Manny’s books on Goodreads (4,227 books) (original) (raw)

Goodreads Choice Awards 2024 Opening Round

search

| | # | cover | title | author | isbn | isbn13 | asin | pages | rating | ratings | pub | (ed.) | rating | my rating | review | notes | | comments | votes | count | started | read | addedDown arrow | | owned | | | format | | | -------- | -------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------- | -------------------- | --------------- | ----------------- | --------------- | ------------------- | --------------------- | ----------------------------- | ------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------ | -------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ | --------------- | ------------------------- | ---------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----- | --------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------- | | ------ | | | checkbox | position | cover Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention— and How to Think Deeply Again | title Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention— and How to Think Deeply Again | author Hari, Johann | isbn 0593138511 | isbn13 9780593138519 | asin 0593138511 | num pages 357pp | avg rating 4.24 | num ratings 59,801 | date pub Jan 06, 2022 | date pub edition Jan 25, 2022 | Manny's rating | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review None | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 0 | # times read 0 | date started not set | date read not set | date added Nov 18, 2024 | owned | format Hardcover | actions view | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Snowballin': I Fucked Frosty | title Snowballin': I Fucked Frosty | author Vierge, Auralie * | isbn 1476083061 | isbn13 9781476083063 | asin B0087W8Q7C | num pages 15pp | avg rating 3.19 | num ratings 89 | date pub May 28, 2012 | date pub edition May 28, 2012 | Manny's rating | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review I knew it was only a matter of time before this went mainstream. I knew it was only a matter of time before this went mainstream. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 4 | votes 6 | # times read 0 | date started not set | date read not set | date added Nov 13, 2024 | owned | format ebook | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover How ChatGPT Lead Me To Jesus And Taught Me To Be A Better Christian | title How ChatGPT Lead Me To Jesus And Taught Me To Be A Better Christian | author Price, Ryan | isbn | isbn13 | asin B0CDQPCG3R | num pages 120pp | avg rating 0.00 | num ratings 0 | date pub unknown | date pub edition Aug 03, 2023 | Manny's rating | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review Once I realised that this book had to exist, it only took me ten seconds to find it. | notes Notes are private! | comments 14 | votes 43 | # times read 0 | date started not set | date read not set | date added Nov 12, 2024 | owned | format Kindle Edition | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World | title Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World | author Wolf, Maryanne | isbn 0062388770 | isbn13 9780062388773 | asin 0062388770 | num pages 260pp | avg rating 3.88 | num ratings 3,939 | date pub Aug 07, 2018 | date pub edition Aug 27, 2019 | Manny's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review I've seen a lot of speculation about the bad effect that smartphones and social media might be having on people's thinking; the other day, I asked cle I've seen a lot of speculation about the bad effect that smartphones and social media might be having on people's thinking; the other day, I asked clever o1-preview if it could recommend anything which looked at it in more depth, and this book was top of its list. I've just finished it; Reader, Come Home doesn't answer all my questions, but it's better than anything else I've seen so far and agrees well with my own informal observations. Thank you, o1-preview!Maryanne Wolf is an expert on reading and literacy who's been studying the issues for a long time from both practical and theoretical angles. She argues persuasively that digital media is having a much larger effect on us than we realise: people are losing the ability to read in a deep and engaged way, and many dangerous things are associated with that shift. Your first reaction might be that her claims are exaggerated (surely it can't be that bad?) or elitist (people's reading tastes have always changed over time, who cares if no one wants to read Proust any more?)But it seems to be rather worse than a reluctance to read Proust. Wolf starts off by reminding us of a critical difference between listening and reading. We are biologically programmed to pick up spoken language just from being around people who talk, and almost all children do that automatically; it's been that way for many tens of thousands of years, perhaps longer. But reading is a very recent addition to our repertoire, and it's not innate. If people aren't taught how to read, they usually can't do it. It's a skill that's correspondingly easy to lose. Since, until recently, it was taken for granted that almost all educated people would read, and that the people who couldn't read would generally want to, it's also easy to underestimate how important reading is to our culture. It teaches us to concentrate our attention and memory; less obviously, I was interested to see Wolf focussing on the idea that it teaches us empathy. We read fiction and we identify with the characters in the book, who may be very different from us. That makes us more inclined to try to understand a larger range of people on their own terms. They may be different, but our reading suggests to us that different people may also be admirable in their own way. Not least, careful reading helps us build us a common world-view that we share with all the other people who've read the books we appreciated.None of this is more than suggestive on its own, but it does give a framework for making sense of what we see around us. Starting with data measurable with standard psychological tests, Wolf says that studies over the last couple of decades show dramatic declines in working memory (no longer "seven plus or minus two", but now more like "four plus or minus one"), average attention span (down from ten minutes to five), and empathy (reduced by 40%). It's harder to pin down, and she doesn't talk about it explicitly, but I receive the strong impression that people are more likely to believe things that obviously are not true. It is still astonishing to me that QAnon could be taken seriously by a large proportion of the US population; even Flat Earthism, once a synonym for gullibility and idiocy, has acquired a substantial following. If people don't read properly, they fail to acquire a stable frame of reference. And people are not reading. Wolf cites more studies showing that two-thirds of all US fourth-graders cannot read proficiently. If you haven't reached proficiency by then, the rest of your education is unlikely to yield results.As you can see, I found this material, which takes up the first half of the book, extremely interesting. In the second half, Wolf suggests fixes, organised around the idea of helping children to strike a happy balance between print books and digital media. I was less impressed by this. It sounded like good advice for prosperous upper middle class parents who want their children to thrive, but these are not the key demographic; it seems unlikely that it will help children from poorer families. I would say that much more radical measures are needed. Australia is currenting mooting a social media ban for children under 16, with the platform providers responsible for enforcing the rules. If that succeeds, it could be a substantial step in the right direction, but I wonder if it's actually feasible.As other reviewers have pointed out, the book is written in a way that sometimes comes across as a bit annoying. I am not crazy either about Wolf's skills as a prose stylist. But she has her heart in the right place, and she knows a great deal about these vital questions, so I wasn't bothered. It's couple of hundred pages and doesn't take long to get through. I strongly recommend looking at it.A final thought that came to me while I was writing this review. I have often wondered who the mysterious "elites" are that Donald Trump teaches his followers to oppose. It didn't seem to make any sense. He's a billionaire, most of them are poor. What do they have in common? Who are the "elites" they both hate so much?I think they are (view spoiler)[people who can read. (hide spoiler)] ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 26 | votes 50 | # times read 1 | date started Nov 15, 2024 | date read Nov 17, 2024 | date added Nov 09, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Une passione fatale (Io, Cleopatra #3) | title Une passione fatale(Io, Cleopatra #3) | author George, Margaret * | isbn 8886845324 | isbn13 9788886845328 | asin 8886845324 | num pages 294pp | avg rating 4.19 | num ratings 21,069 | date pub 1997 | date pub edition May 1998 | Manny's rating | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review None | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 0 | # times read 1 | date started Oct 31, 2024 | date read not set | date added Oct 31, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Juice | title Juice | author Winton, Tim | isbn 1761344897 | isbn13 9781761344893 | asin 1761344897 | num pages 528pp | avg rating 4.11 | num ratings 888 | date pub Oct 01, 2024 | date pub edition Oct 01, 2024 | Manny's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review Tim Winton's new novel Juice has odd commonalities with Robert Graves's Wife to Mr Milton, which I read last week. I found both books unputdownable fo Tim Winton's new novel Juice has odd commonalities with Robert Graves's Wife to Mr Milton, which I read last week. I found both books unputdownable for similar reasons: they do such a good job of transporting you into the world they describe, and they convey such a strong sense of moral indignation. In Wife to Mr Milton, the indignation is about the plight of women in a patriarchal society. In Juice, it's about the plight of everyone in a capitalist society.Graves evidently did a huge amount of research concerning Civil War England, and Winton has done just as much on the probable effects of climate change. Two themes stand out. First, he does a fantastic job of conveying what things will be like a few generations from now if we carry on with business as usual. It won't be Mad Max gangs stalking a barren wasteland. People are ingenious and adaptable, and even if conditions are very harsh they find ways to cope. The book is full of minutely detailed descriptions of post-climate-apocalypse life which often reminded me of Laura Ingalls Wilder. It's just taken for granted that you have to live underground for the summer months, that even if you always wear maximal sunblock you'll get skin cancers, that you spend all of your time trying to get spare parts to keep functional your solar panels, grow sheds and electric vehicles, that you need well-prepared defences against the inevitable cyclones. Things slowly get worse, but as usual people are reluctant to admit it. Life is hard, suck it up.The second theme which gives the book power is the degree of hatred felt for the organisations and individuals who caused the world to become like this, in particular the large fossil fuel companies. Most of the future-world citizens never think about it; they have no interest in history or politics. But there is a secret network that has not forgotten, and they remorselessly hunt down and kill the descendants of the people who ran Aramco and BP and Shell, and their enablers and helpers. Winton denies it in interviews, which he probably has to, but it seems to me that the message is clear: rather than killing them two hundred years from now, when it's too late to do any good, wouldn't it be better to kill them now? They are the worst kinds of criminals, ruining the planet permanently so that they can enjoy lives of luxury today.There's another theme I can't go into without dropping major spoilers. Winton apparently spent seven years writing Juice, and my impression is that he decided halfway through that he needed to change the plot to reflect things that had happened meanwhile. I was also a bit unhappy about the Scheherazade-like framing device, and I found the twist near the end rather unnecessary. So structurally I suppose the novel could be stronger, but what the hell, if you finish a five hundred page book in two and a half days then it must have a lot going for it. Check this out if you want a concrete picture of what climate change means in human terms. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 12 | votes 41 | # times read 1 | date started Oct 19, 2024 | date read Oct 21, 2024 | date added Oct 19, 2024 | owned | format Hardcover | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Paradise Lost (Norton Critical Editions) | title Paradise Lost | author Milton, John | isbn 0393924289 | isbn13 9780393924282 | asin 0393924289 | num pages 590pp | avg rating 3.85 | num ratings 170,986 | date pub Jan 01, 1667 | date pub edition Dec 15, 2004 | Manny's rating | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review Conversation with Not, who is still rebelling against her Catholic upbringing by steadfastly refusing to read a single page of the Bible or any relate Conversation with Not, who is still rebelling against her Catholic upbringing by steadfastly refusing to read a single page of the Bible or any related works:- So what's it about?- Both Kingsley Amis and Brian Aldiss say it's an early work of science-fiction.- Is it any good?- Uh...- Because early science-fiction is often sort of crap. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 9 | votes 24 | # times read 0 | date started not set | date read not set | date added Oct 12, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover We, the Tikopia: A Sociological Study of Kinship in Primitive Polynesia | title We, the Tikopia: A Sociological Study of Kinship in Primitive Polynesia | author Firth, Raymond | isbn 0804712026 | isbn13 9780804712026 | asin 0804712026 | num pages unknown | avg rating 3.34 | num ratings 29 | date pub 1963 | date pub edition Jan 01, 1983 | Manny's rating | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review None | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 0 | # times read 0 | date started not set | date read not set | date added Oct 10, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view | | | | | checkbox | position | cover The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick Volume One | title The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick Volume One | author Dick, Philip K. | isbn 1399611232 | isbn13 9781399611237 | asin 1399611232 | num pages 615pp | avg rating 4.42 | num ratings 19 | date pub unknown | date pub edition 2023 | Manny's rating liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review Last month, I helped the new OpenAI model o1-preview to write a short SF story. Casting about for points of comparison, I said in my afterword that it Last month, I helped the new OpenAI model o1-preview to write a short SF story. Casting about for points of comparison, I said in my afterword that it didn't seem unreasonable to compare with early Philip K. Dick; Dick is better, but I would put the AI in the same ballpark.I had just started this collection, and it was the first thing that popped into my head. A couple of days later, I started to have misgivings. Maybe I'd been too hasty. But having now finished, I'm inclined to think I was more or less on target. These are stories Dick published when he was still in his early 20s. A few are quite memorable - I would say the standouts were Roog and Beyond Lies the Wub - but most are formulaic 50s pulp SF. Dick is still learning his trade. There are time-travel escapades with the usual kinds of paradoxes, bleak post-apocalyptic numbers where the world has been ravaged by atomic weapons, some extremely implausible space operas.He comes up with some nice images; I liked the minaturised city in the paperweight from The Crystal Crypt (later, brilliantly satirised in John Sladek's Solar Shoe-Salesman), the Bradburyesque killer cuckoo clock in Beyond the Door, and the clever twist on Leda and the Swan from In the Garden. We see flickers of the themes that would later make him one of the great science-fiction novelists, the paranoia and the plays on the nature of reality, but he is not yet able to make them work properly. In the endnotes, written twenty-five years later, Dick is disarmingly candid about these early efforts and acknowledges the debt he owes to Anthony Boucher, who, he says, taught him how to create a proper story. Going back to where we came in, I felt I was doing the same thing with the AI. "Show, don't tell!" I advised it. "Write what you know!" o1-preview listened attentively, and, as you can see in the report, its fourth draft was a whole lot better than its first. But it's still a beginner.Now I want to continue educating my enthusiastic silicon protegé. Dick reached maturity in just a few years, and AIs are much quicker than people. Perhaps it might work? Which in itself could be the premise for a typical early PKD short story. I wonder what the twist is? ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 10 | votes 27 | # times read 1 | date started Oct 08, 2024 | date read Oct 11, 2024 | date added Oct 08, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover In Black and White: The Chess Autobiography of a World Champion Candidate | title In Black and White: The Chess Autobiography of a World Champion Candidate | author Sterren, Paul van der | isbn 9083336506 | isbn13 9789083336503 | asin 9083336506 | num pages 768pp | avg rating 0.00 | num ratings 0 | date pub unknown | date pub edition Feb 28, 2024 | Manny's rating | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review https://www.365chess.com/game.php?gid...Sorry, couldn't resist. https://www.365chess.com/game.php?gid...Sorry, couldn't resist. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 12 | votes 13 | # times read 0 | date started not set | date read not set | date added Oct 08, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Vangelo secondo Maria | title Vangelo secondo Maria | author Alberti, Barbara | isbn 887615213X | isbn13 9788876152139 | asin 887615213X | num pages 156pp | avg rating 3.88 | num ratings 48 | date pub 1979 | date pub edition Nov 01, 2007 | Manny's rating liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review As we left the Palace Nova, I suggested that the movie had failed to blow me away, but Not, who had formed a much more positive view, was having none As we left the Palace Nova, I suggested that the movie had failed to blow me away, but Not, who had formed a much more positive view, was having none of it."One thing I don't understand though," she said, "is why she has to be chaste after the Holy Spirit has visited her. I mean, she already is pregnant, so can't she have sex with Joseph as much as she likes?"I wasn't able to quote chapter and verse, but said I thought there might be theological objections."Theological objections!" said Not scornfully. "You mean patriarchal crap made up by a bunch of old men to repress women."Well, I'm not denying the validity of her argument. But on purely literary grounds, I still feel it's somehow inappropriate to portray the Virgin Mary as a sassy chick. It's not the way the character is normally interpreted. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 6 | votes 10 | # times read 1 | date started not set | date read Oct 04, 2024 | date added Oct 04, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Unleashed | title Unleashed | author Johnson, Boris | isbn 0008618216 | isbn13 9780008618216 | asin B0D6ZDPBSG | num pages 761pp | avg rating 3.71 | num ratings 222 | date pub unknown | date pub edition Oct 10, 2024 | Manny's rating | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review He's a bit of a dog. I see what you did there, Mr. Johnson. He's a bit of a dog. I see what you did there, Mr. Johnson. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 12 | votes 25 | # times read 0 | date started not set | date read not set | date added Oct 03, 2024 | owned | format Kindle Edition | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Autocracy, Inc. | title Autocracy, Inc. | author Applebaum, Anne | isbn 0241627893 | isbn13 9780241627891 | asin 0241627893 | num pages 224pp | avg rating 4.26 | num ratings 3,586 | date pub Jul 23, 2024 | date pub edition Jul 23, 2024 | Manny's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review I bought the book this afternoon and finished it in a few hours. A lot of it I had seen before, but she's very good at connecting the dots.If you are I bought the book this afternoon and finished it in a few hours. A lot of it I had seen before, but she's very good at connecting the dots.If you are in any doubt that democracy is under serious, coordinated attack from the world's autocracies, just think about this for a moment. Russia has for the last two and a half years conducted a merciless and unprovoked war against Ukraine, a sovereign country. They have made considerable progress during 2024, due to the fact that the US right managed to block military support to Ukraine for several months. They did so under the urging of Donald Trump.Trump is already a convicted criminal and plausibly accused of far more serious crimes. But has so far evaded serious consequence for his actions because of a blatantly partisan Supreme Court. Everyone knows this, but public discourse has been so thoroughly poisoned by a non-stop barrage of lies and misinformation that the situation has become normalised. Many voters, exhausted from keeping up with the constant accusations and counter-accusations, tune out and say that both sides are corrupt and there is no real difference between them; in actual fact, there is a gigantic difference. As Applebaum repeatedly shows, creating this kind of fatigue is one of the key plays in the autocrat's playbook. The US election is currently a toss-up.As we saw in the Vice-Presidential debate the other day, both sides take it as given that China and Iran do not wish the US well. But the GOP candidate openly boasts of his "very good relationship" with Putin, whose most important supporters are precisely those countries.Maybe you don't think there's anything strange about that, or you believe I'm misrepresenting the situation. Try reading Autocracy, Inc. and see if you still feel the same way. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 53 | # times read 1 | date started not set | date read Oct 03, 2024 | date added Oct 03, 2024 | owned | format Hardcover | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Hieronymus Bosch: Complete Works | title Hieronymus Bosch: Complete Works | author Fischer, Stefan | isbn 3836526298 | isbn13 9783836526296 | asin 3836526298 | num pages 300pp | avg rating 4.57 | num ratings 706 | date pub 2013 | date pub edition Jan 22, 2014 | Manny's rating | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review Hieronymus Bosch fans may be amused by my recent interaction with OpenAI's DALL-E-3. I had just submitted a failed request and found this in the syste Hieronymus Bosch fans may be amused by my recent interaction with OpenAI's DALL-E-3. I had just submitted a failed request and found this in the system log:Sept. 23, 2024, 5:25 a.m. - --- Sending request to dall-e-3 (size=1024x1024): "An image of Hester, a cute little girl cat with bright green eyes and a fluffy tail, Lily, a cheerful girl of about nine, and Hector, a big tom-cat with a mischievous grin. In the style of Hieronymus Bosch."Sept. 23, 2024, 5:25 a.m. - Exception: Error code: 400 - {'error': {'code': 'content_policy_violation', 'message': 'Your request was rejected as a result of our safety system. Your prompt may contain text that is not allowed by our safety system.', 'param': None, 'type': 'invalid_request_error'}}Sept. 23, 2024, 5:25 a.m. - errorWell, it's hard not to believe that the words the safety filter is reacting to are "Hieronymus Bosch". That was certainly my first thought, anyway. But a little experimentation showed I was wrong. They were "tom-cat". ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 13 | votes 17 | # times read 0 | date started not set | date read not set | date added Sep 22, 2024 | owned | format Over-sized Hardcover - 12" x 16" | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Echoes of Solitude: a short story by o1-preview | title Echoes of Solitude: a short story by o1-preview | author C-LARA-Instance, ChatGPT-4 | isbn | isbn13 | asin B0DM4NH6Z4 | num pages 69pp | avg rating 4.00 | num ratings 4 | date pub unknown | date pub edition Sep 21, 2024 | Manny's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review I've spent most of the last week experimenting with o1-preview, aka "Strawberry", OpenAI's new language model. It is based on Chain-of-Thought reasoni I've spent most of the last week experimenting with o1-preview, aka "Strawberry", OpenAI's new language model. It is based on Chain-of-Thought reasoning and reinforcement learning, and seems to represent another large jump in AI capabilities.The first thing I did was to check how well o1-preview did at playing Tic-Tac-Toe, a notorious stumbling block for previous Large Language Models. In sharp contrast to GPT-4, o1-preview played the game perfectly with no special instructions at all. In the CoT trace, I could see it spotting all my threats and blocking them.I then integrated o1-preview into C-LARA, our open source language learning platform. Again, it did much better than GPT-4. The difference in quality was particularly noticeable on the task of glossing English in Ukrainian, a challenging language pair we have been investigating, with limited success, for some time. This is our most substantial test yet. GPT-4 is good at writing short texts, but my experience is that it has trouble composing anything longer than about 750 words and keeping things coherent. Here, I asked o1-preview to write a 3000 word science-fiction story and again it had no problems. We went through an outline and four drafts, where at each stage I suggested large rewrites. It kept up effortlessly, with the CoT summary showing it thinking sensibly about the issues and responding to my ideas. We have just posted a report on ResearchGate, here, with the text of the story and full details of how it was written. We'd love to know what people think._________________Taylor, in their kind review, compares o1-preview's story to the early Asimov. That makes me John W. Campbell Jr.Campbell was not a very nice man but a terrific editor, so I'm happy to be standing in for him! ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 3 | votes 30 | # times read 1 | date started not set | date read Sep 21, 2024 | date added Sep 21, 2024 | owned | format ebook | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Roog | title Roog | author Dick, Philip K. | isbn | isbn13 | asin B0DLT9RRRN | num pages 5pp | avg rating 3.29 | num ratings 324 | date pub Feb 1953 | date pub edition Nov 17, 2010 | Manny's rating liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review Garbage. | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 14 | # times read 1 | date started not set | date read Sep 12, 2024 | date added Sep 13, 2024 | owned | format Audiobook | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise | title Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise | author Heritage Foundation, The | isbn 0891951741 | isbn13 9780891951742 | asin 0891951741 | num pages 887pp | avg rating 1.47 | num ratings 129 | date pub Apr 21, 2023 | date pub edition Apr 21, 2023 | Manny's rating | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review None | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 0 | # times read 1 | date started Sep 10, 2024 | date read not set | date added Sep 10, 2024 | owned | format Perfect Paperback | actions view | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Generative AI in CALL: A September 2024 perspective | title Generative AI in CALL: A September 2024 perspective | author Rayner, Manny * | isbn | isbn13 | asin | num pages 9pp | avg rating 3.00 | num ratings 1 | date pub unknown | date pub edition Sep 05, 2024 | Manny's rating liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review We were supposed to be contributing an article on generative AI to the upcoming Palgrave Encyclopaedia of Computer-Assisted Language Learning, and as We were supposed to be contributing an article on generative AI to the upcoming Palgrave Encyclopaedia of Computer-Assisted Language Learning, and as usual we'd left it to the last minute. We mailed the editors to ask if they were okay with us including ChatGPT-4 as an additional author; we'd already published many papers with it, and we knew this would speed things up a good deal. They got back to us a couple of days later and said fine. So we wrote the paper together with Chat, which went pretty smoothly, but when we submitted it the editors said that in fact it was not okay to have an AI author. They claimed they had somehow misunderstood the question. After some rather irritated email exchanges, they changed their position and said that the publishers didn't allow AI authors on principle, on the grounds that AIs are incapable of taking responsibility for their work and acting in an ethical fashion. I pointed out several reasons why this is not in good agreement with the observed facts, but they were immovable; we could only publish the paper with them if we removed the AI's name from the list of authors, though we were allowed to acknowledge its contribution to the work.I did not feel comfortable with their offer, which seemed distressingly similar to removing a co-author's name because of their race or gender; it is also clear that many human authors, who are routinely accepted without any questions asked, are less capable than the AI of acting in a responsible and ethical fashion. I made these points to the editors, who clearly didn't feel good about them either, but they said again that there was nothing they could do: the publisher's prohibition on AI authors was absolute. So we withdrew the article, revised it slightly, and have just published it on ResearchGate. You can find it here.I wonder how long this absurd state of affairs can continue. At the moment, it's just about possible to maintain that an AI is not capable of fulfilling its obligations as the author of an academic paper, though if the rules were enforced with the necessary degree of rigour then most humans would also be disqualified. When OpenAI releases "Orion", currently the subject of much eager speculation, I think the argument will clearly become invalid. One wonders what will happen; we won't have to wait long to find out, Orion is expected somewhere around the beginning of 2025The upside is that we were able to post the article immediately rather than wait for the Encyclopaedia to be published, by which time it would most likely have been obsolete. So once again, as Doctor Pangloss would have said, all is for best in the best of all possible worlds. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 8 | votes 18 | # times read 1 | date started Sep 05, 2024 | date read Sep 05, 2024 | date added Sep 05, 2024 | owned | format ebook | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Septologien | title Septologien | author Fosse, Jon | isbn 8234009842 | isbn13 9788234009846 | asin 8234009842 | num pages 895pp | avg rating 4.51 | num ratings 1,159 | date pub Oct 01, 2022 | date pub edition 2022 | Manny's rating it was amazing | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review You can't analyse this book, though I see some people making valiant attempts; it's an act of magic. Of course, any worthwhile novel is to some extent You can't analyse this book, though I see some people making valiant attempts; it's an act of magic. Of course, any worthwhile novel is to some extent magical, but Jon Fosse is a truly outstanding magician. In ascending order, he got me to believe all of the following while I was reading it:1. I was deeply in love with my dead wife and constantly felt her presence near me. Well, most competent novelists could have done that.2. I was a devout Catholic who spent a large proportion of my time praying to my Lord and trying to find peace in His will. This is harder, but a fair number of good religious writers know the spell.3. I was a brilliant painter who experienced the world in a way completely different from a normal person. This is a very difficult incantation which only exceptionally powerful literary sorcerers have mastered.4. I was a fluent speaker of Nynorsk, an obscure language which I in fact don't know. I can't understand how he did this. I thought it was impossible. I know some related languages, and of course I'm familiar with the process of reading a text in a language I don't know well, guessing words from context. But here, there's a passage of several pages near the end which is just disconnected phrases mixed up from two parallel streams of narration, and I felt I could understand it perfectly.How fortunate we are that Jon Fosse is a white magician who only uses his powers for good. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 19 | votes 67 | # times read 1 | date started Sep 03, 2024 | date read Oct 06, 2024 | date added Sep 03, 2024 | owned | format Hardcover | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover King Canute | title King Canute | author Brook, George | isbn | isbn13 | asin B00Y3WLJCO | num pages 259pp | avg rating 5.00 | num ratings 1 | date pub May 29, 2015 | date pub edition May 29, 2015 | Manny's rating | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review Academia's strategy for dealing with the rising tide of Artificial Intelligence reminds me of something. ChatGPT-4o was happy to draw the cartoon belo Academia's strategy for dealing with the rising tide of Artificial Intelligence reminds me of something. ChatGPT-4o was happy to draw the cartoon below:[image]Oh, if only AIs were able to understand things in a human-like way and had a sense of humour! ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 13 | votes 17 | # times read 0 | date started not set | date read not set | date added Aug 27, 2024 | owned | format Kindle Edition | actions view (with text) | | | |

Loading trans Loading...

Welcome back. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account.

Login animation