#The_Singularity_is_Near: When Humans Transcend Biology - Ray_Kurzweil - #Review

     I have read this book nearly 20 years after its publication and more after finishing a second volume to this sequel (when we merge with AI) before the first - also note the change in the title from "Near" to "Nearer". Some of Kurzweil’s technology trends have clearly come true, but the central “Singularity” has not yet happened. His predictions that came out true are in computing, networking, mobile devices, and the accelerating usefulness of AI. His timelines for nanotechnology, brain–machine integration, radical life extension, and fully immersive virtual reality appears to be much more speculative still.

#The_Singularity_is_Nearer: When we merge with AI - Ray_Kurzweil - #Review

    The book starts with “where we stand” in terms of epochs with the present one being a merger of bio-science with technology. The idea that one day it would be possible to upload our mind into the ‘cloud’ achieving cyber-immortality is the next. In general terms, the book describes the law of accelerating returns, which predicts an exponential increase in technologies like computers, genetics, nanotechnology, robotics and artificial intelligence.

 

#Are_you_smart_enough_to_work_at_Google - #William Poundstone - #Review

    This is a fun book of puzzles of all types; mathematical, logical, algorithmic with food for thought on estimation, mind games and creativity. There is also lots of interview advice, when applying for a job. The advice is good not just for Google, but for many other companies as well. 

I am straight away going to chapter six which has a gist: At Google, they believe in sharing ideas.

#Weapons_of_Math_Destruction - Cathy_O'Neil - #Review

There is no mathematics, though, rather it is all Statistics and the apprehension associated with Big Data when it comes to application either through AI or ML. Most of the time we may agree with almost all of the author’s views but there is no algorithm anywhere as the title suggests, and instead O'Neil takes us on a tour of a collection of business and public policy malpractices, stating that the solution is to "encode values into our algorithms.". This might really be useful for some. With a few real stuff inside I think it would be an excellent book for those with skills and interest in social justice to take to an interview with Big Data firms.

#Quantum_Physics_Made_me_do_it - Jeremie_Harris - Review

There have been so far relevant guides to the most paradoxical notions proposed around quantum world throughout the last century. Some cut out the unnecessarily complex way of explaining concepts, and this one really hits its mark in terms of being the perfect introduction to quantum mechanics and the questions that arise from it for complete novices or for those looking for a light-hearted science reader. The book happens to be packed with science and excellent discussions on the repercussions for humanity if certain theories are in fact correct but fails midway when the author switches over to criticizing other writers. Here is the brief break-up as we move through the books.

#Humble_Pi: A comedy of Maths Errors - #Matt_Parker - Review

    This is certainly the first book I have ever read in which page numbers start from higher to lowest. And it has been done to justify the title (a comedy of maths errors). The book is filled with informative and relentlessly entertaining matter right from the beginning and has illustrations that are related to real-time incidents. The author explores the series of glitches, near-misses, mathematical mishaps leading to severe bugs over the PCs or internet, chunks in big data, logic in street signs, the chances over winning lotteries and bizarre ways the maths can equip or trip us. The book is well organized so that similar themes are framed together into chapters, but each incident is only a few pages long so that it never gives a feeling of bogged down or boring.

#Infinite_Powers: The_Story_of_Calculus-The_ Language_of_ the_Universe - #Steven_Strogatz - Review

     Often, the public thinks that scientific breakthroughs happen when lone geniuses discover something new, but in reality, discoveries occur when people improve upon the work of others. In ‘Infinite Powers’ Strogatz traces the methods used by Archimedes and moves on to Newton and Leibniz, who refined the use of calculus. Along the way, with plenty of illustrations and interesting insights we get to know about contributions from Fermat, Galileo and Descartes. This apart the contributions of Indian, Arabic, and Chinese mathematicians is also included, and the 'Infinite Powers' continues on to Fourier, Katherine Johnson and Sophie Germain.

#Artificial_Intelligence - A Guide for Thinking Humans - #Melanie_Mitchell - Review

As titled, the entire book is an optimal guide for all thinking humans.  The author begins the book with a sketch of the history of AI research from its birth in the 1950s, and outlines its key figures and significant ideological branches. These are broadly classified as symbolic (conscious reasoning) and sub-symbolic (sub-conscious learning) with the latter being biologically inspired structures which learn patterns and rules via lots of data.

#Determined: Life_Without_Free_Will by #Robert_Sapolsky – Review

     The forty years that the author spent as a neuro-scientist of human beings has been funneled into a one-word fact ‘Determined’ in the form of a book with a big, splashy write-up, both in number of pages and ambitions. 

    Robert Sapolsky sums up that we do not have ‘free will’ because our actions resulted from prior causes, which themselves resulted from prior causes, which….., corollary with the answer Einstein got over a question on how the Earth is balanced – Turtles all the way down (a seamless chain of causality stretching back in time), and uses a very sensible way of explaining ‘no free will’ on a large and small scale connecting both in the same instance. He leads us through this causal chain of events that goes back to seconds (caused by neurons firing), to minutes (caused by a thought, memory, emotion, or sensory stimulus), hours to days (hormones), to months (long-term experiences, e.g. depression), to years and decades (e.g. childhood, genetics), and centuries (the culture of ancestors).

#Brave_New Words - How_AI_ will_ Revolutionize_ Education (and why that's a good thing) - by Salman Khan #Review

     After coming across a praise heaped by Bill Gates over Salman Khan of Khan Academy, I decided to have a go with this book.  When everyone associated with education is swayed both in positive and negative directions under the influence of information flow, this book presents an optimistic and practical insight on how artificial intelligence will revolutionize education in the coming years. The author proves that the fear that AI will overtake jobs from humans is unfounded. Only persons who don’t accept AI will be left out and embracing AI is not a task no one can accomplish.

Khan's book serves as an invaluable guide for anyone seeking to understand the i