Automate This

How Algorithms Came to Rule Our World

By: Christopher Steiner

Narrated by: Walter Dixon

Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

The rousing story of the last gasp of human agency and how today’s best and brightest minds are endeavoring to put an end to it.

It used to be that to diagnose an illness, interpret legal documents, analyze foreign policy, or write a newspaper article you needed a human being with specific skills - and maybe an advanced degree or two. These days, high-level tasks are increasingly being handled by algorithms that can do precise work not only with speed but also with nuance. These "bots" started with human programming and logic, but now their reach extends beyond what their creators ever expected.

In this fascinating, frightening audiobook, Christopher Steiner tells the story of how algorithms took over - and shows why the "bot revolution" is about to spill into every aspect of our lives, often silently, without our knowledge. The May 2010 "Flash Crash" exposed Wall Street’s reliance on trading bots to the tune of a 998-point market drop and $1 trillion in vanished market value. But that was just the beginning. In Automate This, we meet bots that drive cars, pen haikus, and write music mistaken for Bach’s. They listen in on our customer service calls and figure out what Iran would do in the event of a nuclear standoff. There are algorithms that can pick out the most cohesive crew of astronauts for a space mission or identify the next Jeremy Lin. Some can even ingest statistics from baseball games and spit out pitch-perfect sports journalism indistinguishable from that produced by humans.

The interaction of man and machine can make our lives easier. But what will the world look like when algorithms control our hospitals, our roads, our culture, and our national security? What happens to businesses when we automate judgment and eliminate human instinct? And what role will be left for doctors, lawyers, writers, truck drivers, and many others? Who knows - maybe there’s a bot learning to do your job right this minute.

©2012 Christopher Steiner (P)2012 Gildan Media LLC

Critic reviews

"Algorithms are affecting every field of human endeavor, from markets to medicine, poker to pop music. Listen to this audiobook if you want to understand the most powerful force shaping the world today and tomorrow." (Andrew McAfee, principal research scientist, MIT; coauthor of Race Against the Machine)

A wide but shallow non-technical pop science

This is a wide but shallow non-technical pop science insight into many of the algorithms that automate our world. It is interesting to the uninvolved people, perhaps inspiring to some, and a waste of time to those who know a thing or two about the areas discussed in this book. The narrator is clear but sounds like a dumb computer algorithm himself.

Wide-ranging, non-technical

This book in a talkative-colorful style tours through many creators and applications in various sub-fields of this big, emerging part of our lives. It shows in a general and non-tech way how a set of ideas or a body of knowledge is mapped onto a high-speed decision system. (Sometimes, the system is building knowledge as it goes.) The story about the evolution of call centers, and how a "bot" quickly reads the caller's personality from a few word usages and sentence structures, to route the call to the right type of response (and responder) was very telling. It is typical of the way our interactions with business (even fleeting ones) are increasingly mapped from the first milliseconds, to improve the customer service experience (or manipulate us, or introduce a ruthless efficiency to reduce the call center workforce, etc., there being many dimensions, depending on how one might like to look at it). That data is, of course, stored and continuously analyzed. This book is pretty friendly toward the purveyors of these changes. Other audios loosely in this genre include "Super Crunchers" and "Dark Pools."

Automation everywhere.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

It's surprising how algorithms will or already do affect our daily lives.

Did Automate This inspire you to do anything?

It inspired me to learn to code more.

Any additional comments?

Everyone needs a little bit of understanding of how automated algorithms affect them.

Engrossing

Where does Automate This rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Top 10%

Any additional comments?

I loved this book. It weaves a good story and has many examples.
I now see algorithms in action in even more places - clearly an effect of 'focusing'
It also offers a glimpse into the future.
In any case this is a book not to be missed.

An exposé on the computer programs in our lives

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, I have, it's well done.

What other book might you compare Automate This to and why?

Perhaps, "In the Plex," but I haven't had time to listen to / read that one yet; "In the Plex" is about Google's rise.

What about Walter Dixon’s performance did you like?

His narration is convincing.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

I wouldn't make a film of this book.

Interesting and sometimes profoundly disturbing

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Not a great book, but a good one which shares some of the stories from the front lines of the work of coders mining mountains of data to not just recommend movies on Netflix or books on Amazon, but to pick which customer service rep should catch the call from my number because of the way my last call went. Parts of this book are profoundly disturbing, some are surprising and most are merely interesting.

Any additional comments?

This books pulls back the curtain on the automated processes that took over the stock market and now are creeping into our daily lives.

inspirational

very good insights very relevant ...one really draws inspirations from most stories here the peterfy story relevant for enyone in finance.

Both inspiring and frightening!

This book is exciting, inspiring and at the same time frightening. Computers and the people who understand them are helping humanity and at the same time gaining a huge edge over people who don't understand and use computers and have the capital to take advantage of their capabilities.

Every late middle school or early high school student should read this book. Their life's trajectory would certainly change to include a more technical education.

For those of us who are on the other end of life's spectrum it makes one wonder whether life has any safe professions or havens for our children and grandchildren. Will half of our doctors be replaced by computers?

When one spends eight to twelve years after high school in study to become a professional is it possible to see all of that work become obsolete with the perfection of a few computer algorithms? But think --- of all of the benefit to humanity from more accessible and accurate medical treatment for everyone on the receiving end instead of the dispensing end of the medical profession. And on it goes.

In the future truck convoys of driverless trucks are likely to deliver our goods in half the time at a fraction of the current cost with no accidents --- and at the same time displace a million truck drivers.

Think of NYC with twenty thousand automated driverless taxi cabs that are incapable of taking the slowest route or blowing a horn or violating a safety law or even having a collision of any sort. Complete safety. Reduced cost. No noise. Displaced drivers.

Read or listen to this book or ----- stick your head in the sand and be intentionally ignorant of the future --- your choice. The change is in progress. Part is history but the exciting part is what is to come.

Eye opening!

This is an eye opening information and its analysis is nothing but trivial. Nevertheless the author manage to presented in a excellent style and pace. Highly recommended!

Thought Provoking

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

If you are interested in tech - yoou will like this book.

Were the concepts of this book easy to follow, or were they too technical?

Easy to follow

Any additional comments?

OK - but not WOW...