In Our Own Image
Savior or Destroyer? The History and Future of Artificial Intelligence
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Narrated by:
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Gildart Jackson
About this listen
A timely and important book that explores the societal and ethical implications of artificial intelligence as we approach the cusp of a fourth industrial revolution.
George Zarkadakis explores one of humankind's oldest love-hate relationships: our ties with artificial intelligence, or AI. He traces AI's origins in ancient myth, through literary classics like Frankenstein to today's science fiction blockbusters, arguing that a fascination with AI is hardwired into the human psyche. He explains AI's history, technology, and potential; its manifestations in intelligent machines; its connections to neurology and consciousness; and - perhaps most tellingly - what AI reveals about us as human beings.
In Our Own Image argues that we are on the brink of a fourth industrial revolution - poised to enter the age of artificial intelligence as science fiction becomes science fact. Ultimately, Zarkadakis observes, the fate of AI has profound implications for the future of science and humanity itself.
©2015 George Zarkadakis (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Entangled Minds
- Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality
- By: Dean Radin PhD
- Narrated by: Al Kessel
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Is everything connected? Can we sense what's happening to loved ones thousands of miles away? Why are we sometimes certain of a caller's identity the instant the phone rings? Do intuitive hunches contain information about future events? Is it possible to perceive without the use of the ordinary senses? Many people believe that such "psychic phenomena" are rare talents or divine gifts. Others don't believe they exist at all. But the latest scientific research shows that these phenomena are both real and widespread.
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Boring as all get out but…
- By rebekah higgins on 01-12-20
By: Dean Radin PhD
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Freedom Evolves
- By: Daniel C. Dennett
- Narrated by: Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Can there be freedom and free will in a deterministic world? Renowned philosopher Daniel Dennett emphatically answers "yes!" Using an array of provocative formulations, Dennett sets out to show how we alone among the animals have evolved minds that give us free will and morality. Weaving a richly detailed narrative, Dennett explains in a series of strikingly original arguments - drawing upon evolutionary biology, cognitive neuroscience, economics, and philosophy - that far from being an enemy of traditional explorations of freedom, morality, and meaning, the evolutionary perspective can be an indispensable ally.
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I knew I was going to like this book
- By Gary on 05-30-14
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The Ascent of Humanity
- Civilization and the Human Sense of Self
- By: Charles Eisenstein
- Narrated by: Steve Wojtas
- Length: 27 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Charles Eisenstein explores the history and potential future of civilization, tracing the converging crises of our age to the illusion of the separate self. He argues that our disconnection from one another and the natural world has mislaid the foundations of science, religion, money, technology, economics, medicine, and education as we know them. It has fired our near-pathological pursuit of technological Utopias even as we push ourselves and our planet to the brink of collapse.
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I love this author!
- By Tamara Smith on 12-03-17
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The Landscape of History
- How Historians Map the Past
- By: John Lewis Gaddis
- Narrated by: Jack Chekijian
- Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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What is history, and why should we study it? Is there such a thing as historical truth? Is history a science? One of the most accomplished historians at work today, John Lewis Gaddis, answers these and other questions in this short, witty, and humane book. The Landscape of History provides a searching look at the historian's craft as well as a strong argument for why a historical consciousness should matter to us today.
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Excellent Book!
- By Billy on 09-15-18
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Undeniable
- How Biology Confirms Our Intuition That Life Is Designed
- By: Douglas Axe
- Narrated by: Neil Hellegers
- Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Throughout his distinguished and unconventional career, engineer-turned-molecular-biologist Douglas Axe has been asking the questions that much of the scientific community would rather silence. Now, he presents his conclusions in this brave and pioneering book. Axe argues that the key to understanding our origin is the "design intuition" - the innate belief held by all humans that tasks we would need knowledge to accomplish can be accomplished only by someone who has that knowledge.
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Seductively Challenge what are consider facts
- By Rafael Vila on 10-08-16
By: Douglas Axe
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Thinking Machines
- The Quest for Artificial Intelligence - and Where It's Taking Us Next
- By: Luke Dormehl
- Narrated by: Gus Brown
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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When most of us think about artificial intelligence, our minds go straight to cyborgs, robots, and sci-fi thrillers where machines take over the world. But the truth is that artificial intelligence is already among us. It exists in our smartphones, fitness trackers, and refrigerators that tell us when the milk will expire. In some ways the future people dreamed of at the World's Fair in the 1960s is already here. We're teaching our machines how to think like humans, and they're learning at an incredible rate.
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Mostly platitudes with no depth
- By Gary on 03-24-17
By: Luke Dormehl
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Science and the Akashic Field
- An Integral Theory of Everything
- By: Ervin Laszlo
- Narrated by: Tom Pile
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Mystics and sages have long maintained that there exists an interconnecting cosmic field at the roots of reality that conserves and conveys information, a field known as the Akashic record. Recent discoveries in vacuum physics show that this Akashic field is real and has its equivalent in science's zero-point field that underlies space itself. This field consists of a subtle sea of fluctuating energies from which all things arise: atoms and galaxies, stars and planets, living beings, and even consciousness.
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A must-read about ultimate nature of reality
- By Alexandra Hopkins on 04-15-18
By: Ervin Laszlo
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Why Darwin Matters
- The Case for Evolution and Against Intelligent Design
- By: Michael Shermer
- Narrated by: uncredited
- Length: 4 hrs and 22 mins
- Abridged
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Columnist and publisher Michael Shermer, once an evangelical Christian and a creationist, argues that Intelligent Design proponents invoke a combination of ad science, political antipathy, and flawed theology in their new brand of creationism. He refutes their pseudoscientific arguments and then demonstrates why conservatives and people of faith can and should embrace evolution. Why Darwin Matters is an incisive examination of what is at stake in the debate over evolution.
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TOTAL MISREPRENTATION: WHERE IS THE EVIDENCE?
- By Theo Tsourdalakis on 09-04-11
By: Michael Shermer
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The Master Algorithm
- How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World
- By: Pedro Domingos
- Narrated by: Mel Foster
- Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Under the aegis of machine learning in our data-driven machine age, computers are programming themselves and learning about - and solving - an extraordinary range of problems, from the mundane to the most daunting. Today it is machine learning programs that enable Amazon and Netflix to predict what users will like, Apple to power Siri's ability to understand voices, and Google to pilot cars.
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Great book, irritating narration
- By N. G. PEPIN on 09-24-15
By: Pedro Domingos
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Autopilot
- The Art & Science of Doing Nothing
- By: Andrew Smart
- Narrated by: Kevin Free
- Length: 3 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Andrew Smart wants you to sit and do nothing much more often - and he has the science to explain why. At every turn we’re pushed to do more, faster, and more efficiently: That drumbeat resounds throughout our wage-slave society. Multitasking is not only a virtue, it’s a necessity. But Andrew Smart argues that slackers may have the last laugh. The latest neuroscience shows that the “culture of effectiveness” is not only ineffective, it can be harmful to your well-being.
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Not worth it.
- By B Lee on 04-30-14
By: Andrew Smart
What listeners say about In Our Own Image
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Michelle C
- 02-18-21
Wow.
Incredibly thorough examination of the progression of AI and its implications for our society. Highly recommend.
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- Amazon Customer
- 02-05-21
Not exactly what I expected, but brilliant nonetheless
I'd definitely recommend this to anyone even remotely interested in AI and computer science. The book’s subtitle “savior or destroyer...” might come across as overly dramatic, but as you get into it, you’ll find that this book is far removed from speculation and “Yang-gang” alarmism. Instead Zarkardakis takes a lot of time examining human and computer intelligence through the lens of literature and philosophy. As the book tries to weave together Neuroscience, Formal Logic, and fiction (from Frankenstein to the Terminator series) it might seem a bit unorganized, so if you’re looking for a super-focused, technical introduction, this book might not be for you. But for everyone else, you’ll find it to be an thought-provoking, interdisciplinary look at our future’s most pressing dillema.
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- Bryce
- 03-13-17
Everything is What WE make it
As a science lover, deeply interested in the human condition, this book was perfect for me. Zarkadakis has a psychologists knack for analyzing the human thought process, coupled with a computer scientist's gift for logic. This book convinced me that artificial intelligence is both inevitable because of human's endless desire to create, and impossible because of our human inability to recognize anything as our equal. It does an excellent job of providing answers to questions you may have while still leaving you with infinitely more to ponder. Definitely worth a listen.
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1 person found this helpful
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- wbiro
- 04-23-18
Covers a Lot of Ground
Good coverage of history and science and technology, but you can throw-out all the philosophizing and prophesying - they reflect the philosophical vapidity and tunnel-vision of the author's generation...
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- Cedrick
- 05-13-19
If you don't care now, you will in ten years...
Admittedly, this book was background sound as I was handling tasks. I could've been more engaged but there were a of great ideas and concepts about how AI is forcing this world to evolve. It's not going to be as comfortable as we think it is... prepare yourself.
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- Matthew Duncan
- 02-20-22
Spot on ... pre-GPT3
A superb evaluation of humanities progress in intelligence and philosophy, and how it drives and defines our quest for human level AI.
Unfortunately, out of nowhere, he claims conscious AI is far off, or impossible. We in 2022 beg to differ.
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- Laura Gibbs
- 12-31-16
Wide-ranging analysis, all of it fascinating
Any additional comments?
This is the best book I have read on human consciousness. I really appreciated the blend of cultural background with the reporting on scientific research. Especially if you think the Turing Test is all there is to determining artificial intelligence, think again! I learned a lot from this book and enjoyed every bit of it.
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4 people found this helpful
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- PoeticLicensedk
- 05-15-16
As important as Age of Spiritual Machines.
Worth re-reading several times. Zarkadakis makes fundamental questions about AI accessible. Will buy in print.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Lucio Vazquez
- 09-22-22
A book about the evolution of Automatons
A fascinating book about the evolution of "Thinking Machines, from Ancient to Modern." I listened to this book twice, because I was bombarded with a wealth of information about automatons and the mythical, theological, historical, and literary origins of the concepts and presence of the pre-cursor to Artificial Intelligent. Zarkadakis carefully presents an argument for hardware to house artificial Intelligence, which we now know as the computer but originally were metal bodies to house supernatural intellect to give them life. He references many tales of ancient machines that were animate and could move and talk, which were used to impress Royalty and guard cities. This leads to the original computer, which makes references are made to the Babbage Calculating Machine. Finally, the ENIAC computer and COLLOSUS are referenced, the computer that broke the German cyphering code by replicating the psuedo-random patterns of the German Machine that would encrypt the messages. Finally, the advent of Artificial Intelligence programming is presented, with the challenges and breakthroughs of creating an artificial intelligence that was truly intelligent, and doesn't just feign intelligence. The book ends with a discussion of what true intelligence is. It's a well research, philosophically deep book which leaves the reader with a solid foundation in which to pursue any future endeavors or research into the nature of artificial intelligence. The narrator's voice is deep, audibly pleasing, and doesn't drone or leave you exhausted. It's a pleasant audio book to listen to while you do intensive work, and helps you concentrate on other studies as well. It's a fantastic addition to your library and personal knowledge base.
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- bob
- 03-26-17
simply the most intelligent book on this subject .
could not stop listening....it is better than any college course you could find on the subject.
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3 people found this helpful