{"title":"Books by John Brockman","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780525558019","title":"Possible Minds","description":"\u003cb\u003eScience world luminary John Brockman assembles twenty-five of the most important scientific minds, people who have been thinking about the field artificial intelligence for most of their careers, for an unparalleled round-table examination about mind, thinking, intelligence and what it means to be human.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"Artificial intelligence is today's story--the story behind all other stories.  It is the Second Coming and the Apocalypse at the same time: Good AI versus evil AI.\"\u003c\/i\u003e --John Brockman\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMore than sixty years ago, mathematician-philosopher Norbert Wiener published a book on the place of machines in society that ended with a warning: \"we shall never receive the right answers to our questions unless we ask the right questions.... The hour is very late, and the choice of good and evil knocks at our door.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the wake of advances in unsupervised, self-improving machine learning, a small but influential community of thinkers is considering Wiener's words again. In \u003ci\u003ePossible Minds\u003c\/i\u003e, John Brockman gathers their disparate visions of where AI might be taking us.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe fruit of the long history of Brockman's profound engagement with the most important scientific minds who have been thinking about AI--from Alison Gopnik and David Deutsch to Frank Wilczek and Stephen Wolfram\u003ci\u003e--Possible Minds\u003c\/i\u003e is an ideal introduction to the landscape of crucial issues AI presents. The collision between opposing perspectives is salutary and exhilarating; some of these figures, such as computer scientist Stuart Russell, Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn, and physicist Max Tegmark, are deeply concerned with the threat of AI, including the existential one, while others, notably robotics entrepreneur Rodney Brooks, philosopher Daniel Dennett, and bestselling author Steven Pinker, have a very different view. Serious, searching and authoritative, \u003ci\u003ePossible Minds \u003c\/i\u003elays out the intellectual landscape of one of the most important topics of our time.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56290643804533,"sku":"9780525558019","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780525558019_4a050d0f-7dd7-46bb-996e-a7b6d7e6201a.jpg?v=1786013528"},{"product_id":"9780552778480","title":"This Will Make You Smarter","description":"\u003cp\u003eOver 150 of the world's leading scientists and thinkers offer their choice of the ideas, strategies and arguments that will help all of us understand our world, and its future, better. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIncludes contributions from:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eRichard Dawkins, Stephen Pinker, Daniel Dennett, Clay Shirky, Daniel Goleman, Sam Harris, Lee Smolin, Matt Ridley, Mark Henderson, David Rowan, Sir Martin Rees, Craig Venter, Brian Eno, Jaron Lanier and David Brooks . . . among others.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith his organisation Edge.org, the literary agent and all-purpose intellectual impresario John Brockman has brought together the most influential thinkers of our age. Every year he sets them a question, this year that question was: \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhat Scientific Concept Would Improve Everybody's Cognitive Toolkit?\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTheir answers are collected in this book and explore philosophy, psychology, economics, and other disciplines - and all share one aim: to provide the most reliable ways of gaining knowledge about anything, whether it be human behaviour, corporate behaviour, the fate of the planet, or the future of the universe.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56291789373813,"sku":"9780552778480","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780552778480_dc95e055-3733-4447-b61c-d80c8dac03c5.jpg?v=1786013459"},{"product_id":"thinking-1","title":"Thinking","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eUnlock your mind. \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrom the bestselling authors of \u003cem\u003eThinking\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eFast and Slow\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eThe Black Swan\u003c\/em\u003e; and \u003cem\u003eStumbling on Happiness\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e comes a cutting-edge exploration of the mysteries of rational thought, decision-making, intuition, morality, willpower, problem-solving, prediction, forecasting, unconscious behavior, and beyond.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEdited by John Brockman, publisher of Edge.org (\"The world's smartest website\"—\u003cem\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/em\u003e), \u003cem\u003eThinking\u003c\/em\u003e presents original ideas by today's leading psychologists, neuroscientists, and philosophers who are radically expanding our understanding of human thought.\u003c\/p\u003eContributors include:\u003cbr\u003e    \u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDaniel Kahneman on the power (and pitfalls) of human intuition and \"unconscious\" thinking \u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDaniel Gilbert on desire, prediction, and why getting what we want doesn't always make us happy\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNassim Nicholas Taleb on the limitations of statistics in guiding decision-making\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eVilayanur Ramachandran on the scientific underpinnings of human nature \u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSimon Baron-Cohen on the startling effects of testosterone on the brain \u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDaniel C. Dennett on decoding the architecture of the \"normal\" human mind\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSarah-Jayne Blakemore on mental disorders and the crucial developmental phase of adolescence\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eJonathan Haidt, Sam Harris, and Roy Baumeister on the science of morality, ethics, and the emerging synthesis of evolutionary and biological thinking \u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eGerd Gigerenzer on rationality and what informs our choices\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57705587048821,"sku":"9780062258540","price":11.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780062258540.jpg?v=1793377144"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-john-brockman.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}