10 books to help you understand artificial intelligence

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Roman Dushkin, director of science and technology of the shopping messenger "", has selected 10 fundamental, popular science and science fiction books about artificial intelligence. They will help you understand the scale of the upcoming changes, even if you are an inveterate humanitarian.

1. "The New Mind of the King" by Roger Penrose

What is this book about: can artificial intelligence work like a mind endowed with human consciousness? To answer the question, the author examines a wide range of topics: from the basics of quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity to cosmology and the structure of the brain.

What is the use: The book will help you get basic information about such areas as the theory of computability, computer science, philosophy of science, quantum physics, theory of relativity, the structure of the human brain. This is the foundation that will help you understand most of the books recommended below.

Reading time: up to one week.

Difficulty level: simple and straightforward book. The author does not torment the reader with confusing explanations. No formulas - everything is described in simple language and examples.

2. "The Brain and the Computing Machine" by Alex M. Andrew

What is this book about: the main line of the book is a comparison of artificial and natural intelligences. Unlike The New Mind of the King, it compares "iron", that is, living tissues and cells and computational architecture. It also provides the author's thoughts on what a computational architecture should look like to simulate the human mind.

What is the use: the book introduces the interesting problems of the development of large computers, methods for solving various problems with their help, as well as a wide range of issues arising in the study of the living brain. The author expresses ideas on how a computer can try to implement the non-algorithmic properties of the human mind.

Reading time: one week.

Difficulty level: average. The text contains a lot of interesting historical information and examples, so reading will be fascinating.

3. "Brain Construction" by William R. Ashby

What is this book about: introduction to the theory of adaptive systems from one of the founders of cybernetics and a concurrent psychiatrist. Despite the title, this book is not about the structure and structure of the brain. It reveals the problem of adaptability, self-regulation and ultrastability of systems.

What is the use: you will learn how such a complex system as the human brain reaches an equilibrium state, which ensures the emergence of consciousness in it.

Reading time: a couple of weeks.

Difficulty level: high. However, after reading the previous two books, the terms and concepts from this book will already become familiar to you.

4. "On Intelligence" by Jeff Hawkins, Sandra Blakesley

What is this book about: a critical analysis of the modern understanding of what artificial intelligence and neural network models should be. The authors describe in detail their model "memory - prediction" and consider from the standpoint of the model such types of intellectual activity as creativity and imagination.

What is the use: "On the intellect" will reveal interesting and important ideas about where the human consciousness can be and what it is in general. There are no answers to these questions in the book, but there are interesting and deeply worked out hypotheses. Most importantly, you will get an idea of how and where research in the field of artificial intelligence will develop.

Reading time: 2-3 days.

Difficulty level: a simple book with easy text and numerous examples. There are no formulas.

5. "Colored emotions of a cold mind", Alexey Redozubov

What is this book about: the author begins by defining what emotion is in terms of the interaction of neurons in the brain. Then, based on this definition, he examines and explains many of the phenomena in life: delicious food, smiling and tickling, fear, sex appeal, beauty and harmony.

What is the use: the book will help to understand the reasons for the emergence and consolidation of emotions in humans and other living beings. Thanks to the previously obtained information about the functioning of the central nervous system, the reader will have a holistic picture of the joint work of the neurohumoral complex, which regulates all processes in the body.

Reading time: 1-2 weeks.

Difficulty level: average. It is necessary to understand the structure of the brain and nervous system, but by the time you read the book, such an understanding should already be there.

6. "Physics of the Future", Michio Kaku

What is this book about: Michio Kaku has summarized the scientifically sound predictions of serious scientists, and the way they see the near future is shocking. Artificial organs, cars floating in the air, incredible lifespan and movement of objects by the power of thought - much of what is described in the book is already becoming reality.

What is the use: the author is a recognized expert in the field of forecasts of the development of science and technology, and reading it is much more interesting, useful and informative than many of today's futurists and publicists. The book will help you find out what opportunities and challenges await us in the near future.

Reading time: 2-3 days.

Difficulty level: light, but informative journalism.

7. "The Structure of Reality" by David Deutsch

What is this book about: it opens up some interesting questions, including how the surrounding reality is arranged, what is the place of mind in it, what distinguishes intelligent matter, whether it can be modeled or simulated, or even created. And he gives quite intelligible answers to these questions.

What is the use: acquaintance with the author's theory will help to understand the current state of the philosophy of science, philosophy of consciousness and philosophy of artificial intelligence. The topic of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics is very well disclosed here.

Reading time: 1-2 weeks.

Difficulty level: average. A work from the field of philosophy of science and philosophy of consciousness.

8. Cyberspace Trilogy by William Gibson

What the books are about: here the questions of the interaction of artificial intelligence and people are raised - who helps whom, who depends on whom, and what benefits both parties have from such interaction. An interesting plot leads the reader to understand the goals of AIs who “just want to live” in harmony with people. The entire trilogy and other works of the author had a very strong influence on the philistine understanding of what artificial intelligence is.

What is the use: excellent cyberpunk literature that is at the heart of everything where the world of information and communication technologies is heading now and all those alternative realities that are written out by the followers of this famous author.

9. Saga-tetralogy "Hyperion", Dan Simmons

What the books are about: the plot revolves around space expansion, artificial intelligence and "alternative humanity", which emigrated into deep space, because it did not agree with the vector of development of the basic civilization. Despite the universal scope of what is happening, the heroes of the novel are ordinary people: a Catholic priest, a colonel, a private detective, a Jewish scientist, a poet and a Templar.

What is the use: a profound work that has seriously influenced the understanding of artificial intelligence in popular culture. Reading the book allows you to penetrate the origins of this understanding and take a fresh look at philosophical questions about the meaning of life.

10. The Quantum Thief Trilogy, Hannu Rayaniemi

What the books are about: a famously twisted plot about a quantum thief operating in parallel realities, the virtual world and the ordinary solar system - albeit altered for the needs of humanity. On the Sun, for example, there are mining installations for pumping out the necessary resources from the star's core, and each asteroid in the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud has been turned into a small house for a family of a people who originated from a Finnish tribe. There are many unexpected riddles and puzzles tied to quantum mechanics, nanotechnology, virtual reality technologies, which will not let the reader get bored.

What is the use: Hannu Rayaniemi is the author of intellectual science fiction, reading which gives a boost of vigor and a huge number of ideas to think about. In addition, he defended his dissertation on string theory. A series about a quantum thief is sustained in the spirit of a tough alternative future, where cyberpunk, posthumanity, the complete development of the solar system, the subordination of space and time to the human mind, which is no longer human at all, but a mixture of natural and artificial intelligences, are mixed.