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The Age of Spiritual Machines

Ray Kurzweil

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 180 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Formative and messy 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

It's a very chaotic collection of thoughts that didn't provide any true insight to me. Compared to "The Singularity Is Near" anyway. (Or maybe it was excactly because I had read it before). The essential subjects, like exponential trends, virtual reality and chaos, get thrown around a lot, but that's it really.

In retrospect was definitely written in a very formative stage of Kurzweil's thought. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge Ray Kurzweil fanboy, but we have better things available now in 2007. I'd recommend skipping it and going straight for The Singularity Is Near. Or, to some other newer book for that matter if you're reading this from the even more distant future, where these subjects finally get the serious attention that they deserve...

The best part I thought was the chapter called 2009.

By 2009 there would finally be wearable computers. We'd also mainly do the hardcore work with lighter than ~1 pound portable computers that come in various shapes and sizes. We'd have "body lans" of about ten different computers around our bodies at all times. Majority of text is created with speech recognition. Mostly no keyboards. Displays with the quality of paper. Instead of speakers, some small devices that can create "audible three frequency sounds from the spectrum created by the interaction of very high frequency tones". Learning has been efficiently computerized. Translating telephone technique with live speech translation. Disabilities are levelable with technology. Computer-collaborated art and music. Awesome electronic music controllers. (We have, what, the Wiimote?) Grammar checkers are actually useful. Cancer mostly eliminated. And most of all, THERE IS INTEREST IN THIS KIND OF PHILOSOPHY.

Editorial Review:

A modern-day Edison offers a serious and surprising look at the future that reads like great science fiction. "The Age of Spiritual Machines" is no mere list of predictions but a framework for envisioning the 21st century. Illustrations & diagrams.

2001: A Space Odyssey

Arthur C. Clarke

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 256 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Arthur C. Clark: Travelogues of the Mind 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I don't know that I would classify Clark as a creator of great fiction; as mentioned in other reviews, the "human equation" in his works is largely missing. Clark excels and creating vivid descriptions of technology and alien grandeur, but his books are a bit lifeless at they have almost no character developement or interesting dialog.

I've read most of his books, and find he is a great alternative in those times I would find myself reaching for an atlas or a National Geographic. Honestly, I think AC Clarke is one of those sacred cow authors--praised by those who think it raises their intellectual profile, and read mainly when bored by those who can see that the emperor, while not entirely naked, could do with more than a loincloth.

Editorial Review:

It has been over thirty years since the publication of this classic science fiction novel that changed the way we look at the stars and ourselves. From the savannas of Africa at the dawn of mankind to the rings of Saturn as man adventures to the outer rim of our solar system, 2001: A Space Odyssey is a journey unlike any other.

This allegory about humanity's exploration of the universe, and the universe's reaction to humanity, was the basis for director Stanley Kubrick's immortal film, and lives on as a hallmark achievement in storytelling.

iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 119 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Great contrast to the Steve Jobs story 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I bought this book about a year ago when I had recently been laid off and wanted to introduce some new ideals into my brain.

I read the Second Coming of Steve Jobs, which showed how a man can be a cutthroat and succeed.

iWoz however, shows how a man can find success doing something he loves, and not get hung up on money or power.

After initially reading the book I thought it was kind of blah, but after seeing more of Woz in person and in various bios, I truly appreciate how genius he truly is.

Excellent read for anyone seeking innovation and drive, because Woz clearly has it!

Well written actually 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Don't be put off by the negative statements about this guy. He is actually a very good writer. He explains himself clearly, and gets across complicated ideas in an accessable way, that... sort of just flows into the brain with the minimal of the reader's effort.

I think the main problem that readers have with his writing, IS his accessability! They want him to write in really over-complicated ways. You know... University degree educated people who feel something is not correct unless it's hard to read and hard to understand, so they can prove they are smarter than everyone else. I think most of the negative reviewers here are the ones who are bloated on the ego and butcher language, cos I found Woz a lot easier to read than their reviews.

Sadly, this is a comment on our times. There are too many stupid people in society who go around rubbishing inventors cos they are jealous that for all their degrees, achievements and so called intelligence, they never found themself capable of inventing anything.

Small minded arrogant University degree educated people make life tough for those who want to make the world a better place.

Editorial Review:

The mastermind behind Apple sheds his low profile and steps forward to tell his story for the first time. From the invention of the first personal computer to the rise of Apple as an industry giant, "iWoz" presents a no-holds-barred, rollicking, firsthand account of the humanist inventor who ignited the computer revolution. Unabridged. 8 CDs.

iCon Steve Jobs, the Greatest Second Act in the History of Business

Jeffrey S. Young, Barton Biggs

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 69 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Exceptionally detailed account of all of Job's successes and failures 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Young and Simon provide an in depth and seemingly unbiased thrashing and congratulatory depiction of what Steve Jobs has accomplished. There is a lot about Jobs covered in this book, and those with an interest in the man behind Apple, the I-pod, and Pixar will find this book fascinating.

Among Steve Jobs accomplishments:
Created the Apple II, making Apple the first computer giant
Created the first windows platform with the Mac
Created the mouse
Funded Pixar against all logic becoming the largest animator in history
Made more money selling a failed company than he did in the original Apple IPO
Current largest stockholder in Disney, Pixar, and ABC
Negotiated the first music store with the music industry in the wake of a long list of heavy failures by major companies to accomplish the same (and paving the way for countless since)
Beat cancer
Despite a long list of failures, is back on top
Created 7 blockbuster movies in a row

Among his failures:
Pissed off enough co workers/employees to nearly fill a stadium.
Blew a chance to develop the windows system for the PC - paving the way for Microsoft.
Wasted more money on failed projects than any computer company in history.

I had written a summary after I read the book that provides a full overview of the entire account. For those already interested in the book, I suggest reading the book instead of finishing my review. For those seeking a summarization of the content of the book, the rest of my review is for you.

-----

Steve was essentially the muscle early on behind his startup, where the other Steve (Steve "Woz" Wozniak) was the schematic genius. Jobs really couldn't build a schematic with the complexity that Woz could, but Woz could not convince, sell, market, raise money, or operate a business the way Jobs could. It was a perfect combination of skills. Early on they sold illegal boxes that permitted people to make free long distance calls. At that point, they realized there was money in developing their chips which up to that point had only been a hobby. They set out with no money to develop a computer, with Woz doing the designing and Jobs doing the business and sales. Jobs eventually sold 100 computers to a retail store, which when delivered would make them $25,000. They didn't get paid until they delivered, so Jobs negotiated to get all the supplies on credit using the agreement he had with the store as collateral. This was the start of Apple, and quite smart money management considering Jobs was still a teenager with long hippie hair and wore only jeans and t-shirts.

Apple was selling a lot of basic kits, but nothing of any great magnitude. With Woz being the brains behind the design of the actual computers, Jobs then took it up a notch. He would go to computer fairs all the time and he began to recognize what people were becoming impressed with. Most of the buyers of computers were what he considered computer geeks who had tech knowledge, so they designed the Apple I to suit them. Jobs recognized that these guys liked to get into the circuitry and see what was going on, so he had Woz design all the wiring in very organized straight lines, as opposed to soldering wires haphazardly, which was common at the time. It was the right call, and they sold enough circuit boards to get the Apple name out there. Next they designed the Apple II, based on Jobs view of what it would take to get into homes. For the early 80's, the Apple II was such a hit that the company went public and Jobs was worth $300 million by age 24.

At this point, Jobs could do no wrong. Things would change however. He was a visionary in one major way; he focused all his energy on what consumers wanted. This led to his products being known for their quality and design...something Apple is still known for to this day. The problem was that this often times took the focus away from budgeting, producing some fairly unrealistic costs. Apple eventually would put out products that were much better than anything out there but were not priced for the market they aimed at, thus becoming failures. This was evident in the next two huge leaps Apple made at Job's direction. He was so shrewd that he made a deal with Xerox to view what they were doing behind closed doors in exchange for some big discounts on services Apple was working on for Xerox (Xerox was also an investor/owner). What they discovered was a user interface that inspired Jobs to come up with what we now know today as windows and a mouse. This was revolutionary.

Apple went ahead with a windows style computer...two of them. The first, the Lisa, was the beginning of problems with Jobs. He was a visionary, but he also was at times a complete disaster when dealing with people. He was so convinced that what he was working on was the future of computers (which in hindsight is interesting) and thus refused to accept anyone else's opinion about anything. This resulted in two revolutionary computers being developed, and two total flops. The LISA had a sales price of $10,000 and never sold. The Macintosh, the computer that is still revered as the most revolutionary breakthrough in computers, although a big seller, never sold what it needed to live up to its reputation as a smashing success. Essentially, the computer was viewed by the public as the best thing since sliced bread, but the cost prevented it from outselling more than IBM PC's. Job's had been spot on about what the computer meant to Apple and the computer industry, but as a result had totally blew the cost analysis of what it would take to become profitable. At this point, people in Apple disagreed so vehemently with him that the board was split about what to do to, and he was eventually voted out. This was the same board of course that was 100% against his view on using the Superbowl commercial Jobs liked to much to present the Mac, which is still the most famous SB commercial ever. Again, Jobs was right, but his total inability to give any focus to cost analysis or people skills got him ousted.

Jobs then went on to start Next. At this point, his net worth was about $90 million (because Apple stock had dropped). He cashed out and used it to fund Next and eventually to buy Pixar, a failing computer company trying to sell computers for artistic design. Both companies were trying to create new computers, something Jobs did at Apple. For years he poured money into both companies, with neither ever developing any notable profit. Early on at Next, IBM approached him about using their operating system to run on IBM computers. They had been negotiating and were coming to an agreement, but Jobs was so difficult to deal with that it caused significant delays. Eventually, the exec at IBM that was interested in Next's system left the company, and IBM chose to look elsewhere. They went with Microsoft, and the rest of that story is history. This was an eye opener for Jobs, a lesson he would not easily forget.

Jobs eventually was finally willing to admit temporary defeat, and that neither company was producing a computer that was going to challenge on the market. Although Next sold hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, this was nothing compared to what Apple and leading PC retailers were doing, so while considered a success to most, this was a failure for Jobs who was known as a revolutionary. Thus, Jobs stopped all computer sales in both companies and focused on software. This changed everything.

With Next, the company was in the brink of bankruptcy when Jobs decided he would make an effort to sell the software to Apple (the software is what windows 95 was based on). When he went to Apple, he found them surprising receptive because the software was very good, and one of Job's biggest strengths was presentation. Jobs identified that Apple was interested and took the negotiation up a notch. He said that if Apple was interested in the software, they would best be served by gaining all the technology and staff of the whole company, essentially they should buy Next. They did, and paid nearly $1 billion which put half a billion in profit right into Job's pocket. This was remarkable considering the company didn't have enough revenue to support itself. In terms of sales, this was among the greatest of all time. But it worked out for Apple as well, because that software was the future of the industry.

With Pixar, Jobs was putting up to a million a month into the company to keep it afloat. He was making so many cuts that the only thing left in the company was its division on animation with 3D graphics. Jobs eventually pressed Disney to do a movie for them, at Disney's cost. This was the beginning of what became the most profitable venture in Job's life. After creating Toy Story, they went on to develop seven blockbusters in a row, bringing the company public, and making Job's far richer than Apple or Next ever did. He was finally a billionaire. In addition, the seven straight blockbusters gained Pixar so much revenue that they became the biggest studio (based on revenue) in Hollywood history, bigger than Paramount, bigger than Lucasfilm, bigger than them all. The bigger they got, the harder Job's negotiated, and eventually they were more powerful than Disney in the animation department. Disney had no other choice left except to buy Pixar, making Jobs the current largest shareholder in all of Disney, Pixar, and ABC all at once. With that purchase, he became more powerful in the media industry than Ted Turner.

Back at Apple, they were facing serious issues ever since the failure of the Mac. Nothing had worked out, and they decided to try giving Jobs another shot. They never looked back. He cut so many Apple projects that he made the company profitable in six months. However, they were no longer a dominant in the market, taking a huge backseat to other major players. Job's sold the Next software to Microsoft to get some profits back and Microsoft went on to use it to design Windows 95. Steve was so focused on quality though, that eventually Apple would regain its reputation. He focused on giving to schools, and got all the kids in the current generation using Macs...what would be a brilliant move for the future. Every school in California was given countless Macs and thus all the kids these days using are Macs...as are the teachers.

The hand held market was taking off in the early 2000's and Job's had to decide what direction to go. He made an unprecedented move by totally discontinuing all Apple's interest in the hand help market. He said he just didn't see a future in it and decided he wanted to go in the direction of music applications. At this point, there were many companies in music that were announcing failures. The invention of Napster had upset the music community so badly that it was near impossible to create anything profitable. Jobs had a different idea. He assessed what the music industry wanted and decided it was a good point to begin negotiations. The music industry feared losing its ability to make residuals because of theft and duplication. They were proposing some of the most ridiculous software which had chased out weaker negotiators, but not Jobs. The music industry wanted features such as monthly subscriptions but no downloads, or, downloads but only onto a single computer, or, downloads that would expire meaning music you bought disappeared after a while. Essentially, the concept of a music store with this type of guidelines would be a ridiculous venture. Steve took the initiative and went to all the top producers and many major labels and bands and presented his case for being able to offer the store with downloads that would have protection, meaning they could not be copied on to other computers or shared, but could be downloaded onto a single music player. In addition, if there was an attempt to transfer the music, it would automatically delete all music on that computer (a feature long gone). This was what Jobs had to doin order for the music industry to agree, and the only way he could offer this was to develop his own software with all these protections. Counter to what is believed to be manipulative marketing strategy to sell his I-pods, this was the reason I-tunes was designed in the limiting manner.

What would happen next changed the industry. Selling music for 99 cents each created billions for the industry, and the music industry eased up considerably as they saw internet sales as a viable way to sell their music and still make a lot of money on residuals. Essentially, Job's had negotiated so hard with so many restrictions that initially the success of I-tunes meant that the music industry would lessen their desire to have so many restrictions, setting the table for many other music stores with FAR less restrictions.

The I-pod sold on its own merit. Jobs had a goal to make a player that was the easiest to use on the market. If you had to hit more than three buttons to reach any song, it would not be acceptable. He designed the pinwheel approach and the I-pod sold on its own accord, and became the bedrock of digital music. Job's was also brilliant in negotiating music legends to do their advertisements for free. He convinced them that the advertisements were just as much an endorsement for them as it was for Apple, so they agreed. .

At this point, he has been spot on for many projects in a row. Surprisingly, it was Pixar that made Job's the most money, but his comeback at Apple making it one of the major players and viable competition for Microsoft's dominance may end up being the ultimate story.

Editorial Review:

This is a 3 Audio CD Set. Lightning never strikes twice, but Steve Jobs has, transforming modern culture first with the Macintosh and more recently the iPod. He has dazzled and delighted audiences with his Pixar movies. And he had be-devilled, destroyed, and demoralised hundreds of people along the way. Steve Jobs is the most interesting character of the digital age. What a long, strange journey it has been. With the mainstream success of the iPod, Pixar's string of hits and subsequent divorce from Disney, and Steve's triumphant return to Apple, his story is better than any fiction. Ten years after the leading maverick of the computer age and the king of digital cool, crashed from the height of Apple's meteoric rise, Steve Jobs rose from ashes in a Machiavellian coup that only he could have orchestrated and has now become more famous than ever.

The Google Story

David Vise, Mark Malseed

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 95 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

"Here is the story behind one of the most remarkable Internet successes of our time. Based on scrupulous research and extraordinary access to Google, the book takes you inside the creation and growth of a company whose name is a favorite brand and a standard verb recognized around the world. Its stock is worth more than General Motors’ and Ford’s combined, its staff eats for free in a dining room that used to be run by the Grateful Dead’s former chef, and its employees traverse the firm’s colorful Silicon Valley campus on scooters and inline skates.

THE GOOGLE STORY is the definitive account of the populist media company powered by the world’s most advanced technology that in a few short years has revolutionized access to information about everything for everybody everywhere.
In 1998, Moscow-born Sergey Brin and Midwest-born Larry Page dropped out of graduate school at Stanford University to, in their own words, “change the world” through a search engine that would organize every bit of information on the Web for free.

While the company has done exactly that in more than one hundred languages, Google’s quest continues as it seeks to add millions of library books, television broadcasts, and more to its searchable database.
Readers will learn about the amazing business acumen and computer wizardry that started the company on its astonishing course; the secret network of computers delivering lightning-fast search results; the unorthodox approach that has enabled it to challenge Microsoft’s dominance and shake up Wall Street. Even as it rides high, Google wrestles with difficult choices that will enable it to continue expanding while sustaining the guiding vision of its founders’ mantra: DO NO EVIL."


From the Hardcover edition.

The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story

Michael Lewis

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 215 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In the weird glow of the dying millennium, Michael Lewis sets out on a safari through Silicon Valley to find the world's most important technology entrepreneur, the man who embodies the spirit of the coming age. He finds him in Jim Clark, who is about to create his third, separate, billion-dollar company: first Silicon Graphics, then Netscape - which launched the Information Age - and now Healtheon, a startup that may turn the $1 trillion healthcare industry on its head.

Despite the variety of his achievements, Clark thinks of himself mainly as the creator of Hyperion, which happens to be a sailboat - not just an ordinary yacht, but the world's largest single-mast vessel, a machine more complex than a 747. Clark claims he will be able to sail it via computer from his desk in San Francisco, and the new code may contain the seeds of his next billion-dollar coup.

On the wings of Lewis' celebrated storytelling, the listener takes the ride of a lifetime through this strange landscape of geeks and billionaires. We get the inside story of the battle between Netscape and Microsoft; we sit in the room as Clark tries to persuade the investment bankers that Healtheon IS the new Microsoft; we get queasy as Clark pits his boat against the rage of the North Atlantic in winter. And in every brilliant anecdote and character sketch, Lewis is drawing us a map of markets and free enterprise in the twenty-first century.

The Emperor's New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds, and the Laws of Physics

Roger Penrose

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 60 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Walking past one another... 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 8 people found this review helpful.

I skimmed over the equations, and still found the exposition clear enough, with one significant exception. At one point, Penrose describes how an event in the Andromeda galaxy would already have occurred for a person on Earth walking toward the galaxy and not for another at the same spot walking away. the implication is that information would arrive at the same place at significantly different times for people walking in different directions. Penrose is assuming simultaneity of the events on our planet and in the Andromeda galaxy -- after several pages of discussion of how relativity excludes it!

Penrose soon returns to form though, stating that neither person would perceive the event until information about it arrived at the speed of light, millions of years later. Even if people could live that long, they would have to keep walking away from one another to perceive the event at very different times. That would be not be possible on our little round planet.

This is the one place where Penrose's discussion of modern physics lost me for a little while. Otherwise, I found it compelling. In particular, his explanation that Newtonian physics is deterministic stuck with me.

The discussion of mind at the end of the book is inconclusive and speculative, as it must yet be. The mechanical structure of living beings reflects Newtonian physics -- for example, the leg must be strong enough to support the body. Digestion can be explained in terms of chemistry, the nervous system uses electrical conduction, the reception of light by the eye is a quantum phenomenon. But then, there is the mind. Though the uncertainty in quantum physics allows of free will, it does not explain that, or consciousness. Evolution takes advantage of physical phenomena not yet understood -- after all, none were understood until very recently. The question of consciousness and that of the structure of the universe converge. Thought-provoking, indeed!

Editorial Review:

In the readition of the bestselling Chaos and A Brief History of Time, here is a science book with mainstream appeal. Proponents of artificial intelligence maintain that eventually a computer will be able to do everything a human mind can do, but Oxford University Professor of Mathematics Roger Penrose explains his view that there are facets of human thinking that can never be emulated by a machine. Drawings throughout.

Weaving the Web : The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by Its Inventor

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 51 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

The web has never been so boring... 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Yes, the book is important because of the role that Tim played in creating the web. It has scattered pieces of trivia and background information that I enjoy digging up from these techno-biographies. But let's be honest: this book is a real snooze-fest. It is only engaging in the mildest sense of the term. One must concentrate hard to keep the mind from wandering. There is no color to it.

Editorial Review:

Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, has been hailed by Time magazine as one of the 100 greatest minds of this century.His creation has already changed the way people do business, entertain themselves, exchange ideas, and socialize with one another. With new online businesses and communities forming every day, the full impact of Berners-Lee's grand scheme has yet to be fully realized.

Now, this low-profile genius tells his own story of the Web's origins--from its radical introduction and the creation of the now ubiquitous WWW and HTTP acronyms to how he sees the future development of this revolutionary medium.

Berners-Lee offers insights to help listeners understand the true nature of the Web, enabling them to use it to their fullest advantage. He shares his views on such critical issues as censorship, privacy, and the increasing power of software companies in the online world.

Weaving the Web : The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by Its Inventor

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 51 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

The web has never been so boring... 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Yes, the book is important because of the role that Tim played in creating the web. It has scattered pieces of trivia and background information that I enjoy digging up from these techno-biographies. But let's be honest: this book is a real snooze-fest. It is only engaging in the mildest sense of the term. One must concentrate hard to keep the mind from wandering. There is no color to it.

Editorial Review:

Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, has been hailed by Time magazine as one of the 100 greatest minds of this century.His creation has already changed the way people do business, entertain themselves, exchange ideas, and socialize with one another. With new online businesses and communities forming every day, the full impact of Berners-Lee's grand scheme has yet to be fully realized.

Now, this low-profile genius tells his own story of the Web's origins--from its radical introduction and the creation of the now ubiquitous WWW and HTTP acronyms to how he sees the future development of this revolutionary medium.

Berners-Lee offers insights to help listeners understand the true nature of the Web, enabling them to use it to their fullest advantage. He shares his views on such critical issues as censorship, privacy, and the increasing power of software companies in the online world.