Possible Minds

Twenty-Five Ways of Looking at AI

By: John Brockman - editor

Narrated by: Kathleen McInerney, Will Damron, Jason Culp, Rob Shapiro, Vikas Adam

Science-world luminary John Brockman assembles 25 of the most important scientific minds, people who have been thinking about the field of artificial intelligence for most of their careers, for an unparalleled roundtable examination about mind, thinking, intelligence, and what it means to be human.

"Artificial intelligence is today's story - the story behind all other stories. It is the Second Coming and the Apocalypse at the same time: Good AI versus evil AI." (John Brockman)

More than 60 years ago, mathematician-philosopher Norbert Wiener published a book on the place of machines in society that ended with a warning: "We shall never receive the right answers to our questions unless we ask the right questions.... The hour is very late, and the choice of good and evil knocks at our door." In the wake of advances in unsupervised, self-improving machine learning, a small but influential community of thinkers is considering Wiener's words again. In Possible Minds, John Brockman gathers their disparate visions of where AI might be taking us.

The fruit of the long history of Brockman's profound engagement with the most important scientific minds who have been thinking about AI - from Alison Gopnik and David Deutsch to Frank Wilczek and Stephen Wolfram - Possible Minds is an ideal introduction to the landscape of crucial issues AI presents. The collision between opposing perspectives is salutary and exhilarating; some of these figures, such as computer scientist Stuart Russell, Skype cofounder Jaan Tallinn, and physicist Max Tegmark, are deeply concerned with the threat of AI, including the existential one, while others, notably robotics entrepreneur Rodney Brooks, philosopher Daniel Dennett, and best-selling author Steven Pinker, have a very different view. Serious, searching, and authoritative, Possible Minds lays out the intellectual landscape of one of the most important topics of our time.

Read by Jason Culp, Rob Shapiro, Vikas Adam, Will Damron, and Kathleen McInerney.

©2019 John Brockman (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“Pithy essays on artificial intelligence.... Readers...will not find a better introduction than this book.” (Kirkus)

“While the [Possible Minds] authors disagree on the answers, they agree on the major question: what dangers might AI present to humankind? Within that framework, the essays offer a host of novel ideas.... Enlightening, entertaining, and exciting reading.” (Publishers Weekly)

“A fascinating map of AI’s likely future and an overview of the difficult choices that will shape it.... A sense of respect for the human mind and humility about its limitations runs through the essays in Possible Minds.” (Foreign Affairs)

Timely and multi-faceted

This book revolves around AI and Norbert Weiner's 1950 book 'The Human Use of Human Beings'.
A generous number of experts from different fields, ensure that you (the listener) will get an interesting point of view no matter your background.
You will no doubt finish this book with a lot more nuanced understanding of this topic. This book will allow you to hold your own in conversations about a topic that has definitely become the talk of the town.
The negative point is definitely on the narration: the book has different narrators, but too many of them had monotonous and boring performances.

one of the best science anthologies

This was definitely a must read. All the best AI researchers talking about cybernetics in AI

Phenomenal and important for AI Researchers

One of the most sought after collection of essays and opinions, especially if are a developer of machine learning, artificial intelligence models of AI ethics KOL.

Glimpsing into many possible futures

Many scholars offer their take on the future, reflecting a variety of perspectives and opinions that helps the reader form a realm of possibilities for the upcoming future decades and beyond!

An interesting take on AI

I am a huge advocate for AI, and what it will do for our civilization and world in the future. AI is the only thing that can help humans progress and achieve greatness as a species. This includes all humans equally. I am reading a lot on AI and quantum computing, but realized I needed to read about the negative potentials of it as well. This book took different view points from people and compiled it. It was interesting to listen to, and narration was perfect!

Half of these authors are completely wrong

but the question is: which half?
The book is a little repetitive and a little unfocused.

Mixed bag

This book is made up of 20 odd separate essays . I really enjoyed a number of them as they gave insight in AI. The others were for me very theoretical and had less to do with AI as opposed to theories about how people work and Interact. No doubt this is linked to AI but not in the way the articles that I found useful because they spoke directly to AI.
Having said that, people with other interests will no doubt really enjoy the articles I did not and visa versa.

Fantastic Mosaic of Insights from Great Thinkers

I found the audio book absolutely mesmerizing. This is a philosophy-fact book. If you already have strong opinions on AI this book is a must - the author provides a mosaic of opinions which may or may not align with yours - I am in the process of reading "The Human Use of Human Beings" the 1950 / First Edition by Norbert Wiener which was a prerequisite for all those who shared their opinions within the book.

One of the great books about AI!

After listening to Max Tegmark's book, I thought this one would be interesting too nad I was right. Very very good.

Wonderful insights from ingenious minds

Everything in this work aims to inspire, inform, or educate. There's a perspective shared here for everyone.