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Who Are We Now?
From leading AI researcher Blaise Agüera y Arcas comes an exploration of how biology, ecology, sexuality, history, and culture have intertwined to create a dynamic “us” that can neither be called natural nor artificial.
Identity politics occupies the front line in today’s culture wars, pitting generations against each other, and progressive cities against the rural traditions of our past. Rich in data and detail, Who Are We Now? goes beyond today’s headlines to connect our current reality to a larger more-than-human story.
At the heart of the book is a set of surveys conducted between 2016 and 2021, asking thousands of anonymous respondents all over the United States questions about their behavior and identity, and especially about gender and sexuality. The resulting window into people’s lives is a bit like that of the Kinsey Reports, which scandalized postwar America more than 70 years ago. Today, the landscape is—in every sense—even queerer. Twentieth century heterosexual “normalcy” is on the wane, especially among young and urban people.
The landscape outside has changed too. After millennia of being fruitful and multiplying, we’ve strained, and exceeded, planetary limits. Domesticated animals far outweigh wildlife, and many species are in catastrophic decline. Yet curiously, our own population is poised to begin collapsing this century too, our fertility now curbed by choice rather than by premature death. Is this the end of humanity—or the beginning?
Identity politics occupies the front line in today’s culture wars, pitting generations against each other, and progressive cities against the rural traditions of our past. Rich in data and detail, Who Are We Now? goes beyond today’s headlines to connect our current reality to a larger more-than-human story.
At the heart of the book is a set of surveys conducted between 2016 and 2021, asking thousands of anonymous respondents all over the United States questions about their behavior and identity, and especially about gender and sexuality. The resulting window into people’s lives is a bit like that of the Kinsey Reports, which scandalized postwar America more than 70 years ago. Today, the landscape is—in every sense—even queerer. Twentieth century heterosexual “normalcy” is on the wane, especially among young and urban people.
The landscape outside has changed too. After millennia of being fruitful and multiplying, we’ve strained, and exceeded, planetary limits. Domesticated animals far outweigh wildlife, and many species are in catastrophic decline. Yet curiously, our own population is poised to begin collapsing this century too, our fertility now curbed by choice rather than by premature death. Is this the end of humanity—or the beginning?
- GenresNonfiction
462 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 17, 2024
33 people are currently reading
388 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 6, 2024
Absolutely fascinating book. On the surface, it looks like it is on gender and identity (which it is), but it also explores a number of other topics, doing a historical and current survey of humanity’s diverse, often flawed, and evolving thinking around a number of social and political topics from the perspective of a curious researcher. It is about human nature and how we see ourselves in relation to each other and to our ecosystem/planet. The author comes from a humanist perspective - but one that also acknowledges humanity’s deep connections to (and dependence on) both our planet’s natural systems, and to cultures and technologies of our creation — which in turn shape us. It was also interesting to see the interaction between humanity, culture and technology from the perspective of the author, who has been building and researching AI for many years.
Each chapter came as a surprise, so there is little to no repetition and as a result the book is very high in information value. Similarly, it was not possible to anticipate the conclusions in final chapter, and the interconnectivity of seemingly unrelated topics that in the end came together was both fascinating and deeply enjoyable.
This book was the most powerful curation and synthesis of the ideas of our time relating to humanity, gender and identity I have read in a long time. It was accessible (some charts and numbers but nothing too technical) and with many pointers for future reading. Would be great for book clubs as it left me with the desire to discuss for hours!
Each chapter came as a surprise, so there is little to no repetition and as a result the book is very high in information value. Similarly, it was not possible to anticipate the conclusions in final chapter, and the interconnectivity of seemingly unrelated topics that in the end came together was both fascinating and deeply enjoyable.
This book was the most powerful curation and synthesis of the ideas of our time relating to humanity, gender and identity I have read in a long time. It was accessible (some charts and numbers but nothing too technical) and with many pointers for future reading. Would be great for book clubs as it left me with the desire to discuss for hours!
April 7, 2024
Garbage
December 4, 2024
Amazing intelligence at its best!
I bought this book because of an interview with the author I heard. He seemed incredibly intelligent and interesting. I read the book because he fully lives up to that assessment, and is a humanitarian as well. Highest recommendation.
I bought this book because of an interview with the author I heard. He seemed incredibly intelligent and interesting. I read the book because he fully lives up to that assessment, and is a humanitarian as well. Highest recommendation.
January 12, 2025
An extremely conceited book suffering from terminal Engineer's syndrome https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=... .
The author is a know nothing on what he's writing about but has massive Dunning Kruger sydrome because he thinks another physics analogy and reference to AI is a replacement for understanding human biology.
Reading the book, it seems he thinks he discovered the fact that most "left handed" people are actually broadly ambidextrious, meaning they do different tasks with different hands. Pure left handers are much rarer than left writers that do a lot of other things with their right hand, like use a mouse or scissors.
This is well known in the handedness literature! But he thinks he uncovered this from MTurk and "the establishment is wrong" for talking about left handedness.
More absurdly he suggests that handedness is not genetic and is instead purely caused by accident.
The author doesn't know the first thing about human behavioral biology, a subject which is more difficult and mathematical than the physics and AI that this that this guy was drawn to for social status to signal how smart he is. But his statistical analyses are also extremely poor. He bins his data when he should be using generalized linear models, for instance. His inability to deal with continuous data ironically relates to the facile thesis of the book, that identity leaves out an "excluded middle." Yeah no surprise Sherlock, every undergrad level statistics major knows this, everything is Gaussian in reality. He never learned this because his learning stopped at his physics BA that he never did anything with, except litter this book he wrote 30 years later with useless and annoying metaphors to "the Standard Theory" and so on -- the curse of the type of person with 2 last names who wants to look smart but isn't!
The author is a know nothing on what he's writing about but has massive Dunning Kruger sydrome because he thinks another physics analogy and reference to AI is a replacement for understanding human biology.
Reading the book, it seems he thinks he discovered the fact that most "left handed" people are actually broadly ambidextrious, meaning they do different tasks with different hands. Pure left handers are much rarer than left writers that do a lot of other things with their right hand, like use a mouse or scissors.
This is well known in the handedness literature! But he thinks he uncovered this from MTurk and "the establishment is wrong" for talking about left handedness.
More absurdly he suggests that handedness is not genetic and is instead purely caused by accident.
The author doesn't know the first thing about human behavioral biology, a subject which is more difficult and mathematical than the physics and AI that this that this guy was drawn to for social status to signal how smart he is. But his statistical analyses are also extremely poor. He bins his data when he should be using generalized linear models, for instance. His inability to deal with continuous data ironically relates to the facile thesis of the book, that identity leaves out an "excluded middle." Yeah no surprise Sherlock, every undergrad level statistics major knows this, everything is Gaussian in reality. He never learned this because his learning stopped at his physics BA that he never did anything with, except litter this book he wrote 30 years later with useless and annoying metaphors to "the Standard Theory" and so on -- the curse of the type of person with 2 last names who wants to look smart but isn't!
December 19, 2023
📚 A sneak peek into humanity today.
The book is a thought-provoking exploration of the intricate connections between biology, ecology, sexuality, history, and culture, shaping the dynamic concept of "us."
At its core, the book echoes the groundbreaking approach of the Kinsey Reports, offering a contemporary and even more diverse perspective on gender, sexuality, and societal norms. The narrative highlights the shifting landscape of 21st-century norms, particularly with the decline of traditional heterosexual "normalcy," especially among the young and urban demographic.
What I liked the most about this book is the straightforward approach with scientific evidence and statistics. The question asked in middle of text made me think through the complex tapestry of human identity and its intertwined relationship with the world. Other things I liked about the book were it's ruck collection of illustration, images and the cover design.
Though the future seems enchanting, the book gives alarm about the present moves hampering the future. The book is a rich tapestry of data, detailing surveys conducted between 2016 and 2021 that provide a revealing window into the lives of thousands of anonymous respondents across the United States.
Overall, Who Are We Now? delves deeper into intricacies of human life and technology today by a one-on-one comparison with past and present. If you are someone who likes books like Sapiens, this book is a true gem for you.
The book is a thought-provoking exploration of the intricate connections between biology, ecology, sexuality, history, and culture, shaping the dynamic concept of "us."
At its core, the book echoes the groundbreaking approach of the Kinsey Reports, offering a contemporary and even more diverse perspective on gender, sexuality, and societal norms. The narrative highlights the shifting landscape of 21st-century norms, particularly with the decline of traditional heterosexual "normalcy," especially among the young and urban demographic.
What I liked the most about this book is the straightforward approach with scientific evidence and statistics. The question asked in middle of text made me think through the complex tapestry of human identity and its intertwined relationship with the world. Other things I liked about the book were it's ruck collection of illustration, images and the cover design.
Though the future seems enchanting, the book gives alarm about the present moves hampering the future. The book is a rich tapestry of data, detailing surveys conducted between 2016 and 2021 that provide a revealing window into the lives of thousands of anonymous respondents across the United States.
Overall, Who Are We Now? delves deeper into intricacies of human life and technology today by a one-on-one comparison with past and present. If you are someone who likes books like Sapiens, this book is a true gem for you.
February 4, 2024
Boring, ended up returning it.
February 28, 2024
Very interesting interpretation of current US responses to surveys. Very informative.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews