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colorfulleo92's review
3.0
It was an very interesting audiobook that I learned quite a bit from. But as an audiobook it wasn't very "readable". Had to really try and focus and didn't feel that I had a "listening flow" with this one. Where I could relax and just listen to what was being said. But the information was very good.
ashcomb's review
4.0
Comprehensive, interesting, well written, and ends with the question of free will.
gengelcox's review
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
I’m currently completing the draft of a novel in which machine intelligence plays a large part in moving the story, so I picked up this book by Ball on a recommendation from my wife who had read a review of it in Science. It’s a hefty tome, but easy to understand, but not dumbed down. Ball trusts the reader to follow both his explanations of where we stand regarding the ideas of intelligence—human, animal, and mechanical—including both the scientific basis as well as the philosophical ramifications. Heady stuff, indeed.
One takeaway, among many, is the very real difficulty in defining intelligence, which we’ve attempted to do for hundreds of years and constantly have to shift as new evidence emerges of tool use (once the bar set for animals) and communication (lack of being the argument against plants) in beings once thought free of those abilities.
Of course, as an SF writer, my focus is speculating what non-human intelligence might eventually emerge (or be recognized), and Ball provides some great insight into the elements considered necessary. But this is a product of its times—today—and this is a field that is rapidly being investigated and developed. I look forward to rereading this in a few years to consider what Ball got right and wrong, similar to when I first discovered the dinosaur theories about them being avian that has now become accepted in paleontology.
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