“5/5
Who recommended this book
“Thanks for asking! I really enjoy reading sci-fi because it’s about predicting the future and a lot of success in research is critically predicated on making the right bets about the future. First I would highly recommend Arthur C. Clarke’s “Profiles of the Future” (see my review on Goodreads). It’s a wonderful study of the science and art of predicting the future. Second, on the topic of sci-fi’s I really like books written by scientists turned writers because I find the world building to be much more compelling, interesting and logically consistent. Recently I enjoyed: Stanislaw Lem’s Fiasco and His Master’s Voice Stories of Your Life and Others from Ted Chiang (especially Understand and Story of Your Life) Ready Player One, which paints a likely future where large portion of the population spends time in VR in a Second Life - like environment. This is another example of sci-fi that has repercussions for AI research. Suppose this were true, how amazing would that source of data be
“Yes agreed, diaspora is amazing, but I think it’s best to read permutation city first. Same with player of games and consider phlebas, although maybe it’s just cos that’s the order I read them in.
“Yes agreed, diaspora is amazing, but I think it’s best to read permutation city first.
“It's the closest I've come to reading technical documentation of my own nature.