Review of Machines of Loving Grace: The Quest for Common Ground Between Humans and Robots

Author: John Markoff
Rating: 4 Stars
Review By: Shana

This is a thorough and thoughtfully written history of the sometimes-at-odds scientific pursuits of AI (artificial intelligence) and IA (intelligence augmentation). Markoff does an admirable job of giving enough detail and technical information to truly explain the scientific developments, but not so much as to make a lay reader feel overwhelmed. He has interwoven the technical feats with the biographies and personalities of the key players, as well as the dueling philosophies at the heart of how we currently interact with automated and robotic technology, how we should do so in the future, and the attendant dangers.

This book acts as a nice counterpoint and compliment to a number of other books, including The Second Machine Age; Superintellegence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies; The Glass Cage; In the Plex; portions of The Pentagon’s Brain; and The Master Algorithm (which I am still in the process of reading). Machines of Loving Grace and these other books all shine a light on our relationship with technology, how it shapes us and how we shape it, and offers generous food for thought as we move forward into a future where our daily lives will be ever more enmeshed with technology. Worth the time, especially for those with any trepidation about our increasingly technological lives.