Astral Codex Ten

Why Machines Will Never Rule the World

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Why Machines Will Never Rule the World

Article

Why Machines Will Never Rule the World is a recurring book in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 3 times across 3 issues between June 03, 2023 and September 15, 2023. The archive places it in contexts such as “I arrived at Why Machines Will Never Rule the World by Jobst Landgrebe and Barry Smith”; “The Straussian reading of Why Machines Will Never Rule the World”; “Why Machines Will Never Rule the World is 301 pages”. It most often appears alongside Lying For Money, Njal’s Saga, On the Marble Cliffs.

Metadata

  • Category: Books
  • Mention count: 3
  • Issue count: 3
  • First seen: June 03, 2023
  • Last seen: September 15, 2023

Appears In

Source Context

Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.

Your Book Review: Why Machines Will Never Rule the World
June 03, 2023 · Original source
I set out to find the best book-length argument—one that really engages with the technical issues—against imminent, world-dooming, Skynet-and-Matrix-manifesting artificial intelligence. I arrived at Why Machines Will Never Rule the World by Jobst Landgrebe and Barry Smith, published by Routledge just last year. Landgrebe, an AI and biomedicine entrepreneur, and Smith, an eminent philosopher, are connected by their study of Edmund Husserl, and the influence of Husserl and phenomenology is clear throughout the book. (“Influence of Husserl” is usually a good enough reason to stop reading something.)
Should you read Why Machines Will Never Rule the World? If you're an AI safety researcher or have a technical interest in the topic, then you might enjoy it. It's sweeping and impeccably researched, but it's also academic and at times demanding, and for long stretches the meat-to-shell ratio is poor. But should you pick up these ideas?
I came away from the Why Machines Will Never Rule the World much less convinced than Landgrebe and Smith would like me to be. Whether or not Turing machines can emulate general intelligence is an open question. (The Church-Turing-Deutsch principle, for example, states that if quantum mechanics is sufficient to describe reality then quantum computers can emulate all physically realizable processes.) Whether or not there exists a mathematics that can fully model complex systems is an open question. The brain is managing more than just intelligence, and it's unclear how many of its processes would need to be emulated to model intelligence alone. Landgrebe and Smith rest very strong conclusions atop strong but leaky propositions.
Vote In The 2023 Book Review Contest
September 08, 2023 · Original source
1: Cities And The Wealth Of Nations / The Question Of Separatism 2: Lying For Money 3: Why Machines Will Never Rule The World 4: Man’s Search For Meaning 5: Njal’s Saga 6: Public Citizens 7: Safe Enough? 8: Secret Government 9: The Educated Mind 10: The Laws Of Trading 11: On The Marble Cliffs 12: The Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich 13: The WEIRDest People In The World 14: The Mind Of A Bee 15: Why Nations Fail 16: Zuozhuan
Inline links: Cities And The Wealth Of Nations / The Question Of Separatism, Lying For Money, Why Machines Will Never Rule The World, Man’s Search For Meaning, Njal’s Saga, Public Citizens, Safe Enough?, Secret Government, The Educated Mind, The Laws Of Trading, On The Marble Cliffs, The Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich, The WEIRDest People In The World, The Mind Of A Bee, Why Nations Fail, Zuozhuan
Book Review Contest 2023 Winners
September 15, 2023 · Original source
Why Machines Will Never Rule the World, reviewed by Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass. Thom is an AI researcher and winner of the 2022 Passage Prize for Poetry. He occasionally publishes essays at snodgrass.blog.
Inline links: Why Machines Will Never Rule the World, snodgrass.blog