Superintelligence, Vegetables and New Universes : What we’re reading at MyCommunity
- mycommunitynet
- Feb 13, 2015
- 2 min read
When we’re not talking to users, writing new surveys or perfecting our workplace playlist, we’re a pretty bookish lot here at MyCommunity. From superintelligence to social networks, here’s what we’ve been reading this week:
French Kids Eat Everything: How our family moved to France, cured picky eating, banned snacking and discovered ten simple rules for raising happy, healthy eaters – Karen Le Billon, 2012
I’m reading something very interesting; French Kids Eat Everything. As an entrepreneur with a fussy three year old, I don’t have time to be pandering to toddler temper tantrums about food; to make my day more productive, I need to understand how I can make my daughter eat her vegetables and get back to work.
Is it working?
Yes! It’s full of brilliant tips and I’d recommend it to other mompreneurs!
Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies – Nick Bostrom, 2014
Superintelligence is about the potential for machine brains to surpass human brains, and the risk that if machine intelligence gets too extreme and remains misunderstood, we could face a serious threat to the human race. This is an argument followed by people like Bill Gates, Stephen Hawking and many other eminent scientists: machines could become so intelligent that they could essentially take over.
It’s all about A) how the shift to machine intelligence is inevitable and B) how to safeguard anything dangerous happening, which sounds like ridiculous science fiction but is actually being taken very seriously. An incredibly well-written book, well worth a read!
The Art of Immersion : How the digital generation is remaking Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and the way we tell stories – Frank Rose, 2011
I'm reading The Art of Immersion by Frank Rose, who seems to be a lovely guy – there’s a picture of him on the front cover; he’s got good glasses on. I was particularly interested in the chapter called ‘Twitter and Nothingness’, which is about how engagement has evolved on social media over the last 5-10 years. It was so fascinating to look at the psychology of the people who use Twitter and the psychology of the people who set up social networking sites. It got me really excited about the things I could do when I use the networks.
I’ve also started the chapter on creating universes that don’t implode in 2 days, which has a lot of really interesting stuff about Philip K Dick, who’s also great.
The interesting thing about The Art of Immersion is that I bought it four years ago, when I was considering studying for a Masters in Film & TV. The book looks at the way both types of media have changed due to the digital revolution. I was having a late night browse for books on Trans-media on Amazon and came across this one, then realised the book had been sat behind me all along. It was fate!
What should we read next? Let us know in the comments below or reach out via Twitter, via @MyCommunitynet.
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