Love The Kraken Project? Readers share 100 books like The Kraken Project...

William Gibson’s latest novel Agency is as prophetic as his establishment of cyberspace and cyberpunk culture in the 80s and 90s. His latest novel chronicles reality-busting skirmishes among gangsterish multi-generational families based in a glitzy post-apocalyptic 22nd century London. In this future, nano-machines conjure luxuries from nothing while sky-high scrubbers struggle to restore a ravaged atmosphere after the jackpot, a global environmental catastrophe. Agency tells a heist-type story about the emergence of Eunice, a sentient AI born in our stub out of American special operations research. Leading a cross-dimensional band of techies, publicists, hipsters, and hackers, ace software designer Verity fights to introduce Eunice to her world in order to save it. Yet Gibson is telling us about today's ecological and technological forces. He writes of pre-jackpot life in our era: “‘Did we ever come to terms with the sheer cluelessness of it?’

This book explores how AI is transforming healthcare and the potential benefits it can bring to patients and doctors.

The author, Eric, is a cardiologist with working knowledge of technology of AI. I love how he describes with clarity, the present and potential to make people healthier with AI First thinking. That is, how AI can make the business of health care human.

I love the premise and basis of Eric’ thinking that we can make healthcare personalized, proactive, anticipatory, helping people live healthier lives and reducing the cost of healthcare. 

At the same time he is mindful that AI could be used to dehumanize healthcare and exacerbate existing inequalities.

I think computers don’t think, and this book taught me how to think about that. I admire it in part because it showed me, a professor of philosophy, how to do scientifically informed philosophy. Unlike so many books on the history of thinking about thinking, just the first chapter of this book is clear, accurate, insightful, and exciting. Equally so is Haugeland’s explanation of what a computer is, making an intellectual adventure of theoretical computer science.

Haugeland uses this to make a compelling case for thinking that computers could genuinely reason. And then he does something that we philosophers tend to love; he launches a provocative critique of that claim, contending that computers can’t think because they don’t “give a damn.” Although it’s now three decades old, this is the book to read if you’re curious about artificial intelligence. 

There’s a lot of fear-mongering going around regarding the possibility of a superintelligent AI that could take over or even wipe out humanity. 

Larson gives a clear rationale for why this is not going to happen and further, why it is a big mistake to expect computer reasoning to be like human reasoning. He explains the ways computers think and how they differ from the ways we do. 

In short, we don’t have a clue how to give computers either consciousness or common sense. Without these, worrying about superhuman intelligence is worrying about the wrong thing. There is no way a computer using current AI methods could evolve into a general intelligence.  

This falls more on the Sci-fi side of SFF, but it really is just such a fun ride. What I loved the most about this one is how it seemed to have such a fascinating world of technology but was completely closed off from the world.

It takes place in a mansion, a very small setting, and very character-driven until BAM—suddenly you’re thrown into this big mysterious world with all the clues of technology advancements and government, etc (har har).

Watching the two main characters navigate their way through this dangerous world, and the way it shapes each of them is spectacular. My eyes watered for sure during this one.

This book, unlike the others, is less about theory and more about the contemporary reality of automation. It thus functions as an interesting test piece for the theoretical works preceding this one. Gray and Suri show that automation is not simply a progressive replacement of human by machine, but rather that each new automation application tends to generate a need for new kinds of labour which cannot (yet) be automated. The empirical work done here is a prime example of understanding what automation really is.

A primary reason to love math is because of its usefulness. This book shows two sides of math’s applicability, since it is so ubiquitously used in various algorithms.

On the one hand, such usage can be good, because statistical inferences can make our life easier and enrich it. On the other, when these are not properly designed or monitored, it can lead to catastrophic consequences. Mathematics is a powerful force, as powerful as wind or fire, and needs to be harnessed just as carefully.

Cathy O’Neil’s message in this book spoke deeply to me, reminding me that I need to be always vigilant about the subject I love not being deployed carelessly.  

This is a beautiful science memoir, that tells the story of fellow Stanford professor Fei-Fei’s Li’s life.

It gives deep insights into the challenges of life in the United States, growing up as an immigrant from a loving but low-income home, and her rise to becoming one of the most important and influential AI leaders of our time. The interweaving of the story of the genesis of AI as a field and Fei-Fei as a scientist is fascinating and educative. 

Fei-Fei’s excitement for science and knowledge, combined with her commitment to family and relationships, makes for a delightful and inspirational read.

We found this book to be an eye-opening exploration of the revolutionary merging of artificial intelligence and biotechnology. Brian Hilbush expertly guided us through the cutting-edge advancements that are transforming drug discovery and therapeutics without being too technical or scientific in his use of language.

We found Hilbush’s story to be a fascinating breakdown of how AI and deep learning are revolutionizing medicine, with some great insights into the rise of data science in healthcare, groundbreaking biotech innovations, and the exciting startup landscape shaping the industry's future.

A program that helps you write better emails becomes conscious, and I loved the book because the story feels humorously realistic. You get a sense of what it is like to work in that office, and you get to follow the fallout of the conscious email program as it impersonates email senders to manipulate the recipients.

I’ve often joked that maybe printers are so terrible because they are actually conscious, refusing to work out of spite because they are bored. This book goes in that direction a bit with the email program. Also, if you like bored superintelligences, check out The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. A security robot just wants to be left alone to watch TV.