Tag Archives: Book Reviews

The Decay of Culture?

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Review of C. Rosen (2024). The Extinction of Experience. Being Human in a Disembodied World, W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 272 p.

Have you ever read a book that gave rise to almost as many notes as in the book itself? This is one of them. To be interested in a new approach and to end up very disappointed by the way the book is structured, by its anecdotal character without evidence telling a different story than the book’s title suggests, by the many contradictions, the sloppy research, the repetitive lamentations about disappearing phenomena, the extreme interpretations and one-sidedness of the narrative, and the fact that there are no suggestions for solutions.

In The Extinction of Experience, Christine Rosen eloquently attempts to explain how technology is reshaping the human ‘experience’. She wants readers to think about what it means to be human in a world where digital media seem to overwhelm and take full possession of human attention. Rosen is concerned about what it means to be human when ‘experience’ is hijacked by virtual analogues and becomes disembodied and, more worryingly, monetized. Experiences are, according to Rosen, practices that formed us as individuals, groups, and societies.

“Experiences, broadly considered, are the ways we become acquainted with the world. Direct experience is our first teacher. As we learn to navigate the world around us, we attach meaning to what we encounter. These experiences and meanings differ across times and cultures but share common threads. Different people speak different languages and have different social customs, but the fact that we all have languages and customs is a marker of our shared humanity. Certain types of experience — some rooted deeply in our evolutionary history, such as face-to-face interaction and various forms of pleasure-seeking; others more recent and reflective of cultural norms, such as patience and our sense of public space and place — are fading from our lives. Many of these experiences are what, historically, have helped us form and nurture a shared reality as human beings.” (introduction)

Rosen focuses on what digital platforms have given us, but more importantly, what they have suppressed. Four themes are continuously repeated: the commodification of experience, the collapse of public communal places, the dangers of frictionless interaction, and the need to reclaim ‘embodied’ experiences.

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Overstating a Case

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Review of: J. Haidt (2024). The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, Penguin Press, 400 pp.

I have read the book on two occasions: first when it was first published, and most recently in the last two weeks. It is a disturbing, thought-provoking, controversial and misleading book.

The book is (and continues to be) a bestseller. It has received a great deal of media attention, and it has been translated into many languages. It examines the rise in mental health issues among the generation born after 1995. Haidt’s central thesis is what he calls ‘the great rewiring of childhood’ that fundamentally changed the experiences of young people and that led to an epidemic rise of anxiety, depression, and other mental health problems. His basic premise is twofold: first, that the introduction of smartphones and the subsequent widespread use of social media has transformed a ‘play-based’ childhood into a ‘phone-based’ one, leading to social and sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation, and addiction, and, second, that ‘parental overprotection’ in the real world is matched with ‘parental underproduction’ in the virtual world, leading to youths being confronted with the negatives of social media, like porn, cyber bullying, dangerous challenges as well as ideal types that can never be met. Haidt contends that all of this led to a collective ‘rewiring’ of the young mind, resulting in increased rates of anxiety, depression, self-harm, and (thoughts of) suicide.

Haidt’s critique focuses on social media platforms, or social networking sites, which he argues are characterized by one-to-many and many-to-one communication. This communication predominantly focuses on the ‘best sides’ (or idealized sides) of user lives to groups of unknown others. Haidt expresses particular concern regarding the use of such platforms by young people (defined as individuals under the age of 18) and asserts that the purported benefits of social media, such as enhanced information management and reputation building, are of negligible relevance to this demographic. Instead, he contends that younger users, particularly those between the ages of 10 and 14, primarily employ social media for the purpose of entertainment. The fact that their brains (particularly the regions involved in regulating behaviour) are not yet fully developed means that this aspect of social media platforms has the potential to become addictive, due to the difficulty of discontinuing usage. Haidt posits that contemporary social media platforms are problematic due to several factors, including the prevalence of endless scrolling, push notifications, the emphasis on enticing video content, and personalization. In my opinion, notwithstanding the tendency to reach premature conclusions given the data and analysis presented, Haidt’s thesis does possess a degree of credibility. Social media is a far more compelling and engaging form of entertainment than reading books or watching television. It is a well-documented fact that young people never dedicated 30-35 hours per week to reading or watching television.

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The data’s afterlife

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Have you ever thought about your data’s afterlife? The digital footprints that we leave behind after our demise are so extensive that our identities can persist beyond our mortal existence.

The advent of AI has enabled the possibility to interact with departed loved ones. A young man is still able to compete with his father in an old Xbox racing game, utilizing his father’s saved games. The ‘digital afterlife industry’ provides a posthumous delivery of video, audio, and written messages. The use of AI enables the replication of language patterns and personality traits through the analysis of extensive personal data.

In The Afterlife of Data. What Happens to Your Information When You Die and Why You Should Care, Carl Öhman, an assistant professor at Uppsala University, addresses the issue of data ownership and the decision-making process regarding the fate of our digital assets after our demise. Who assumes control will effectively control future access to this digital past. This information (or substantial portions thereof) will persist, barring the dissolution of Meta (Facebook) and Alphabet (Google) or a conflict that results in the destruction of the data centres used to store these data.

The afterlife of data raises a multitude of ethical, economic, and legal inquiries that are currently unaddressed. The concept of a legal right to privacy does not extend to the deceased. Secrets that were previously thought to be confined to the grave can, in some cases, have a detrimental impact on the reputation of the deceased. In theory, individuals have the option to delete their data, at least any materials they do not wish to be accessible to the general public. Data, however, will endure. Some parents have attempted to access and process the data of their deceased child, but have been unsuccessful. The courts have determined that it is not within their purview to make such decisions, leaving it to the platform’s owners. Neither the EU nor the US has legislation in place governing post-mortem privacy.

The data is held by many organizations, the majority of which are unknown. Most are unwilling to delete these data. Öhman expresses concerns that profit-driven businesses may lack the reliability required to act as guardians of digital heritage. He questions whether governments or NGOs would be more suitable curators, but is unsure and cites George Orwell’s observation that ‘who controls the past, controls the future.’ However, these data could also prove beneficial to historians, policymakers, and society at large. Roy Rosenzweig observed that the data provide researchers with an ‘essentially complete historical record’.

The implications of all of this are significant and warrant further reflection. ‘The Afterlife of Data’ is an insightful book that offers a compelling perspective on the potential implications of data in the afterlife. It is highly recommended reading for those interested in this topic.

C. Öhman (2024). The Afterlife of Data: What Happens to Your Information When You Die and Why You Should Care, University of Chicago Press, 200 pp.

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Co-Intelligence

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I have recently read Ethan Mollick’s book, Co-intelligence. Living and working with AI. The book is well written and an easy and enjoyable read. The author explores the potential of conversational AI (LLMs) in the context of personal and professional realms.

As the book makes clear, LLMs are adept at creative work and at identifying unanticipated correlations. It can falter in elementary intellectual pursuits. It is a statistical model of language that generates a plausible imitation of human responses by calculating the probability of clusters of words. The responses are devoid of cognitive processes, knowledge, or logical validation. They are the result of calculations regarding the optimal sequence of words. The provided response does not need to be accurate or true.

Mollick’s book presents four guiding principles for the practical and ethical use of LLMs:
[1] Use LLMs to investigate and delineate the boundaries of their functionalities.
[2] Engage in active monitoring of the responses provided, ensuring that they are accurate, true, and free from hallucinations.
[3] Treat conversational AI as a person. Critique its answers, clarify where necessary, reformulate questions, and offer feedback.
[4] Treat every LLM as if it is the least sophisticated model you ‘will ever use,’ recognizing that new iterations or models may offer improvements.

What struck me is the banality of conversational AI. It will be unknown whether the words were written by conscious minds or AIs and have ‘feeling’. Mollick refers to this as a ‘crisis of meaning’, but a crisis of language seems more accurate.

Mollick emphasizes the concept of ‘co-intelligence’, humans and AI working together to enhance productivity, creativity and decision-making. He proposes a symbiotic relationship in which AI tools enhance human capabilities. The book is full of anecdotes, examples, and texts that seek to demonstrate the veracity of that proposition. There is, however, no theoretical basis to support this assertion.

In contradiction, an article in Nature Human Behaviour in October 2024 found that, on average, human–AI combinations performed significantly worse than the best of humans or AI alone. See: M. Vaccaro, A. Almaatouq, and T. Malone (2024). ‘When combinations of humans and AI are useful: A systematic review and meta-analysis’, Nature Human Behaviour (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-02024-1.

The book’s implications for the use of conversational AI in an educational context are interesting. This is in line with Mollick’s educational experience at the Wharton School of Business. He requires the use of such tools by his students. Allegedly, a teacher has the potential to significantly enhance the quality of learning outcomes.

The book’s lack of academic depth and its anecdotal nature make it an excellent introduction for those with limited knowledge of AI. I can recommend reading it, especially for students.

E. Mollick (2024). Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI, Penguin Portfolio, 256 pp.

Published as e LinkedIn post here.

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Harari’s Nexus

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I am not the first to comment on Yuval Harari’s new book Nexus. A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age. The reception has been mixed. I was curious to see if Harari would offer more than ‘big ideas’ and ‘big history’ that doesn’t require archival sources and close reading before drawing conclusions. In Sapiens, Harari proposed big ideas with abandon, such as gossip as the basis of the ‘cognitive revolution’ and the agricultural revolution as the ‘biggest fraud’ in history. Both may be big ideas, but they are also untrue. His generalizations paint beautiful, well-written and easy to understand anecdotes, but most of them are just that: anecdotes, mostly unconfirmed, unproven and without context.

Nexus is a disappointing read. The book could have been shorter than the 528 pages Harari expects us to read. There is much that is interesting, even brilliant. But most are anecdotes without context or truisms presented as original ideas. Harari sets out to write about information, switches to writing about information media and, in the end, about artificial intelligence, which is neither.

But perhaps these stories and truisms are at the heart of the book? Early in the book, Harari debunks the ‘naive view of information’, the idea that gathering more information leads to truth, wisdom and power. According to Harari, there is no correlation between information, truth and power. Information networks are not about truth, they are about stories. Think of religions. They are successful because they have a large information network and they tell the same story. While his point about religions may be true, information networks are not just about stories. There are proven links between control of information, control of (imagined) truth and power.

The second half of the book is about computers and artificial intelligence, which Harari believes could lead to Armageddon. Most of his concerns seem reasonable, such as generative AIs poisoning online discussions. He becomes a prophet when he discusses how ‘AI overlords’ might create a new pandemic, a new kind of money, and a flood of fake news or incitement to riot on information networks. Fake news and incitement are already true, and we don’t need advanced ‘AI overlords’ for that. And a solution? Regulation and ‘institutions with strong self-correcting mechanisms’. Answering with a truism to fight the ‘end of days’? Such a solution will not prevent a situation in which, as he writes in the prologue, ‘we might find ourselves nowhere at all, as Earth becomes inhospitable for human life’. He could have done better.

Nexus lacks focus. Anecdotes from all over space and time are juxtaposed and accompanied by truisms, such as, at the end of chapter 11: ‘The only constant in history is change’. Which is true, of course, but I did not need Harari to know that.

Perhaps I am a naive information theorist. And maybe that is why I do not recommend this book for reading.

Y.N. Harari (2024). Nexus. A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age, Random House, New York, 528 pp.

Published in a post on LinkedIn, September 2024.

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Two book reviews

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There are laying two new, just published books on my desk. I have already read the first one and am currently engaged with the second.

Both books are essential reading for anyone engaged in business, science or a professional field.

In his book, Technology is Dead. The Path to a More Human Future, Chris Colbert presents a framework for a more humane and human-centric relationship with technology, which, as we have created, we must now learn to manage. Central thesis of the book: technology has escaped human control with unintended and inevitable consequences.We have the choice to either continue pursuing technological advancement
at the expense of the planet, life, and our own humanity, or to assume responsibility and direct the course of technological development. We have no sufficient reason to unleash technology without consideration of the consequences.

The second book is Tiankai Feng‘s Humanizing Data Strategy. Leading Data with the Head and the Heart. It is important to recognize that people are emotional, irrational and impulsive, yet they also play a crucialrole in any data strategy. Nevertheless, integrating the human element into data strategy is a challenge. Tiankai presents a framework for understanding the human aspects of data strategy, linking human needs with business objectives through the concepts of competence, collaboration, communication, creativity, and conscience. By acknowledging the inherent biases and emotional influences in data analysis, it becomes evident that empathy, intuition and compassion are essential in the realm of data-driven decision-making. He presents a methodology for making data strategies more inclusive and impactful, combining personal anecdotes with professional knowledge. Fostering a collaborative and ethical data culture requires humanizing data practices, which is an essential step in developing effective and humanized data strategies.

The two books share a common theme of humanizing developments.

If this is a new trend, it is a welcome development.

Published in a post on LinkedIn in september 2024.

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