Science Fiction Tried to Warn Us about AI. Or Did It?, by Tom Gammarino Essay [email protected] Wed, 03/01/2023 - 03:46 Photo by NASA / Unsplash “All our AI Frankenstein stories,” the author writes, “warn us that AI will destroy us, but far louder than that, they promise that the future is going to be mind-blowing and epic.” Will we heed the warnings? Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is the literary work that most clearly established the conventions of science fiction as we know it. Not only did the 1818 novel pioneer the archetype of the mad scientist, it also established one of the genre’s most important cultural roles: to warn us about ways humans, through our hubris, might create the very beings that eventually undo us. In subtitling the novel The Modern Prometheus, Shelley harked back to the Titan who stole fire from the gods and was punished by having his regenerating liver devoured every day by an eagle (since the liver was the seat of the emotions for the Greeks, we might as well translate it as “heart”). Inspired by the experiments of Luigi Galvani, who used electric current to stimulate the leg of a dissected frog, and his nephew Giovanni Aldini, who ran a similar experiment on a hanged criminal, Shelley had her mad scientist play God by endowing a patchwork of human remains with the spark of life. Two centuries later, the resulting monstrosity serves as a stand-in for any of our runaway technologies — the internal... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2023-03-01 09:46:57 UTC ]
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True crime, “professional confessional” memoirs and titles that look into “sealed worlds” are the hottest non-fiction trends, according to agents who spoke to The Bookseller ahead of next week’s London Book Fair. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-03-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Indie publisher Joffe Books has acquired the 350-strong Robert Hale crime and general fiction list from the Crowood Press. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-03-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The cover story is "Help! I'm in Love With Momo." Hardin, incidentally, wrote about the so-called Momo Challenge on March 1:It remains unclear how many Momo videos actually exist, whether they have actually caused kids to harm themselves, and just how widespread a phenomenon it is. It's also... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2019-03-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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UK sales of translated fiction grew by 5.5% last year, largely thanks to sales by top authors like Jo Nesbo, research commissioned by the Man Booker International Prize shows. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-03-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Taking a talk to Texas, the Frankfurter Buchmesse's Holger Volland will be in conversation with Martina Mara of the Austrian Council on Robotics and Artificial Intelligence during SXSW on March 10. The post Frankfurter Buchmesse Stages a Conversation on AI During SXSW appeared first on... Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2019-03-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Kogan Page has published the first book on Artificial Intelligence written with the help of AI, in its latest Inspire series titled Superhuman Innovation. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-03-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The 2019 Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist has been revealed, featuring Man Booker winner Anna Burns, Costa Novel Award winner Sally Rooney and seven debut novelists. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-03-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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HarperCollins Children’s Books has acquired three books in a young fiction series by Lindsey Kelk, an author of adult novels and former children’s book editor. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-02-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Waterstones boss James Daunt has warned the Scottish book industry against the growing dominance of Amazon, saying that if the retail giant ever implemented print book subscriptions it would make working in the books business “frankly intolerable”. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-02-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hachette's Octopus Publishing Group is launching a new narrative non-fiction imprint aiming to become "a home for new ideas, inspiring stories and fresh takes on the world". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-02-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Reach, which also owns Daily Express and Daily Star, reports £120m pre-tax loss for 2018Reach, the publisher of the Daily Mirror and Daily Express, has warned about the impact of Brexit on advertising, as it made a £200m writedown on its newspaper business that pushed it into the red for... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-02-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Crime author Stuart McBride discusses Aberdeen's growing "artistic and cultural expertise", ahead of new literary festival Granite Noir. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-02-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei’s contribution to the film anthology “Berlin, I Love You” was cut from the final version released in the U.S. earlier this month. The artist and two producers say it’s because his participation was seen as a liability for securing future funding and access to... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-02-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Radical publisher Verso Books is launching its own fiction imprint this September, promising a string of "politically astute" novels. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-02-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Faber is reissuing the celebrated fiction of Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard after nearly 20 years out of print to commemorate the 30th anniversary of his death. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-02-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hollis’s tough-talking self-help book ‘Girl, Wash Your Face’ remains #1 in Religion Nonfiction; Tamera Alexander’s ‘With This Pledge’ is tops in Religion Fiction. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-02-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Christian publisher’s six-book series, True Colors, features fictional characters in stories that are based on real murders and other crimes in American history. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-02-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Verso Books, an independent publisher of works on radical politics, is launching Verso Fiction, a new imprint focused on translated fiction that will release its first two titles in the fall of 2019. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-02-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Profile Books and Aitken Alexander have launched the Profile Aitken Alexander Non-Fiction Prize, awarded to the best debut trade non-fiction proposal from an academic. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-02-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Center for Fiction is holding a grand opening in downtown Brooklyn on February 19 in a new $6 million building that features a reading room, a 160-seat auditorium, and a bookstore. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-02-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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