What we’ve been reading
This Sunday, 6th September, is National Read a Book Day. To mark the occasion, we’re sharing two of our favourite recent reads on topics pertinent to our interests!
Emily’s pick: You Look Like A Thing And I Love You by Janelle Shane
I’ve long been a fan of computer scientist and AI researcher Janelle Shane. Back in 2017, I stumbled upon Shane’s brilliant blog, AI Weirdness, and became immediately fascinated by machine learning generally, and machine learning *gone wrong* in particular. It quickly became one of my most frequently visited websites, and when Shane announced last year that she had written an AI Weirdness book, it immediately went straight to the top of my “to read” list.
Named after a neural net-generated pickup line, the book retains the same brilliantly off-the-wall humour and sense of fun as the blog. From recipes and knock-knock jokes to Disney songs and Harry Potter fan fiction, the results of Shane’s experiments with machine-generated content coupled with her hilarious commentary had me crying with laughter and quickly filing this in my “too funny for public transport” pile.
Alongside this, though, the book also provides one of the clearest and most helpful explanations of artificial intelligence that I’ve come across. Using accessible real-world examples, Shane explains how AI works, where we can see it, and how we can expect it to develop in the future. In a world in which this topic is frequently sensationalised, Shane’s down-to-earth approach is refreshing and makes for enlightening and entertaining reading. Thoroughly recommended.
Rebekah’s pick: Extraordinary Insects: Weird. Wonderful. Indispensable. The ones who run our world. by Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson
Back in February, Emily and I were lucky enough to attend TEDxManchester, hosted by DJRFF trustee Herb Kim. It was a brilliant day with fascinating talks from a diverse range of speakers. One of our favourite presentations was from “insect evangelist” Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson, who spoke passionately about the vital importance of insects in human survival. When she mentioned that she had written a book on the same topic, we knew we had to have a copy.
Extraordinary Insects is a Sunday Times bestseller, and with good reason. Written in engaging and accessible language, and with each chapter broken down into bite-sized tidbits, I can certainly see why this book has appealed to such a wide audience. Sverdrup-Thygeson succeeds in taking a topic about which many of us have given little thought since school science lessons, and livens it up immeasurably.
The author’s passion and excitement for her subject is clear on every page, to the extent that as a reader, you can’t help but be swept up by it. From the midge that pollinates cacao flowers and without whom we wouldn’t have chocolate, to dung beetles using the Milky Way as a navigation system, this book left me in awe of, as well as wholeheartedly rooting for, the inhabitants of the insect world.
