Max Tagmark's book Life 3.0 does a good job on one end and a very bad job on the other. The good job which this book does is to give a expansive overview of the concept of Artificial Intelligence, what possibilities its development holds, how it will effect humanity etc.
However, when it comes to defining what life really is, and should we really call artificial intelligence as an upgraded form of life or not, the books fails miserably.
One of the greatest mysteries of life is human consciousness, a sense of self-awareness, and an ability of subjectively experience the moments of life. Without making an effort to define human consciousness, any definition of life is ought to be incomplete.
Yuval Noah Harai in his Homo Deus does a much fairer job in this context. Robert Lanza's book Biocentrism is perhaps the best work on the human consciousness so far.
Tagmark on the other hand in Life 3.0 barely touches the subject of human consciousness. The last chapter on the book offers a meager literature review on the subject, where Tagmark accepts the inability of scientists in general to explain or describe the ultimate source of subjective experience within human mind.
If that's the case, then normative justification for the AI to be the next step in the evolution of life itself, is nothing short of comical. After going through Lanza's Biocentrism, and Harari's Home Deus, Tagmark work on the subject seems mediocre at best.
So if someone is interested in reading about Artificial Intelligence alone, while excluding the normative justifications for AI, then the book will serve the purpose well. However, if you are interested to understand life itself, then please avoid this book.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Use of any abusive or inappropriate language will give us a reason to delete your comment.