written masterfully. Audible format gives another treat: the author is a great narrator of his own text.

One place to improve - history of research on this subject should have started from early work on electric fish by Alexander von Humboldt, or even earlier - 1600s and 1700s studies of Dutch, Italian and French researchers. These studies of senses were critical steps towards modern science - biology, physics and chemistry.

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Powerful testimony of endless suffering

Revisado: 05-22-24

I wanted to know more about life of regular people in Palestine not just the Hamas fighters.

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Nice book.

Revisado: 01-24-24

Needs more case studies and stats to make the point it is trying to make

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Good read. But very strange guy

Revisado: 10-09-23

The best part is the last sentence about geniouses who refuse to be potty trained but change the world. The rest is a list of successes and failures by a person who is very hard to be around.

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Excellent story

Revisado: 06-08-23

I like this series - nice story involving several levels of development and struggle of various civilizations. There are some gaps in physics of the described technologies, but one has to be a high energy physicist by training to notice (I am). Biology is not entirely believable, but, again, one must be a biologist to have a knee jerk reaction about it (I am). Despite some imperfections this is a nice read during my long walks along the lake front downtown Chicago.

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This book made me want to stay at Metropol hotel in Moscow.

Revisado: 07-09-17

Metropol hotel is the most venerable hotel in the center of Moscow, across the street from Bolshoi Theater, next door from the Kremlin, Duma, and many other historical and political landmarks of Russia. It is the main character of this book. I visit Moscow few times a year. I lived there many year ago, I have been to Metropol's bar and restaurant, but I never stated as a guest at famous Metropol hotel. This book raised my appetite for the hotel and I booked a room fir my next trip in September 2017.

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One of the best books on creative process

Revisado: 12-31-14

I find this book particularly appealing to me as a scientist. This book showed to me that conceiving an idea of an animated story and implementing it with a team of creative people is a very similar process to that of scientific inquiry into the unknown.

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