The December Reading List

We’re back again… and I appreciate I may have skipped last month having only read two books, but in fairness one of them was Yuval Noah Harari’s latest and that was quite chunky. Moving forward, I have quite a lot on my plate for the next few months… so I will be less a slave to strict timings for reading lists, and will simply write something up whenever I have read 3 books.

Anyhow, without any further ado let’s dive in… I must apologise for the lack of images etc… I’m writing this list of my iPad and don’t have the patience for the formatting in the same way as I do on the laptop. 

Nexus - A brief history of information networks from the Stone Age to AI  - Yuval Noah Harari

The first book on this month’s reading list is the next instalment from Yuval Noah Harari and is called Nexus. I’ve long been a fan of Harari and this one certainly didn’t disappoint either in terms of thinking about the future and the consequences of advancing AI. At its core, the book is about networks, and the transformational impact they have on the sharing and distributing of information and data. Harari takes a brief look at the history of such networks - with a lot of emphasis on the role of the Gutenberg printing press in expediting information sharing, before starting to think about what AI can do to these networks and the potential risks which may be involved.  

One avid reading list reader has suggested that I make these “reviews” a little more concrete and in depth in terms of key learnings, so each reading list I will do a bit of a deeper dive on at least one of the books I’ve read. For Nexus, broadly, I would split the key ideas of the book into three distinct themes. 

1. The “naive view of information” - that is the view that more information necessarily leads to a smarter and improving body of knowledge - is incorrect. And always has been, but the risks are building as the pace of information sharing has grown exponentially quicker. Harari frames this as a question of trust - in the era of deepfakes, extremely biased media and rising political dissonance how can we be sure of the authenticity of a source? And how can it go wrong when we “choose” our source of media which ultimately turns out to be biased. As AI multiplies the quantity of media which can be consumed, this likely only becomes a bigger issue as custom content can be deployed to influence consumer decisions, political decisions and even potentially decide elections.
2. The ability for AI networks to effectively reduce the ability for privacy to close to zero. In what might be one of my favourite sections, Harari talks a lot about Ceaușescu’s Romania, and how even with the immense resourcing of the Securitate, when you went home, you were in a relatively private place. The development of AI though (and the key here is this is not just through the use of systems like Alexa etc) reduces this privacy wall and basically creates a never-ending supply of information which could be used by bad actors to manipulate individuals. One example given is how in Iran, cameras are operational now which constantly surveil and can identify women not wearing headscarves, and then fine them directly. (While not the key focus for the book, I would also recommend Shoshana Zuboff’s The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, which talks a lot more about how businesses are monetising data by manipulating decision making). 
3. The capacity for AI to develop networks at an accelerated rate which ultimately humans won’t be able to understand. This is a really key point of the book, and while Harari takes quite a dystopian viewpoint here and talks a lot about the potential for effectively human life and freedom ending as we know it, I actually think there is a bigger point here which is more near-term - namely… How do we know why the algorithm decides what it decides? This has already been a significant issue in finance where people will be denied mortgages based upon various features, but as we gain more and more data it’s likely these algorithms will make decisions (such as whether or not to lend) based upon infinitely many things. And therefore when your loan is rejected, and you ask for a reason… one may not be readily available from the black box. At a more serious level, it may become the case that black box algorithms ultimately take over decisions like military strategy, and decide upon a course of action simply because the algorithm thinks it’s best… if that results in a failure or a loss, the question will be why? And the algorithms may not be able to answer. It will be like having a nation run by a chess machine which thinks a million moves ahead. 

Ultimately, the vision which Harari paints is quite a dystopian one. And while I think he may be right on the risks of reaching quite poor outcomes, I am more convinced that actually there are material upsides which can come to AI through productivity, connectivity, and just generally making our lives easier. Nevertheless, it’s a great read, and very thought provoking stuff, and therefore my favourite book on this current reading list!

Haben - The deaf blind woman who conquered Harvard Law - Haben Girma.

This one was super interesting and only came onto my radar through the book club I’m a part of. Essentially it’s a story of incredible success in the face of immense challenges. But the main takeaways I took from it were more around ableism and the problems that causes / confidence damage it can create. There’s a simple passage in the book about when her little cousin insists that a blind person can’t make a sandwich… and after Haben does exactly that, he still can’t believe it’s possible. Then the other aspect though is for self advocacy, and it’s this where I think the broader message of the book can be taken and applied. Haben was repeatedly told, no you can’t do this or that (like when she wanted to do a trip to Mali to help with building a new school - she ultimately did do it), but ultimately through perseverance, arguing and studying she did generally succeed. One of the most telling passages was around her struggle to get accessible menus in her college, all she wanted was an email / digital format of the canteen menu each day and it took threatening legal action to actually get to that point. She would not be told, no this is something you cannot do. I think it’s an exceptional story of overcoming the odds, though I also thought about how difficult it is for people in similar circumstances who wouldn’t be born in California, who wouldn’t have access to the technological solutions which were expensive and tough to develop, or who just generally didn’t have a support network around them within their schools and colleges to help guide them in the right direction. 

The Hillbilly Elegy - J.D. Vance 

With a new VP-Elect, I thought it was worth giving his book a read. And I have to say, while I do not like his politics, I do think the narrative which Vance composes is quite compelling in terms of explaining where the passion for Trump has come from (this despite the fact it pre-dates Trump’s first term). Vance portrays a picture of a people who have been left behind, a people who are not supported by federal programs or looked out for by the authorities. But rather people who used to live in a middle-sized city supported by industry, but that industry has since left leaving those without the financial means to escape stranded. This I think is the key message of the book, and it’s these people who have become so willing to believe in narratives which explain their misfortune or believe in ideologues who create a sense of hope for them. 

The other part of this which is deeply impressive is the way in which Vance has made his way up in the world, again leaving his politics to one side his background, childhood trauma and the adversity against him all make it incredibly impressive that he graduated Yale Law yet alone coming on to be the Vice-President.  I’m keeping this review quite brief, as I don’t want to dissuade anyone from reading it. In this day and age, the polarity of politics does mean that many like to dismiss before considering, but I would urge against that with this book. It is an insight into what led to Trump, and it is an insight into the political forces which drove him to actually win the public vote for the first time. I highly recommend it, even to those who may be reluctant to give money to the other side…