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Why do the Robber Barons matter? "During the golden age of industry, running from the midnineteenth century through 1930 or so, the Robber Barons commercialized risky high technologies and figured out how to build radically new organizations from the bottom up. They identified the great entrepreneurial and management issues of the world's first big corporations, and they devised surprisingly durable solutions to the basic business problems of modern civilization." Here are a few of the quotations which caught my eye:
"There could be no progress until enough people could be made dissatisfied -- and this could be done only when they were brought to think beyond the limits to which they were accustomed." (Thomas Edison)
"If you have an idea, that is good. If you also have ideas as to how to work it out, that is better." (Henry Ford)
"Every executive has to recognize sooner or later that he himself cannot do everything that needs to be done. Until he recognizes this, he is only an individual, with an individual's power, but after he recognizes it, he becomes, for the first time, an executive, with control of multiple powers." (Alfred Sloan)
The authors have done an excellent job of selecting and distributing quotations such as these throughout the text. They include their own insightful comments, correlating them with key points previously introduced in their Introduction. Is there a great deal that is "new" in this slender volume? No. Is there much of value to be learned or have reaffirmed? You bet.
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The author's main thesis is the value of using concepts of evolutionary programming to bring about the rise of intelligent machines. The author clearly believes that before "HAL-like" machines can be built, researchers must construct computer programs that can teach themselves how to solve problems without any help. Intelligent machines must be creative, and learn and adapt to new circumstances. Traditional research in artificial intelligence has been geared towards building machines that emulate human intelligence, and this will not do in the author's view. The research did not address the true definition and meaning of intelligence, but instead made the goal of creating machines that think and act like humans, whence the famous "Turing test" for machine intelligence. The author completely rejects this test and holds it responsible for bringing about the "AI winter" where no substantive progress was made. "The key to creating truly creative computers", he says, "lies in mimicking nature's process of evolution."
The author though was not comfortable with merely refuting arguments about the Turing test or other strategies for designing intelligent machines. He knows that such argument-counterargument activity will not result in sound approaches to artificial intelligence. Therefore, he sought to construct a working, viable alternative, which produces results that can be checked. Intelligence for the author is based on decision making, such as how to obtain resources, and how to respond to environmental changes by prioritizing goals. "Intelligence is the property that allows living organisms to sense, react to, and learn from their environment in order to adapt their behavior to better promote their survival", he says.
Hence, the author brings in the evolutionary paradigm to artificial intelligence, and to give credence to his view, he attempts to create a program that will learn the game of checkers and then play it well, at least from the standpoint of the checkers game rating system. The book is a very detailed overview of how he and his collaborators went about doing this, the most interesting strategy being the use of neural networks, the topology of which is not set beforehand, but is evolved according to a "survival of the fittest" process. The author, through diagrams, gives the reader a taste of the moves that were made as the program dealt with online checkers games.
The author even gives a dose of the criticism he received from referees when his results were submitted to professional journals, and this gives the book greater appeal from the standpoint of intellectual honesty. Certainly the author and those he worked with have achieved a great deal in the context of building intelligent machines. It remains to be seen whether evolutionary programming can be extended to situations that require even more creativity, such as that of generating new and interesting results in pure mathematics. This is the ultimate test in my view of machine intelligence. It is not immediately obvious how this is to be done in the evolutionary programming or indeed of any other paradigm in artificial intelligence.
If you have an interest in Science or even Science fiction! you should read this book. You will not be disappointed. Fogel gives a fascinating introduction to Artifical intelligence. Why have we not created 'HAL' from the movie '2001' yet? Perhaps we are tackling the problem the wrong way he suggests. Blondie24 is a 'learning computer' which tries to tackle AI the right way.
If your a Science major, or someone studying AI, you also will not be disappointed. Fogel goes into sufficient detail explaining the backround and idea to evolutionary computation (genetic algorithms). He also explains Neural networks, and how they are used in AI and indeed the computer industry. As I say, if you are not a science major you will still have no problem grasping these principals as they are explained so beautifully.
Read this book. Enjoy it. Its a marvellous story charting one of the greatest successes in the field of modern AI.
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There is one more thing that makes this book special -- its positive energy in spite of its morbid subject. It seems to stem from the authors' liberating intention to be truthful and a profound knowledge of their subject. It was a pleasure to read this book.
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I can't help but ask how much has society really changed? The book is still relevant today, not only that, it's a good read. The dialogue is even realistic and touching. Forster's prose flows smoothly, and the reader immediately starts to appreciate it after a few pages. Human nature, snobbery, the struggle of the classes, and family affairs really haven't changed that much since 1910. Forster clearly didn't know what to do about these problems anymore than we do today. Asking his country to face their problems, rather than ignore them, which was what was being done, was a start.
Every page of the book offers, not just lush landscapes, but ideas worth arguing about. It reminds us that people's actions are bubbles on the surface, the outward and visible signs of events that take place deep within their interior worlds. What's astonishing about this story is how thoroughly it plumbs those worlds. Like Faulkner and Virginia Woolf, Forster has the power to take us way down into the lives of his main characters. We witness what they are becoming, moment by moment. And brooding over the whole story is the wordless, intuitive influence of Ruth Wilcox (the Vanessa Redgrave character) and the power of her love for family and home.
A hugely enjoyable book that demands to be read again and again.
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(-) However, I found the coverage of diet and nutrition to be almost non-existant. The pages containing information about spas and body piercing could be better utilized with more practical information.
(-) At times the personal approach of the book produces text that are just way too verbose such as this excerpt about rowing: "When I think of rowing I think of a crew paddling on the Potomac River, or kayak on the Colorado River, or a rowboat in Central Park . During the spring and fall I venture up to Central Park and get into a rowboat and paddle around the lake for an hour or so. It looks good, but I tell you it is a workout." Doy! Not only verbose but obvious.
* Overall, it's a very good book on barbell/dumbbell/equipment-free exercises. But this book shouldn't be a guy's only guide on fitness.
Although I was a little skeptical when I first got this book, I began to read it and realized that there is a LOT of helpful information packed into it. The illustrations are all very tasteful and well done, if not a little overabundant.
If you're looking for a place to start for your overall health, this is where to turn. If you want something more advanced, I'd recommend a book tailored more to exercise alone, as this book attempts and succeeds at being "a guy's manual to his own body."
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There are lots of pictures and diagrams in this book which help to explain key weather concepts. One day I will force myself to read this book cover to cover instead of getting sidetracked at all the gorgeous illustrations and pictures in this book, every time I pick it up to read it.
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