User Profile

benwerd

benwerd@bookwyrm.social

Joined 7 months, 2 weeks ago

Mastodon: werd.social/@ben

Blog: werd.io

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benwerd's books

Emily M. Bender, Alex Hanna: The AI Con (Hardcover, Penguin Random House)

A smart, incisive take-down of the bogus claims being made about so-called ‘artificial intelligence’, exposing …

The problem is clear; we need sharper solutions

A much-needed overview of the shortcomings of AI - and, in particular, of the AI vendors. There's a lot here that's important for everyone to understand as the technology threatens to become omnipresent. I'm glad to recommend it as a primer; it's important to keep your eyes open. But the question is left open: okay, so now what?

I liked the suggestion that smaller, more ethically-trained, more specific software is better, and I completely agree. But in a world where the generalist models are being added to everything, where rampant surveillance is being incentivized by their use, and where businesses and non-profits are being held accountable by their shareholders and board members to investigate the technology because of the hype surrounding it, what are the real, immediate solutions? The problem is clear; the way forward is not.

Yoko Ogawa, Stephen Snyder: The Memory Police (Hardcover, 2019, Pantheon Books)

A haunting Orwellian novel about the terrors of state surveillance, from the acclaimed author of …

Unforgettable

I appreciated the resonances here - of loss and death, of censorship and control, of the rigidity life takes on as you grow old - and have no idea which were intended. It doesn’t matter. The themes of inevitable loss in particular spoke to me and made me realize truths about people I’ve lost and people I know I will lose soon because time is out of my control. You can accept it, you can frantically try to hold on, but it will happen anyway.

Octavia E. Butler: Parable of the Talents (Paperback, 2000, Grand Central Publishing)

In 2032, Lauren Olamina has survived the destruction of her home and family, and realized …

All that you touch, you change

I fought my way through Parable of the Talents, not because it isn’t masterful - it is - but because Octavia Butler’s writing unflinchingly covers ideas and traumas that have become more relevant in the time since its publication. Butler was a soothsayer, unfortunately able to accurately predict the future based on the treatment of people in her present. It’s a harrowing read with obvious parallels to our current right-wing context. But it wasn’t until the epilogue that it completely destroyed me. This is a human story at its heart, with living, breathing characters who love and yearn, sometimes messily. It’s real, for every definition of real. I fought my way through Parable of the Talents, not because it isn’t masterful - it is - but because Octavia Butler’s writing unflinchingly covers ideas and traumas that have become more relevant in the time since its publication. Butler was a soothsayer, …

Sarah Wynn-Williams: Careless People (Hardcover, Macmillan)

Sarah Wynn-Williams, a young diplomat from New Zealand, pitched for her dream job. She saw …

These are the people to avoid

A complicated book: the author is complicit in the activities she describes, which no amount of ironic detachment or claims of trying to change the system from the inside can hide.

But it’s engagingly-written, frequently hilarious, and jaw-dropping on almost every page. She’s done us a service by painting this insider’s picture of Facebook / Meta. It’s one that I hope every politician who hopes to touch tech policy will read.

I also hope everyone in the tech industry reads it. Not only because it’s a cautionary tale in itself, but because the personalities described here are rife in the industry. I’ve never spoken to Mark or Sheryl or Joel or most of the rest of them, but I’ve met people like them, with those same sensibilities, and they are every bit as shallow and driven by power as is laid out here. These are the people to avoid. These …

Charlie Jane Anders: Never Say You Can't Survive (Hardcover, 2021, Tordotcom)

The world is on fire. So tell your story.

Things are scary right now. We’re …

Human; valuable

I appreciated the writing advice, but more than that, the personal insights from Charlie Jane. This is a book about writing, but it’s also kind of a memoir about being a writer; she expertly uses her own experiences, and most importantly, mistakes, to make points that always land on the affirming and inspirational side of the rhetorical garden. It’s a warm book, written by someone who very obviously cares, and very obviously wants to help. That counts for a lot.

Rachel Kushner: Creation Lake (Hardcover, 2024, Scribner)

A new novel about a seductive and cunning American woman who infiltrates an anarchist collective …

More than meets the eye

This is a spy novel, sure, but also an exploration of the nature of our relationship with our history at every level - from the personal to that of our species. As such, it’s more introspective than tense; a reflective journey more than a pulse-pounding one, but a worthy journey nonetheless. It’s one of those novels where the protagonist is just on the edge of unlikable, and knowingly so, but in a way that is more relatable than we might care to admit. It took me a little while to get into it, but I soon found its untethered rhythm. It’s one that will stick.

Ta-Nehisi Coates: The Message (2024, Random House Publishing Group)

Ta-Nehisi Coates originally set off to write a book about writing, in the tradition of …

Vital

A powerful set of first person essays on injustice that serve to emphasize the parallels - and hard links of funding and culture - between systemic racism in America and in Israel. Its point is not to provide a comprehensive overview of the problem, but to shine a light through a particular lens into it. The result is compelling and tragic. A portrait of occupation and oppression which is easier to overlook than face.

Ursula K. Le Guin: The  Dispossessed (Hardcover, 1991, Harper Paperbacks)

Shevek, a brilliant physicist, decides to take action. He will seek answers, question the unquestionable, …

Walls and initiative

A deeply thought out exploration of different kinds of societies, that also happens to come with well-rounded, deeply-flawed characters and genuine tension. It is, as advertised, a thought-provoking masterpiece: a piece about politics and human nature, albeit in space opera clothes.

Renee DiResta: Invisible Rulers (2024, PublicAffairs)

An “essential and riveting” (Jonathan Haidt) analysis of the radical shift in the dynamics of …

A key ingredient of democracy's undermining, chronicled

This works best as a chronology of how social media influence has undermined democracy and truth. In that sense it'll be a really useful resource for generations to come: these things really are what this era was about, and DiResta really doesn't hold anything back. The book is at its weakest when her own life intersects with these trends, forcing her to act as defense against accusations that were levied at her - not because those arguments had any validity (they didn't), but because it sometimes serves as a sidebar to the rest of the narrative.