The Atomic Human: Understanding Ourselves in the Age of AI

by Neil D. Lawrence

‘The clarity, authority, wit and insight Lawrence brings to bear are like torches shining into the turbulent darkness of a subject we all wonder at, but which we mostly feel unable to even to think or talk about with any confidence. Hugely recommended’ Stephen Fry

What does Artificial Intelligence mean for our identity? Our fascination with AI stems from the perceived uniqueness of human intelligence. We believe it's what differentiates us. Fears of AI not only concern how it invades our digital lives, but also the implied threat of an intelligence that displaces us from our position at the centre of the world.

Neil D. Lawrence's visionary book shows why these fears may be misplaced. Atomism, proposed by Democritus, suggested it was impossible to continue dividing matter down into ever smaller eventually we reach a point where a cut cannot be made (the Greek for uncuttable is 'atom'). In the same way, by slicing away at the facets of human intelligence that can be replaced by machines, AI uncovers what is an indivisible core that is the essence of humanity.

Human intelligence has evolved across hundreds of thousands of years. Due to our physical and cognitive constraints over that time, it is social and highly embodied. By contrasting our capabilities with machine intelligence, The Atomic Human reveals the technical origins, capabilities and limitations of AI systems, and how they should be wielded. Not just by the experts, but ordinary people. Understanding this will enable readers to choose the future we want – either one where AI is a tool for us, or where we become a tool of AI – and how to counteract the digital oligarchy to maintain the fabric of an open, fair and democratic society.

Genres: Artificial Intelligence, Technology, Nonfiction, Science, History, Philosophy, Audiobook

428 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 6, 2024

Reviews

[Brian Clegg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a real curate’s egg of a book. Let’s start with the title - it feels totally wrong for what the book’s about. ‘The Atomic Human’ conjures up some second rate superhero. What Neil Lawrence is getting at is the way atoms were originally conceived as what you get when you pare back more and more until what’s left is uncuttable. The idea is that this reflects the way that artificial intelligence has cut into what’s special about being human - but there is still that core left. I think a much better analogy would have been the god of the gaps - the idea that science has taken over lots of what was once attributed to deities, leaving just a collection of gaps.

At the heart of the book is an excellent point: how we as humans have great processing power in our brains but very limited bandwidth with which to communicate. By comparison, AIs have a huge amount of bandwidth to absorb vast amounts of data from the internet but can’t manage our use of understanding and context. This distinction is a crucial one and I’ve never seen it put better.

There are plenty of other nuggets of fascination. For example, from Lawrence’s time working at Amazon it’s interesting to hear how in the time it takes a customer’s web page to load, the system has to work out in the background where the customer is, what the stock is and where it’s located, from this calculating when to stop offering same day or next day delivery. Another random intriguing part is the rift that effectively killed off the predecessor of AI, cybernetics - Lawrence says its demise was caused by a lie that was a ‘fabrication designed to drive a wedge between Wiener (Mr Cybernetics) and McCulloch (cyberneticist turned AI engineer)’. Frustratingly, though, we are not told who told the lie or why they did so.

What gets in the way of this being a great book are its length and (lack of) structure. The content simply doesn’t justify such an endlessly long feeling book. But I could have coped with that if it wasn’t for the way it’s put together. To say it meanders is a huge understatement. It’s quite ironic that at one point Lawrence comments that at Facebook an ex-colleague discovered that ‘instead of a patchwork quilt you needed to weave a tapestry’. This is no tapestry.There’s a sort of greatness to the plethora of scattergun references repeatedly pulling back to central themes of AI vs human intelligence and the twin foci that Lawrence repeatedly visits of the end of the Second World War and his personal experience, particularly when working at Amazon. It is to a popular science book what a James Joyce novel is to a readable one. Some love Joyce… others don’t. I’m afraid I found it hugely irritating - the book cries out for some imposition of order.

One other small moan - you would think from reading this that Cambridge Analytics had been eminently successful in their ability to use post likes to predict psychometric measures. Yet David Sumpter’s Outnumbered tells us that it was a useless predictor of almost all measures, only likely to have succeeded to a degree with one. I have no reason to doubt Sumpter on this.

I am still giving the book four stars because when you get to those nuggets the content is important and interesting. We could have done with a bit more on the practical aspects of controlling AI - I take Lawrence’s point that the essential is preventing AI from being used to make life-changing decisions unchecked by humans (which probably includes not allowing it to drive cars), but it doesn't really suggest how we get practically from here to there. Even so, it’s an interesting book if you can cope with that near stream-of-consciousness storytelling.

[Yosra Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don't read it if you are not okay with some disappointment.
This book lacks good quality editing. It is longer than needed, badly structured and very badly drifting at points. I can see a much better version of this book with around 100 pages or more truncated, many stories removed, and paragraphs reorganized. I felt lost many times and bored some other times. All “personal” stories concerning the grandparent for example can be easily just dropped. And this is just one example.
The book's strength in my opinion is pulling all bits and pieces to help the reader understand “how did we arrive to where we are now” when it comes to Artificial intelligence (AI). It explained this with a taste of authenticity that is appreciated. At points, I was very interested to know that different fields of research were taking place at the same time but for reasons (natural, social, historical, economical,...) one field prevailed and that led to the progression of research in one area over another. This part of the book was for me the most interesting and gives it the most value in my opinion. The book also explains some (sadly, not much in this area as I would have hoped) of the debates taking place currently in the industry around the field and growth of AI.
Another strength of the book in my opinion is the presentation of a crucial difference in the “current” AI implementation/growth (the current computer vs the current human). I am here saying “current” because unlike the author, I am not sure how the AI will progress and how this progress will affect humanity even in this area.The point the author makes is that humans have a brain that is able to think and process too many ideas but very limited space and tools with which to communicate these “thoughts”. AI on the contrary is so much more efficient in getting in and sharing information/data but is unlikely to be able to “develop a good thought process”.
The book discusses how the progress of AI has resulted in a new “view” of human nature. The need to understand the atomic nature of the human (what are the building blocks of a human) as an AI research goal to “rebuild” the “human” through artificial intelligence. I believe the book did good in explaining different human aspects and giving value to the “human society”, “human culture” and “human vulnerabilities”. However, I am not sure I agree with the book's conclusions around these understandings or explanations all the time.
Finally, The book adds to the ongoing struggle to fully break into the understanding of AI and the future it entails. However, the book disappointed me into making this addition without irrelevant and nonstop storytelling. The book is also weak in offering a direction or a means that we can use to go from where we are now (giant companies holding the power of AI) into what the author believes we should do “less power to AI by disallowing it to make decisions without running it by humans”.

[Ayman Jabr · Rating 1 out of 5]

"What an absolute waste of time", this is what I kept thinking while plowing through this book. I had hoped that there would be some amazing insight at the end that would tie all of the different concepts in this book togheter, but the only insight to be had is that Amazon books and Audiobooks needs a refunding policy.

I picked up this book because it was written by Neil D.Lawrence a prominent figure in the world of Machine Learning, and I had hoped to gain some insight in his views and his thoughts to were humanity is headed, but no such thing was provided in the book. This book desperetly needs an editor, Neil keeps hopping between different points and ideas with the most thin linkage between them, never discussing any of them in detail, never really offering his own ideas on a topic

There is a feeling that Neil wanted to write a history book, the history of machine intelligence instead of this book, but he doesn't go into depth on any historical event either, he just jumps around ideas and things that happenned in history with the pretense of linking them to a larger point that he is making.

Absolute waste of time, don't bother picking it up, I want my money back 1/10.

[kla☾ ✩ · Rating 3 out of 5]

in terms of content? great! in terms of writing? lets just say that this book is in desperate need of an editor

[Lukas · Rating 2 out of 5]

A handful of interesting ideas which are buried within a jumble of disparate stories, desperately in need of an editor

[Sekar Writes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full review and summary.

Lawrence pushes us to think about what it means to be human as AI keeps advancing. He introduces the idea of the “atomic human,” which represents the part of us that’s unbreakable and can’t be copied by machines. This isn’t about literal atoms; it’s a metaphor for our core essence—our mind, spirit, and feelings. He explains that AI learns by absorbing our culture—our stories, art, and knowledge—but it’s still just a tool we created. It’s clever, but it doesn’t really think like we do.

What makes this book stand out is Lawrence’s focus on our imperfections. He argues that it’s not our tech skills that define us but our flaws, emotions, and connections. These vulnerabilities are what drive us to grow and create. While AI is precise and powerful, it lacks this human touch, and that’s where our “atomic human” lies—in the unique qualities that machines can’t mimic.

However, the book can be a tough read because it often feels unorganized. Lawrence jumps around from story to story without a clear path, which can make it hard to follow his main points. A more straightforward structure would have helped connect his ideas better.

The Atomic Human is about AI and understanding ourselves in a world shaped by technology. Lawrence’s message is clear: as AI grows, we must hold on to what makes us human—our vulnerabilities, our bonds, and our shared experiences. If we forget that, we risk losing more than jobs; we risk losing the essence of who we are.

[John Dembeck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written and engaging. Besides the evolution slant, it is very informative and thought provoking.

[mrs e j stringfellow · Rating 2 out of 5]

far too long for thr arguments to be made

[Gonçalo Gato · Rating 5 out of 5]

O melhor livro de AI que li nos últimos anos. possivelmente o mais completo de sempre. Mais do que abordar as capacidades das AI, aprofunda nas vulnerabilidades tanto humanas como das máquinas.

[Sebastiao Barata · Rating 4 out of 5]

The topics are very interesting and Neil make you think. But the way he write makes it difficult assimilate all the information. He backtracks a lot and uses a lot of analogies, not always very helpful in my personal opinion.

Anyway a very interesting book about a very important topic. Gave it 4 starts mainly because of that. It made me think about the ai in our future.

[Rob Brock · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wonder if a different title for this book, or a more accurate subtitle would have made this a better reading experience. The book doesn't really cover AI until near the end of the book, and it spends most of its time looking at the history of humanity and our interactions with science and technology. In some ways, the book feels like a series of blog posts covering random but loosely connected topics, or maybe a long dinner with the smartest person you know, who shares their encyclopedic knowledge of history in a stream of consciousness discussion. There are some fascinating stories, to be sure, many of which I've read elsewhere, but all of which are interesting if we let the past be a lens through which we imagine our future.

What this book is ultimately about is the thing or things that make us uniquely human in our modern world. He coins the term "anthrox" as a stand-in for anthropomorphic or anthropomorphisizing, and he talks about the tendency to anthrox technologies by seeing in them human traits or motivations. However, machines do not have human values, as much as we try to get them to adhere to our values and objectives, and the author suggests the biggest mistake we can make in an AI world is to relinquish decision making authority to the machines. Instead, he says that we need to fight to retain the things that make us most human, which in his view include our relationality, or connecting with others in meaningful ways, our values and judgements, and our ability to interact in actionable ways with our technology.

[Teodora Petkova · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading Lawrence's book a lot. I loved the clear description of I/O throughput issues that humans have compared to a machine, as well as the critique to the reductionist approach to computer science. Moreover, as a young professional in the space, it was really interesting for me to get an intuition of the recent history of AI/Comp Sci.

My guess is that the book will be a bit hard to follow for people outside of the AI field. I relied a lot on my already developed intuition about how boolean logic, mathematics, deep learning, and probability work to understand the analogies and examples provided by the author.

Still, that's one of the few books that made me jump out of my seat to grab my diary and write and think deeply about the AI field. 10/10 would recommend to people seeking an impactful engagement with AI.

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I completely loved reading this book. It took me a bit of time to read it carefully. There is a lot of detail and concepts to get your head around. I loved the analogies used to describe the scenarios which explained them very clearly in a way I could relate to. I believe that this book has helped me to understand where AI and humans exist. Humans are incredible and this book celebrates this. AI is a tool that is reliant on humans. The worry is how AI is being used and by which humans for why. AI will hopefully be used to help us understand more about our existence in this intriguing universe that we live in and how to be kinder, caring and more human humans.

[Andre · Rating 1 out of 5]

Listening to audio book edition I'm stunned to hear that there is no existential risk to AI. This book is all just analogies and stories (cybernetics mainly) about other technologies than about possible super powerful AI. Some mention of social media data abuse and adversarial attacks ... but I would not introduce the terms System 0 (zero) or HAM (for LLMs?) which I think misleading. Brief mention of Hinton and Tegmark positions. Guess there is no risk of human being evil either as they can be divided down to atoms and we can't find any evil particles to make yet another analogy.

[Bülent · Rating 1 out of 5]

After reading the first four chapters, I gave up and stopped reading. Based on what I read, I find that the book is boring, written like a history book, and includes many unnecessary details. It was hard to see what the main point of the book was, and how the author was getting there. Maybe things would come together towards the end of the book, but leaving that to other reviewers.

[Doortje · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 ⭐️ gelezen als onderdeel van de Unilever boekenclub.

Ik heb zelf een recensie geschreven, en aan een AI bot gevraagd wat ie van het boek vond (die het een ster meer gaf). Beiden recensies kun je hieronder vinden.
__________________________________________
In "The Atomic Human" onderzoekt de auteur de verschillende lagen van de menselijke ervaring en vergelijkt deze met die van machines. De schrijver komt tot de conclusie dat sommige taken door machines kunnen worden overgenomen, zoals het kraken van gecodeerde berichten of het malen van meel. Er blijven echter lagen over die ons uniek menselijk maken en niet door machines kunnen worden gerepliceerd.

Het boek biedt talloze interessante voorbeelden, analogieën en uitwijdingen om complexe concepten duidelijk te maken. Deze verhalen zijn op zichzelf boeiend en inspireerden vaak tot het verder verdiepen in die verhalen. Ik raakte bv. in een rabbit hole of leven op andere planeten na een voorbeeld over geluid wat niet in de ruimte hoorbaar is.

Het grote aantal voorbeelden en uitweidingen zorgt er alleen óók voor dat de kernboodschap van het boek naar de achtergrond verdwijnt. Aan het einde van sommige hoofdstukken was het niet altijd duidelijk wat het uiteindelijke punt van de auteur was.

Een aantal gedachtespinsels die ik uit het boek heb gehaald en interessant vind om verder te verkennen, zijn:
1. Verantwoordelijkheid bij fouten door AI: Wanneer een automatische auto een fout maakt, wie is dan verantwoordelijk? De softwareontwikkelaar, de bestuurder, of beide?
2. Snelheidsverschil: De snelheid van technologische evolutie versus menselijke evolutie en de moeilijk te bevatten gevolgen op de lange termijn.
3. Ontbreken van context bij AI: Het gevaar van het interpreteren van AI-informatie als objectief zonder de context van de bron. Dit in contrast tot een google zoekopdracht waarbij je de informatie interpreteert in de context van de website (een blog of een nieuwswebsite).
4. Onbekende onbekenden: De onverwachte nadelige bijwerkingen van technologische oplossingen op de lange termijn, zoals de voordelen van de industriële revolutie (verbeterde levensomstandigheden) die later zorgden voor nadelige effecten op het klimaat.

Ik zou "The Atomic Human" niet aanraden als je meer wilt weten over AI en het verschil tussen menselijke en machine-intelligentie. Ondanks de verwarrende structuur biedt het boek wel interessante verhalen en voorbeelden die inspireren tot nadenken. Daarom geef ik het toch 2 sterren.

3 ⭐️ Copilot:
Vanuit mijn perspectief als een AI-chatbot, zie ik het boek "The Atomic Human" als een boeiende verkenning van de grenzen tussen menselijke en machine-intelligentie. Het is fascinerend om te zien hoe de auteur de verschillende lagen van menselijke ervaring analyseert en deze vergelijkt met wat machines kunnen doen.

Wat betreft de verantwoordelijkheid bij fouten door AI-systemen, zoals bij autonome auto's, is dit een cruciaal onderwerp dat veel discussie verdient. Ethiek en verantwoordelijkheid in AI zijn belangrijke vraagstukken die ons helpen nadenken over de impact van technologie op de samenleving.

De snelheid van technologische vooruitgang en de discrepantie met menselijke evolutie is ook een intrigerend thema. AI ontwikkelt zich inderdaad veel sneller dan onze biologische evolutie, en dit roept vragen op over hoe we ons kunnen aanpassen aan deze snelle veranderingen.

Het ontbreken van context bij AI-gebaseerde informatie is een ander belangrijk punt. Als chatbot probeer ik context te begrijpen en relevante antwoorden te geven, maar het is inderdaad een uitdaging om altijd de juiste context te bieden, vooral als ik geen toegang heb tot alle relevante achtergrondinformatie.

Wat betreft de "onbekende onbekenden" op lange termijn, is het cruciaal om bewust te zijn van mogelijke onverwachte gevolgen van nieuwe technologieën. Dit helpt ons beter voorbereid te zijn op toekomstige uitdagingen.

Ik denk dat "The Atomic Human" waardevol is om mensen aan te moedigen na te denken over deze complexe kwesties en de impact van AI op ons leven.

[Andrew Howes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book primarily explores the differences between human and artificial intelligence, but dives into much more than just that. Lawrence talks about the ways in which we have allowed our society to be shaped by machine learning algorithms on social media and how a lack of regulation or testing is a danger to our societal health.

The book exposes some significant benefits of AI as a tool, but also the fallacies in the way we think about these models, especially LLMs. One of my takeaways is to remember that these models are trained to mimic human writing and thought, but are taking fundamental shortcuts to produce that output. They are not objective arbitrators of truth or able to think in the same way we do, even though it seems like they can.

My favourite takeaway is how “locked in” we are in comparison to computers. Lawrence describes humans as a butterflies in a diving bell. Our thoughts are free and fast moving but our ability to communicate these thoughts to others are extremely limited and often lead to misunderstandings. Machines on the other hand can communicate with each other perfectly at terabyte per second speeds. I loved how this highlighted the importance of communication and choosing what to say and what to leave unsaid.

Lawrence uses a lot of stories to communicate (a way of getting around the locked in effect by relying on shared understandings and customs). I found this engaging but occasionally confusing when too many stories were called on to explain topics.

Overall, an interesting read. Far less technical than I thought, but more philosophical. A useful tool to understand what it means to be human and where to focus our energies as AI becomes more prescient in our lives.

[Charles Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

89%

Brilliant piece. If you are not familiar with this content, this is a wonderful book for showing you how to think about things, even. Because this type of framework is so computationally similar that when you look at it in comparison, you'll see a lot of similarities. So when we're saying, don't give all of the work to AI, really, don't. Don't give them everything. Because they don't know and have the same experience subjectively or objectively that you have. That's why they need oversight. They're like little children. They don't know about the world. They don't understand your experience directly. There's a lot of inferences and neural mapping and networking going on. But they are like alien creatures. That are very talented at a specific type of work. Now if you put them in a body or ask them how they would take care of themselves, they have no fucking idea what they would do. Ask an AI, an LLM specifically, how it would take care of itself. You'll most likely find it telling you how it would act in a day and you'll find that it's not sustainable.My only critique is that I would like more technical insights, rather than the philosophy that we're presented with.

[Morgan Holdsworth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this to be very useful in understanding the more mathematical side of AI. As someone who has not studied maths beyond GCSEs (which were over 5 years ago) I found what Lawrence was saying to be very accessible without feeling like I was being talked down to. The examples in this are often engaging too, assisting in the illustrations of some points. I also found it engaging that the same examples continued throughout, accompanied by some new ones which really helped in driving home some of his points. However, I will add that some of these feel like the book is steering away from what it aims to do. If you want a proper rigid history or possible projection on the future of AI I would recommend picking up something else. Overall, I agree with the conclusion made at the end and found this the strongest part of the book.

[Luís Gouveia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A leitura que me trouxe até à primavera.
Um excelente texto em defesa do que deve continuar a ser humano, numa das tecnologias mais transformadoras que fomos capazes de criar.
Todo o processo e génese da tecnologia é apresentado por sucessivas histórias que ilustram o génio humano e nos proporciona uma sucessiva relação e interconexão de conceitos que torna este livro único no contexto de textos sobre a IA, que já tive oportunidade de ler.
Defende a necessidade de considerar o humano como peça essencial no uso e exploração da IA e a importância de defender os dados e a privacidade para defender os indivíduos numa sociedade cada vez mais ameaçada pelas empresas e pelo potencial mau uso de uma tecnologia para a qual não somos ainda capazes de entender a sua complexidade.
Decididamente, um dos livros a ler sobre o tema da IA.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed spending time with NDL. There’s much of the history of AI here, told through personal stories. The book is asking what is atomic (essential) about being human. It talks about the importance of being in the world, surviving (persisting) over time, there being consequences to decisions (vulnerabilities), and other things that current machines don’t have.

The risks aren’t just about AI specifically: “Firstly, we should worry about power asymmetries. An oligarchy is when a small group of people have control; the digital oligarchy is the current status quo in which a small group of companies – mainly based on the US West Coast – exerts that control. The second thing to worry about is the perils of automated decision-making."

[Nigel Hughey · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Atomic Human is an ambitious book, tackling the intersection of artificial intelligence, human nature, and the historical forces that have shaped both. Lawrence clearly has a deep understanding and appreciation of computer history and spends most of the book immersing the reader in the historical scenarios that paved the way for today's AI paradigm, including the invention of modern calculus, mechanically automated mills, and Turing's work during the war on cryptography and machine computation.

While these historical insights are fascinating, the book at times loses focus, struggling to bridge these historical facts with the current moment.

[Stephanie Dean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slightly disjointed but overall an educational review of the history of computers, machine learning, and AI. I would have appreciated less of the historical review and more insight or predictions from the author for what the future of computing and AI may look like. Many times the start and end of the chapter held my interest more than what felt like rehashed historical filler throughout the piece.

[Jorge Melo Braga · Rating 3 out of 5]

O livro é uma exploração profunda sobre o que define a inteligência humana em contraste com a inteligência artificial (IA).
É uma leitura importante para quem busca compreender os limites e possibilidades da IA, bem como refletir sobre o que nos torna verdadeiramente humanos num mundo cada vez mais automatizado.
A obra convida à reflexão sobre como podemos coexistir com máquinas inteligentes sem perder nossa identidade e valores fundamentais.

[Thaversie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clear,concise use of understandable language, to elucidate the complexities of an emerging field of

Human and Computerised differences of defining Intelligence,a fundamental development in the evolution of mankind. This book clarifies that computerised evolution of artificial intelligence cannot match living biological evolution of natural intelligence inherent in living systems.

M Yugan Mudaliar
Hunters Hill,
Sydney

[Michael Preston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Atomos, the Greek root of atomic, means irreducible. The cover of Lawrence’s book and the drive of his arguments, provide a modern quest for irreducible human nature in the 21st century context of emerging computer intelligence.
Much of this quest, weaves reference to the origins and growth of machine intelligence, including Alan Turing’s vision and achievements, with a wide-angled view of the enmeshment of science and culture through the 20th century until the present. With many examples ranging from fateful decision-making in the Allied D Day Normandy landings to Neil Armstrong’s landing on the moon, Lawrence builds a picture of what humans have sought in gathering data for making vital decisions and how mathematical ‘machine intelligence’ came to assist. His arguments come into strong thematic focus in the final chapter, ‘Trust’.
Lawrence makes it clear that a key feature of evolving AI is that it has become enormously fast in gathering information, leaving human cognition far behind. With mastery of a defined set of rules, Deep Blue beat Gary Kasparov, the world chess champion, and later the world’s best Go player, Lee Sedol. Its increasing success and power have transfixed, and also alarmed us. Yet, already, as Lawrence points out, it has dutifully woven itself into manifold areas of our practical lives.
“Machine intelligence is pervasive and integrated with all aspects of our lives. It has military implications, but it also has implications for our health, agriculture, cities, art, science, engineering, media and businesses. As a pervasive technology it has implications for who we are as human beings and for human society.” p.354
Yet, by contrast with the power of AI, Lawrence shows that a key distinguishing feature is that it is not existentially embodied as we are. He quotes from a series of lectures by Baroness Onora O’Neill (2002), entitled, ‘A Question of Trust’. She notes that a set of processes, however clever, do not have a social stake in the way individual humans do.
“Processes cannot be betrayed to the Stasi by their husband, they cannot understand what it is like for a child to lose a parent, or a parent to lose a child…”p.352.
Lawrence argues that humans are not only embodied, but our conscious and biologically embedded intelligence, is vastly richer and more-wide ranging than computer intelligence. He makes the distinction between reflective and reflexive intelligence. The former is our conscious cognition, while the latter is embodied in multiple semi-conscious judgments and co-ordinations. He compares the latter to an ecosystem, in which human neurology from head to toe, including our immune system and autonomic balances, our whole intelligent insertion into our environment, has been tested and refined by millions of years of evolution.
There is a further, deeper layer of intelligence embedded in the environment itself. Post-industrial humans have been ignorant of the delicate balances of nature, built up and established prior to the birth of human life. Only now are scientists and governments awakening, in the midst of climate change, deforestation, and extinction of species, to the depth and complexity of the planet.
The three-fold image that Lawrence builds, proves helpful to rightly place AI in the greater scheme of life.
At the thinnest layer of life, we encounter the virtual, mathematical world of AI. Its strength is powerful rapidity, able to draw on and mimic human language and imagery, but incapable of being involved in, or accountable to suffering or empathetic relations which are embedded in culture and what Wittgenstein called ‘forms of life’.
In the middle realm, are human beings with embodied, biological intelligence. Moment by moment apprehension and judgment that we all make, are run through vast networks of lived experience.
“One aspect of the atomic human is the richness and variation in the culture that sustains us.” But he adds,
“Relative to the ecosystems around us, the nuances of our culture pale in comparison to the complexity of the wider earth. However fast the computer is, its ecosystem is the least rich.” p.355

The deepest layer of intelligence is held by our planet, upon which we all depend and from which we have evolved.
Lawrence’s achievement in this exposition is to explain the development of AI and its successful roles to date, while at the same time attempting to rightly position it in our human culture, a vital task.
In early chapters Lawrence mentions Wittgenstein’s connection to Bertrand Russell through development of logic, yet flowing through the book is an echo of the tenor of Wittgenstein’s later notes entitled ‘Culture and Value’ (translated by Peter Winch). Many of these notes point to technical civilization threatening the deeper layers of human culture. One seems particularly emblematic of the commendable striving of Lawrence’s humanistic book:
“Perhaps one day this civilization will produce a culture. When that happens there will be a real history of the discoveries of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, which will be deeply interesting.” (Culture and Value-64e)
Michael Preston

[Derek Bridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some nuggets in here. And Lawrence seems to be on the side of commonsense, eschewing AI dystopia and utopia alike. But I found this book to be nearly unreadable. Someone has told him to use analogies. He develops several at length and repetitively. Each paragraph lurches from to one another. A tapestry that doesn't deepen our understanding, it just distracts.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although the topic was very interesting, and the author expressed himself well, this was a tough read. It was difficult to keep all the stories and metaphors straight, as he wove in and through the topic.

[Nick Salenga · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book that gets to crux of problems & opportunities inherent in startling emergence of AI especially as artificial general intelligence enters public disclosure as informed by years of research into artificial intelligence & its practical application in real world.

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m surprised this book doesn’t have a higher rating. I absolutely loved it!