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Strategy, Evolution, and War
- From Apes to Artificial Intelligence
- Narrated by: Eric Burgher
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
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Strategy, Evolution, and War
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Publisher's summary
Decisions about war have always been made by humans, but now, intelligent machines are on the cusp of changing things, with dramatic consequences for international affairs. This book explores the evolutionary origins of human strategy and makes a provocative argument that artificial intelligence will radically transform the nature of war by changing the psychological basis of decision-making about violence.
Strategy, Evolution, and War is a cautionary preview of how artificial intelligence (AI) will revolutionize strategy more than any development in the last 3,000 years of military history. Kenneth Payne describes strategy as an evolved package of conscious and unconscious behaviors with roots in our primate ancestry. Our minds were shaped by the need to think about warfare, a constant threat for early humans. As a result, we developed a sophisticated and strategic intelligence.
Rather than being just another tool of war, AI will dramatically speed up decision-making and use very different cognitive processes, including when deciding to launch an attack or escalate violence. AI will change the essence of strategy, the organization of armed forces, and the international order.
This book is a fascinating examination of the psychology of strategy from prehistoric times, the ancient world, and into the modern age.
The book is published by Georgetown University Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.
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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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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 135
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 113
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 112
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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5 out of 5 stars
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I knew I was going to like this book
- By Gary on 05-30-14
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Big Gods
- How Religion Transformed Cooperation and Conflict
- By: Ara Norenzayan
- Narrated by: Paul Nixon
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 61
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 49
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 49
How did human societies scale up from small, tight-knit groups of hunter-gatherers to the large, anonymous, cooperative societies of today - even though anonymity is the enemy of cooperation? How did organized religions with "Big Gods" - the great monotheistic and polytheistic faiths - spread to colonize most minds in the world? In Big Gods, Ara Norenzayan makes the surprising and provocative argument that these fundamental puzzles about the origins of civilization are one and the same, and answer each other.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great read
- By paro on 02-27-24
By: Ara Norenzayan
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Primates and Philosophers
- How Morality Evolved
- By: Frans de Waal
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 6 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 76
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 53
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Story4 out of 5 stars 53
"It's the animal in us," we often hear when we've been bad. But why not when we're good? Primates and Philosophers tackles this question by exploring the biological foundations of one of humanity's most valued traits: morality.In this provocative book, primatologist Frans de Waal argues that modern-day evolutionary biology takes far too dim a view of the natural world, emphasizing our "selfish" genes.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Having Just Read...
- By Douglas on 12-14-13
By: Frans de Waal
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Losing Military Supremacy
- The Myopia of American Strategic Planning
- By: Andrei Martyanov
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 213
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 190
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Story4 out of 5 stars 190
This book explores the dramatic difference between the Russian and US approach to warfare, which manifests itself across the whole spectrum of activities from art and the economy to the respective national cultures; illustrates the fact that Russian economic, military, and cultural realities and power are no longer what American "elites" think they are by addressing Russia's new and elevated capacities in the areas of traditional warfare, as well as cyberwarfare and space; and studies several ways in-depth in which the US can simply stumble into conflict with Russia and what must be done to avoid it.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Mixes Truth with Propoganda
- By Gavin on 02-08-21
By: Andrei Martyanov
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Army of None
- Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War
- By: Paul Scharre
- Narrated by: Roger Wayne
- Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 533
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 455
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 451
Paul Scharre, a Pentagon defense expert and former U.S. Army Ranger, explores what it would mean to give machines authority over the ultimate decision of life or death. Scharre's far-ranging investigation examines the emergence of autonomous weapons, the movement to ban them, and the legal and ethical issues surrounding their use. Through interviews with defense experts, ethicists, psychologists, and activists, Scharre surveys what challenges might face "centaur warfighters" on future battlefields.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Robots, weapons, and AI oh my!
- By Tyler Quinn on 07-24-18
By: Paul Scharre
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The Kill Chain
- Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare
- By: Christian Brose
- Narrated by: Christian Brose
- Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,610
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,230
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,221
When we think about the future of war, the military and Washington and most everyone gets it backwards. We think in terms of buying single military systems, such as fighter jets or aircraft carriers. And when we think about modernizing those systems, we think about buying better versions of the same things. But what really matters is not the single system but "the battle network"—the collection of sensors and shooters that enables a military to find an enemy system, target it, and attack it.
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3 out of 5 stars
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important message but repetitive
- By Tomas Singliar on 06-06-20
By: Christian Brose
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On Human Nature: Revised Edition
- By: Edward O. Wilson
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 328
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 255
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 253
This revised edition of Human Nature begins a new phase in the most important intellectual controversy of this generation: Is human behavior controlled by the species' biological heritage? Does this heritage limit human destiny?
With characteristic pungency and simplicity of style, the author of Sociobiology challenges old prejudices and current misconceptions about the nature-nurture debate.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Heralding Voice...
- By Douglas on 07-22-14
By: Edward O. Wilson
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Reconsidering the American Way of War
- US Military Practice from the Revolution to Afghanistan
- By: Antulio Joseph Echevarria
- Narrated by: James Killavey
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 89
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 82
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 82
This audiobook challenges several longstanding notions about the American way of war. It examines US military practice (strategic and operational) from the War of Independence to the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan to determine what patterns, if any, existed in the way Americans have used military force. Echevarria surveys all major US wars and most every small conflict in the country's military history.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent overview of complex subject
- By Joe on 11-25-14
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The Last Warrior
- Andrew Marshall and the Shaping of Modern American Defense Strategy
- By: Andrew Krepinevich, Barry Watts
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 215
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 188
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 188
Andrew Marshall is a Pentagon legend. For more than four decades he has served as Director of the Office of Net Assessment, the Pentagon's internal think tank, under 12 defense secretaries and eight administrations. Yet Marshall has been on the cutting edge of strategic thinking even longer than that. Covering some of the most pivotal episodes of the last half century and peopled with some of the era's most influential figures, The Last Warrior tells Marshall's story for the first time, in the process providing an unparalleled history of the evolution of the American defense establishment.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Interesting man
- By FoxMan on 04-28-17
By: Andrew Krepinevich, and others
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The Ego Tunnel
- The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self
- By: Thomas Metzinger
- Narrated by: Kevin Pariseau
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 372
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 271
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 274
We're used to thinking about the self as an independent entity, something that we either have or are. In The Ego Tunnel, philosopher Thomas Metzinger claims otherwise: No such thing as a self exists. The conscious self is the content of a model created by our brain - an internal image, but one we cannot experience as an image. Everything we experience is "a virtual self in a virtual reality." But if the self is not "real," why and how did it evolve? How does the brain construct it?
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5 out of 5 stars
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non-specialist literature at its best
- By Esmeralda on 03-17-10
By: Thomas Metzinger
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Counterinsurgency
- By: David J. Kilcullen
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 130
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 105
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 104
Kilcullen brings together his most salient writings on this vitally important topic. Here is a picture of modern warfare by someone who has had his boots on the ground in some of today's worst trouble spots - including Iraq and Afghanistan - and who has been studying counterinsurgency since 1985. Filled with down-to-earth, common-sense insights, this book is the definitive account of counterinsurgency, indispensable for all those interested in making sense of our world in an age of terror.
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5 out of 5 stars
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CounterInsurgency Insights
- By JenFox on 12-21-21
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The Master and His Emissary
- The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World
- By: Iain McGilchrist
- Narrated by: Dennis Kleinman
- Length: 27 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 574
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 471
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 464
This pioneering account sets out to understand the structure of the human brain - the place where mind meets matter. Until recently, the left hemisphere of our brain has been seen as the "rational" side, the superior partner to the right. But is this distinction true? Drawing on a vast body of experimental research, Iain McGilchrist argues while our left brain makes for a wonderful servant, it is a very poor master.
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4 out of 5 stars
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The Master and His Emissary
- By Michael on 11-07-20
By: Iain McGilchrist
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Propaganda
- The Formation of Men’s Attitudes
- By: Jacques Ellul
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 15 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 43
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 41
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Story5 out of 5 stars 41
From one of the greatest French philosophers of the 20th century comes a seminal study and critique of propaganda. Taking not only a psychological approach but a sociological approach as well, Jacques Ellul outlines the taxonomy for propaganda and, ultimately, its destructive nature towards democracy. Drawing from his own experiences fighting for the French resistance against the Vichy regime, Ellul offers a unique insight into the propaganda machine.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent analysis on the dichotomies of propagandize media
- By Anonymous User on 04-03-21
By: Jacques Ellul