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Rationality: From AI to Zombies
- Narrated by: George Thomas, Robert DeRoeck, Aaron Silverbook
- Length: 49 hrs and 40 mins
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Publisher's Summary
What does it actually mean to be rational? Not Hollywood-style "rational", where you forsake all human feeling to embrace Cold Hard Logic. Real rationality, of the sort studied by psychologists, social scientists, and mathematicians. The kind of rationality where you make good decisions, even when it's hard; where you reason well, even in the face of massive uncertainty; where you recognize and make full use of your fuzzy intuitions and emotions, rather than trying to discard them.
In Rationality: From AI to Zombies, Eliezer Yudkowsky explains the science underlying human irrationality with a mix of fables, argumentative essays, and personal vignettes. These eye-opening accounts of how the mind works (and how, all too often, it doesn't!) are then put to the test through some genuinely difficult puzzles: computer scientists' debates about the future of artificial intelligence (AI), physicists' debates about the relationship between the quantum and classical worlds, philosophers' debates about the metaphysics of zombies and the nature of morality, and many more. In the process, Rationality: From AI to Zombies delves into the human significance of correct reasoning more deeply than you'll find in any conventional textbook on cognitive science or philosophy of mind.
A decision theorist and researcher at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, Yudkowsky published earlier drafts of his writings to the websites Overcoming Bias and Less Wrong. Rationality: From AI to Zombies compiles six volumes of Yudkowsky's essays into a single audiobook. Collectively, these sequences of linked essays serve as a rich and lively introduction to the science - and the art - of human rationality.
What listeners say about Rationality: From AI to Zombies
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Geordie
- 03-13-18
Great content. Some chapters should be re-recorded.
Start with the positive: the content is amazing, and perhaps life-changing if you aren’t already familiar with Yudkowski and rationalism. It is wide-ranging without being rambling. The ideas will break your brain.
And now the downsides. Some chapters were totally inaudible, as if the narrator was talking into a cheap webcam mic from across the room. Other chapters had decent audio quality but the narrator was so unfamiliar with the material that they mispronounced or flubbed key words and phrases. I get that it’s hard to narrate a nearly 50-hour anthology, but this is some low quality work.
Ultimately I wish this would get tightened up and organized into a true book — a bible of rationality — rather than a giant collection of thematically-connected thoughts. Trim some redundant bits, add connecting material, and take the audio recording process a bit more seriously.
34 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 07-04-18
Must read, for those who are ready.
This is a long and winding book covering many topics with the obvious theme of being more rational as a human despite our flawed machinery of cognition.
If you don't know Yudkowski (I didn't) I would recommend kicking around on the Less Wrong website to get familiar with his style and theme. This book is not right for everyone.
This is NOT a good introduction to the topic. Its math heavy in parts. It rattles the very foundations of your belief system in others and, oh yeah, it's 50 hours long.
That said, if you got here because you are engaged in the life long business of ridding yourself of flawed thinking and have read considerable then I would HIGHLY recommend it.
A background in AI, heuristics and biases, basic philosophy, and familiarity with Beyes Theorem would help a lot. I didn't really have the tools to fully understand it. But I still gained a lot.
A willingness to rethink your most cherished beliefs is probably the strongest prerequisite. If you're not in possession of that trait, don't waste your time.
For me, it's fair to call the book life altering and believe that it has strongly affected the way my life will turn out. It made me rethink quite a few things. That's good. Because, as Eliezer is fond of saying "that which can be destroyed by the truth, should be".
Reading this will definitely red pill you if you are ready.
17 people found this helpful
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- mahoneko
- 12-13-17
One of my top three books ever, maybe number one.
Stop thinking until you've read this. Incredibly important book for everyone, especially, but not just, AI researchers.
12 people found this helpful
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- Ron Gross
- 07-20-19
Mediocre+
I like LessWrong, but this book was too much for me. I listened to about 30-50% before giving up. Most of points Eliezer makes are either too trivial or too complicated. There are a few nice pieces, e.g. the story about the color of the sky, but overall the book lacks consistency and failed to make an impact on me.
7 people found this helpful
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- Johannes
- 04-02-18
Interesting read. Narration quality varies.
"Rationality" is a very interesting text with useful insights and important problems to think about.
For a few chapters you should still have the website in front of you, since they contain formulas and/or figures.
At least one of the narrators is very good, but not all of them are.
5 people found this helpful
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- Ashwin
- 11-27-19
Chapter Titles Should Replace Chapter Numbers
It's hard to keep track of articles when it's missing chapter Titles in the Audible menu.
I hope this can be fixed.
4 people found this helpful
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- Austin Voecks
- 03-03-18
Excellent content, amateur narration
The main narrator was excellent, and reads the majority of the chapters but the other narrators were quiet, muffled, and background noises could be heard
3 people found this helpful
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- Kindle Customer
- 11-09-19
Fascinating and true
This book changed my life for the better. Anyhow, for the better or worse there's no coming back.
2 people found this helpful
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- Ryan
- 03-11-19
Amazing, entertaining, informative, BRILLIANT!
A required read for all
If you like this check out Harry Potter M.O.R!!!
Thanks Audible!
2 people found this helpful
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- Jurgis Pasukonis
- 01-25-19
Mind-changing
Yudkowsky has developed a framework for thinking and making sense that is unparalleled. He clarifies so many confusing questions, that it seems like you've made 10 years of progress, and you can literally feel your thinking becoming sharper as you read. Essential for anyone, who wants to understand the world and themselves.
2 people found this helpful
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- Dylan
- 04-11-19
Clear, Important and Enjoyable
Yudkowsky rips through traditional ideas of rationality and clearly ties together Bayesian probability theory, cognitive psychology, epistemology, computer science, thermodynamics and quantum physics into an understandable and coherent picture of decision making systems.
Despite the length, I could not stop listening to this book. I've bought physical copies of the available books (RAZ:1 and RAZ:2) and I will likely buy more when they become available. The content of RAZ compares to Godel, Escher, Bach, although Yudkowsky doesn't have quite the artistic flair that Hofstadter has.
The serial-position effect from psychology says that memory recall for information dips in the middle of a list of points, so I will sneak my criticisms into this paragraph. RAZ is organised into a collection of 6 books which are created from essays written on LessWrong. As a result it can be a bit repetitive (Although it can sometimes help that important points are repeated). The thesis would seriously benefit from being condensed into 500-600 pages. I advise buying the Kindle edition alongside the audiobook and listening at 2x playback speed. I took notes and highlighted important points, and I plan to do my own small write-up of what I have learned.
I worry that for readers of a non-technical background Yudkowsky blows over topics in probability theory, computer science and physics too quickly. The insights might not be so readily available if you can't picture the processes that he discusses, but I think it's worth it for any non-techincal people to try to grapple with these ideas as much as they can. I can promise that if you put the effort in to learn some of this stuff you will be rewarded with a precise way to think about complex, interesting topics.
I can't emphasise enough just how clear-minded Yudkowsky is about the topic of rationality. He understands it deeply and doesn't hold back in showing how much he cares. Rationality isn't simply about "being right"; it's about thinking carefully to achieve the things that you want to achieve.
But don't be mistaken in thinking that this is a self-help book. The majority of the time is spent discussing how to make sense of reality. The corollary is that if you want to make changes in the world, hug reality tight, you can't navigate if your map doesn't reflect the territory, and learn to take joy in the merely real.
4 people found this helpful
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- Milan Topalov
- 12-15-19
Writing style is just bad
I was sold on the subject and a few good reviews. But after listening for 20 mins I gave up. instead of philosophical book I got a badly written sales book. Writing is so jumpy, imprecise, all over the place I just quit. Mind you I am sort of a person who would read a bad book just to determine how bad is it, but I just could not stomach this.
2 people found this helpful
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- Mark
- 05-08-18
Long but worth it
I think I understood about 70% of the book but it was enough to make me feel like I have super powers.
For the most part, I found the book highly accessible, largely entertaining and extremely useful.
Would recommend it to anyone who wants to know how to use their mind more effectively.
2 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 06-02-23
Subtly life-changing
some parts can get boring and repetitive but in other parts yudkowsky was upheaving my entire worldview with precision. very satisfying to listen to
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- Marcel
- 01-04-23
The Best Book Ever.
This is eyes opening book that should be required reading on every university in the world. I mean not just for students but professors too.
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- Luke
- 03-02-19
Outstanding Book; Incomplete Audio
Eliezer Yudkowsky is a shining beacon of hope for humanity, and this book on rational thinking does a brilliant job of teaching some of the most difficult things there are to teach.
The book itself is amazing, but this audio recording omits numerous chapters due to their inclusion of diagrams and mathematics. It is incredibly disappointing to hear "This chapter can be read on pages X through Y of the eBook", especially when a free audio version of this book is being made and it includes them. It should be up to me as a reader to decide if I need to see the pages or can get by on descriptions - this simply feels like a lazy narrator that thought it seemed hard.
Overall I love the book, but if this book isnt priority number one on your list I'd wait for the podcast to finish.
3 people found this helpful
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- raz
- 02-17-19
Very good introduction to Bayesian thinking
Yudkowsky explains very well what it means to be thinking in rational way. The book can be thought of as a starting guide on how to be more rational. I’ve enjoyed the thought provoking stories like the jester. I will refer to this book for years to come.
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Story
Human beings are primates, and primates are political animals. Our brains, therefore, are designed not just to hunt and gather but also to help us get ahead socially, often via deception and self-deception. But while we may be self-interested schemers, we benefit by pretending otherwise. The less we know about our own ugly motives, the better - and thus, we don't like to talk, or even think, about the extent of our selfishness. This is "the elephant in the brain".
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Let Me Save You the Credit
- By Evert on 03-16-19
By: Kevin Simler, and others
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Superintelligence
- Paths, Dangers, Strategies
- By: Nick Bostrom
- Narrated by: Napoleon Ryan
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Superintelligence asks the questions: What happens when machines surpass humans in general intelligence? Will artificial agents save or destroy us? Nick Bostrom lays the foundation for understanding the future of humanity and intelligent life. The human brain has some capabilities that the brains of other animals lack. It is to these distinctive capabilities that our species owes its dominant position. If machine brains surpassed human brains in general intelligence, then this new superintelligence could become extremely powerful - possibly beyond our control.
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Colossus: The Forbin Project is coming
- By Gary on 09-12-14
By: Nick Bostrom
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Architects of Intelligence
- The Truth About AI from the People Building It
- By: Martin Ford
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 20 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How will AI evolve and what major innovations are on the horizon? What will its impact be on the job market, economy, and society? What is the path toward human-level machine intelligence? What should we be concerned about as artificial intelligence advances? Architects of Intelligence contains a series of in-depth, one-to-one interviews where New York Times best-selling author Martin Ford uncovers the truth behind these questions from some of the brightest minds in the artificial intelligence community.
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Architects of Intelligence
- By GEORGE D RICE on 01-12-20
By: Martin Ford
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Human Compatible
- Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control
- By: Stuart Russell
- Narrated by: Raphael Corkhill
- Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the popular imagination, superhuman artificial intelligence is an approaching tidal wave that threatens not just jobs and human relationships, but civilization itself. Conflict between humans and machines is seen as inevitable and its outcome all too predictable. In this groundbreaking audiobook, distinguished AI researcher Stuart Russell argues that this scenario can be avoided, but only if we rethink AI from the ground up. Russell begins by exploring the idea of intelligence in humans and in machines.
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Good General Introduction to AI Topic
- By Catherine Puma on 03-26-20
By: Stuart Russell
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The Alignment Problem
- Machine Learning and Human Values
- By: Brian Christian
- Narrated by: Brian Christian
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Today's "machine-learning" systems, trained by data, are so effective that we've invited them to see and hear for us - and to make decisions on our behalf. But alarm bells are ringing. Systems cull résumés until, years later, we discover that they have inherent gender biases. Algorithms decide bail and parole - and appear to assess black and white defendants differently. We can no longer assume that our mortgage application, or even our medical tests, will be seen by human eyes. And autonomous vehicles on our streets can injure or kill.
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Required reading for any AI course
- By ehan ferguson on 11-16-20
By: Brian Christian
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The Complete Deathless Saga: Books 1-6 and the Prequel Novella
- By: Chris Fox
- Narrated by: Ryan Kennard Burke
- Length: 75 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A pyramid predating all known cultures appears without warning. Its discovery throws into question everything we know about the origins of mankind. Inside lies incredible technology, proof of a culture far more advanced than our own. Something dark lurks within, eager to resume a war as old as mankind. When it is unleashed it heralds the end of our species’ reign.
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Great series
- By Jeffrey H. on 05-10-23
By: Chris Fox
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The Elephant in the Brain
- Hidden Motives in Everyday Life
- By: Kevin Simler, Robin Hanson
- Narrated by: Jeffrey Kafer
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Human beings are primates, and primates are political animals. Our brains, therefore, are designed not just to hunt and gather but also to help us get ahead socially, often via deception and self-deception. But while we may be self-interested schemers, we benefit by pretending otherwise. The less we know about our own ugly motives, the better - and thus, we don't like to talk, or even think, about the extent of our selfishness. This is "the elephant in the brain".
-
-
Let Me Save You the Credit
- By Evert on 03-16-19
By: Kevin Simler, and others
-
Superintelligence
- Paths, Dangers, Strategies
- By: Nick Bostrom
- Narrated by: Napoleon Ryan
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Superintelligence asks the questions: What happens when machines surpass humans in general intelligence? Will artificial agents save or destroy us? Nick Bostrom lays the foundation for understanding the future of humanity and intelligent life. The human brain has some capabilities that the brains of other animals lack. It is to these distinctive capabilities that our species owes its dominant position. If machine brains surpassed human brains in general intelligence, then this new superintelligence could become extremely powerful - possibly beyond our control.
-
-
Colossus: The Forbin Project is coming
- By Gary on 09-12-14
By: Nick Bostrom
-
Architects of Intelligence
- The Truth About AI from the People Building It
- By: Martin Ford
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 20 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How will AI evolve and what major innovations are on the horizon? What will its impact be on the job market, economy, and society? What is the path toward human-level machine intelligence? What should we be concerned about as artificial intelligence advances? Architects of Intelligence contains a series of in-depth, one-to-one interviews where New York Times best-selling author Martin Ford uncovers the truth behind these questions from some of the brightest minds in the artificial intelligence community.
-
-
Architects of Intelligence
- By GEORGE D RICE on 01-12-20
By: Martin Ford
-
Human Compatible
- Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control
- By: Stuart Russell
- Narrated by: Raphael Corkhill
- Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the popular imagination, superhuman artificial intelligence is an approaching tidal wave that threatens not just jobs and human relationships, but civilization itself. Conflict between humans and machines is seen as inevitable and its outcome all too predictable. In this groundbreaking audiobook, distinguished AI researcher Stuart Russell argues that this scenario can be avoided, but only if we rethink AI from the ground up. Russell begins by exploring the idea of intelligence in humans and in machines.
-
-
Good General Introduction to AI Topic
- By Catherine Puma on 03-26-20
By: Stuart Russell
-
The Alignment Problem
- Machine Learning and Human Values
- By: Brian Christian
- Narrated by: Brian Christian
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Today's "machine-learning" systems, trained by data, are so effective that we've invited them to see and hear for us - and to make decisions on our behalf. But alarm bells are ringing. Systems cull résumés until, years later, we discover that they have inherent gender biases. Algorithms decide bail and parole - and appear to assess black and white defendants differently. We can no longer assume that our mortgage application, or even our medical tests, will be seen by human eyes. And autonomous vehicles on our streets can injure or kill.
-
-
Required reading for any AI course
- By ehan ferguson on 11-16-20
By: Brian Christian
-
Artificial Intelligence
- A Guide for Thinking Humans
- By: Melanie Mitchell
- Narrated by: Abby Craden, Melanie Mitchell, Tony Wolf
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
In Artificial Intelligence, Mitchell turns to the most urgent questions concerning AI today: How intelligent - really - are the best AI programs? How do they work? What can they actually do, and when do they fail? How humanlike do we expect them to become, and how soon do we need to worry about them surpassing us? Along the way, she introduces the dominant methods of modern AI and machine learning, describing cutting-edge AI programs, their human inventors, and the historical lines of thought that led to recent achievements.
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Start understanding AI right here!
- By Chad M. on 01-26-20
By: Melanie Mitchell