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Automate This: How Algorithms Took Over Our Markets, Our Jobs, and the World |  |
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Automate This: How Algorithms Took Over Our Markets, Our Jobs, and the World | |
It used to be that to diagnose an illness, interpret legal documents, analyze foreign policy, or write a newspaper article you needed a human being with specific skills—and maybe an advanced degree or two. These days, high-level tasks are increasingly being handled by algorithms that can do precise work not only with speed but also with nuance. These “bots” started with human programming and logic, but now their reach extends beyond what their creators ever expected.
In this fascinating, frightening book, Christopher Steiner tells the story of how algorithms took over—and shows why the “bot revolution” is about to spill into every aspect of our lives, often silently, without our knowledge.
The May 2010 “Flash Crash” exposed Wall Street’s reliance on trading bots to the tune of a 998-point market drop and $1 trillion in vanished market value. But that was just the beginning. In Automate This, we meet bots that are driving cars, penning haiku, and writing music mistaken for Bach’s. They listen in on our customer service calls and figure out what Iran would do in the event of a nuclear standoff. There are algorithms that can pick out the most cohesive crew of astronauts for a space mission or identify the next Jeremy Lin. Some can even ingest statistics from baseball games and spit out pitch-perfect sports journalism indistinguishable from that produced by humans.
The interaction of man and machine can make our lives easier. But what will the world look like when algorithms control our hospitals, our roads, our culture, and our national security? What happens to businesses when we automate judgment and eliminate human instinct? And what role will be left for doctors, lawyers, writers, truck drivers, and many others?
Who knows—maybe there’s a bot learning to do your job this minute.网友对Automate This: How Algorithms Took Over Our Markets, Our Jobs, and the World的评论
好书值得通读一遍，，，
The author spends a few pages talking about mathematical history, so the traditional quote from Abel seems appropriate: "Learn from the masters not their pupils". By that metric, you shouldn't read this book. It's written by a journalist who has a tenuous grasp on the subject and I don't think it's likely to advance anyone's understanding. An intro book about machine learning, which is the common thread of his anecdotes, would be a wise alternative.
It's also highly offensive that he wrote a 200 page fluffy text on the vast subject of machine learning and put icing on the cake by peppering it with advertisements for companies that he's affiliated with. At the start of chapter 2 he says "all one needs to do is head to Y Combinator's Hackers News message board, which has grown into one of the more infuential Web sites in the world". Not only is this completely false, he received a grant from Y Combinator for his start up, which we know because he included similarly transparent advertisements earlier in the book. Are you kidding me?
It shouldn't come as a huge surprise that someone who wrote a book called "$20/gal..." is more interesting in attracting attention than conveying information. But skip this one. There's no reason to encourage authors to write cash-grab drivel like this.
I really enjoy the aim of this book -- to explain how algorithms play such an important role in different areas of our lives. Case studies help add context to what might otherwise be an abstract mathematical musing. But I find the average Joe-oriented approach to come with unintended consequences. The writing is simply hyperbolic. It makes each incremental advancement in automation out to be the apocalypse. Options traders are using options -- well let's pack up and call it a day! Euler started mathematics from a young age -- what a genius! What a remarkable young mind!!
The author, lacking a more meaningful approach to this subject matter, decided to dramatize it as if to catch our attention. Duly noted, and poorly received.
Christopher Steiner does an excellent job of explaining algorithms, the "bots" that implement them, and the areas they have been applied to.
Based on detailed interviews with people who developed them, he describes the importance they have in areas of:
finance,
speech recognition,
psychological profiling,
news reporting,
medical diagnosis,
musical composition,
intelligence gathering and interpretation,
games,
customer service,
identity theft,
corporate communications.
Automation in the financial markets is one of the major topics of the book. To give one example, his description of Thomas Peterffy's progression from knowing nothing about the financial markets, through building a robot to type orders to buy and sell stocks, to his founding of Interactive Brokers is fascinating.
He documents the diversion of engineers, mathematicians, physicists, and computer scientists first into the financial industry, then out of it. He provides clear evidence that computer automation is affecting social behavior, advertising, commerce, and employment. He makes a strong case for improvement in education -- particularly in areas of mathematics and science.
I am a retired university professor of computer science. During my professional career, I have been involved in some of the areas Mr. Steiner describes, and I continue to write about methods ordinary individuals can use to create their own "bots" to manage their own investment accounts. Christopher Steiner has it right. He has written an excellent, entertaining, and highly readable book. If, as it appears to be the case, the future is Automate Everything, then "Automate This" is a good place to learn what is ahead for us all.
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