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  • Superintelligence

  • Paths, Dangers, Strategies
  • By: Nick Bostrom
  • Narrated by: Napoleon Ryan
  • Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (680 ratings)
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Superintelligence cover art

Superintelligence

By: Nick Bostrom
Narrated by: Napoleon Ryan
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Summary

Superintelligence asks the questions: What happens when machines surpass humans in general intelligence? Will artificial agents save or destroy us? Nick Bostrom lays the foundation for understanding the future of humanity and intelligent life. The human brain has some capabilities that the brains of other animals lack. It is to these distinctive capabilities that our species owes its dominant position. If machine brains surpassed human brains in general intelligence, then this new superintelligence could become extremely powerful - possibly beyond our control. As the fate of the gorillas now depends more on humans than on the species itself, so would the fate of humankind depend on the actions of the machine superintelligence.

But we have one advantage: We get to make the first move. Will it be possible to construct a seed Artificial Intelligence, to engineer initial conditions so as to make an intelligence explosion survivable? How could one achieve a controlled detonation?

This profoundly ambitious and original book breaks down a vast track of difficult intellectual terrain. After an utterly engrossing journey that takes us to the frontiers of thinking about the human condition and the future of intelligent life, we find in Nick Bostrom's work nothing less than a reconceptualization of the essential task of our time.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

©2014 Nick Bostrom (P)2014 Audible Inc.

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What listeners say about Superintelligence

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  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Timely topic, ponderous style and robot narrator

What made the experience of listening to Superintelligence the most enjoyable?

It's a timely topic that is covered in great detail, perhaps stating the obvious a bit too frequently. It is extremely thorough in the approach, delving into a variety of areas that support the central topic of AI and the potential threats it harbours

Who was your favorite character and why?

N/A

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

The narrator is a text to speech synthesiser rather than a real person, and whilst it is better than most, giving a fair degree of intonation, it fails badly at times (eg abbreviations said in a way no human would say) and because the tone is so repetitive any initial advantages in clarity are soon swamped by the monotony.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No, and this is partly the topic, partly the style and partly the synthetic narrator.

Any additional comments?

It's remarkable that no reviews appear to identify that the narrator is synthetic (one person stated that it was spoken like one). It isn't clear from the sample if you are not prepared but it is obvious once you start to listen, as most words at the same point in a sentence have identical sound, lacking the subtle variation that human narrators provide. It is surprisingly clear but in the long run it becomes extremely tedious to listen to. This also brings the question of whether the book is good value, and given that the narrator being synthetic is not made clear to the purchasers I feel that it is not. Others may disagree and it's a matter of taste but you should be aware before you purchase

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70 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Buy the physical book

Who might you have cast as narrator instead of Napoleon Ryan?

Someone directed to do a less hammy and over-dramatic performance of what is a non-fiction book.

Any additional comments?

Had I known the book makes many references to figures in the print version, I wouldn't have downloaded.

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54 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The most/last important book you'll ever read

This is an intelligent, passionate and thoughtful book for a general, educated audience. Its hard at times, but saving humanity usually is hard.

I've followed Bostrom's academic writing for sometime on matters relating to existential risk. He's a cogent antidote to conspiracy theories, taking seriously our own and nature's capacity for human extinction.

This book outlines the likelihoods and timescales of different technologies creating an intelligence orders of magnitude beyond our own; the possible outcomes, good and bad, for humanity; and ways we can manage and mitigate the effects. In essence, it's, message is that sooner or later we will likely create an intelligence vastly beyond our own and without careful planning (say, not encoding this intelligence to optimize what we humans care about - freedom of choice, minimizing pain, beauty etc) we could very likely be superseded, if not destroyed.

It's all speculative, of course, as is any book about the future. But it's foolish not to plan for rainy days. This is one of those books that humbles you; makes your daily battle against confectionary or anxiety over relationships or vanity about your position in society seem petty.

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16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Not suitable for listening as an audiobook

This book may be an interesting read, but I felt it was impossible to follow it as an audiobook. Even if the performance was more exciting, the audio lacks the visual content of the book, which is important for understanding.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Deeply Insightful and very thorough. Bad narration

Where does Superintelligence rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

For anyone interested in AI it is a must-read as it covers many possible scenarios that the reader would have never been able to imagine without consulting this book.
However it's not ideal for beginners. Bostrom introduces the concept of superintelligence assuming that the reader is familiar with artificial intelligence, and quickly moves onto scenarios and existential risk.

How could the performance have been better?

The narrator makes no effort to put emotions into what he says. Every sentence, and every statement sound the same no matter what the topic is about. Listening to it is more akin to a text-to-speech narration than a storyteller.Admittedly, the Swedish syntax of short sentences does not help. Nevertheless, narration could be greatly improved.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Great book with thoughtful considerations

I loved the first few chapters, this gave a great outline of where we are up to with the relevant technologies and what the obstacles are for progression. I would recommend buying the book for this even if it consisted of only the first 4-5 chapters.

My only criticism would be that the author fixated a little on the idea of a superintelligence with a very simple goal system e.g. making as many paperclips as possible. My own view is that in the process of recursive self improvement the AI's goal system would develop in line with the rest of it's intellect and it would end up with more sophisticated, not more simplistic goals than humans. This could of course bring it's own risks and is inherently unpredictable, but doesn't necessarily equate to the default of existential catastrophe asserted in the book.

It is of course expected that there will be different views on this and that my own may be wrong.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

duff narrator, but gothic victorian accent mellows

couldn't make it past first chapter due to gothic horror narrator and broom cupboard sound

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

recommended by Elon Musk

This is a no holds bar book on a subject which if given the appropriate explanation on parts which the book expects you to understand would be I feel a few hours longer, so get ready to take notes and Google some Ai terms as there are a few.

I really enjoyed this book even though it has most dystopian potential outlook of the possible future under the wrong Ai model, all I could think was my goodness that's the most terrifying possible place man kind could end up. The people in the know need to I feel take the subject of a Super intelligence more serious than nukeiler war

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Unremitting realism

Which is somehow simultaniously terrifying and exciting.

This was a really great listen. The narrator was fantastic with his delivery. It was full of very in-depth considerations to a wide range of possibilities and environments for the development of Human level intelligence and super intelligence.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars
  • MR
  • 29-05-15

Pompous delivery.

This is a factual book. But the reader reads it like it's Lord of the rings! It's really distracting and I have no idea how this was signed off.

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6 people found this helpful