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Darwin Among the Machines: The Evolution of Global Intelligence (Helix Books)
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Author: George B. Dyson
List Price: $16.00
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 0738200301
Publisher: Perseus Book Group (October, 1998)
Edition: Paperback
Sales Rank: 29,603
Average Customer Rating: 4.16 out of 5
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Customer ReviewsRating: 3 out of 5
Title sizzles, but book was unappetizing.
I bought this book in the hope of reading some intelligent speculations by the author about evolution, machines, and AI, which is what the title suggested I would find. However, it turned out to be a history of the evolution of computers with old speculations from the computer pioneers concerning the evolution of computers injected along the way. To be fair, the author does have an overarching thesis that he tries to weave into the historical narrative whenever some past speculation seems to lend it some support. It is that the World Wide Web - that well known network of millions of computers - may some day, at a certain critical size and running who knows what software (certainly not the author) will become intelligent in some way (also not specified by the author). Come to think of it, I think the author has used the historical angle of the book - the similar speculations of the computer pioneers of the past - as a device to lend credence to his thesis - a kind of proof by consensus. I remain unconvinced, however. His arguments (where there were any; it was hard to tell his arguments from narrative) were very weak and unconvincing. To his credit, the author did a tremendous job of scholarship for the historical side of the book. However, he left the speculative side undeveloped (at the most weakly developed) and, therefore, the book was unappetizing to me.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Good Historical References
Another good read on the origins of modern computer science. Some interesting stories of Babbage, Hollerith and Van Neumann. I particularly enjoyed Babbage's human computers.A great read while kicking back at the beach.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Voice of Dissent
While I understand and (to a certain extent) agree with all the positive comments from the reviewers on this page, I find myself unable to share the sentiments.The book is well written in the sense that Dyson provides a rich series of anecdotes and historical facts to back up the connection between the evolution of man and machine that he posits as his central thesis. And while I really appreciated those anecdotes, I didn't find that he really earned my belief. I often found that he made leaps of logic in the way he lay the thing out that were expected to stand more on the charmingness of the stories and/or the pithiness of the quotations that preface each chapter than on a real well-constructed argument. I often didn't follow how he got from point C to point D and frankly I found many of the connections that he made rather streched in appropriateness. This said, Dyson is clearly a very smart guy with a lot of interesting things to say on the topic, so despite my concerns/disbelief, the book is a worthwhile read.
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