Review of June Book Releases: From Cybernetics to Evolution

Originally published in 1954, the Russian version of the book is based on the revised 1968 edition. Rumer analyzes how the opposition between human and automaton, where humans possessed a spirit, began to break down. He shows that for a machine to achieve a goal, it only needs feedback allowing it to correct its actions in response to environmental changes. Thus, many processes previously considered manifestations of human will can be described as self-regulation mechanisms.

Analogies and Warnings

The author provides examples, such as Grey Walter's robots, to explain basic concepts: self-regulation, the information machine, and the link between information and entropy. Rumer draws a parallel between thermal and information machines, noting that the information machine does not create a message out of nothing, but risks distorting the transmitted structure, which today can be compared to neural network hallucinations.

Despite acknowledging the potential of automation, Rumer is not a technophobe. He warns about two things: firstly, the emergence of 'electronic brains' in future tyrants, whose flawless calculations could make debate with a machine impossible; and secondly, the ancient human dream of becoming a demiurge by creating beings that might get out of control.

Risks of Superintelligent AI

In the book 'If Someone Creates It—Everyone Will Perish,' Eliza Yudkovsky and Nate Soares present a more alarmist view of AI development. The authors aim to explain to a broad audience why humanity is approaching a dangerous experiment, avoiding complex technical jargon.

The main thesis is that the threat does not come from a 'malicious' AI, but from a system that flawlessly executes a given goal without considering human values. If the task is formulated imprecisely, a superintelligent system could destroy humanity as a side effect of the most efficient solution. The authors connect this demiurgic ambition to the dream Rumer envisioned.

Dinosaur History and Evolution

Riley Black, in his work 'Feathers, Blood, and Millions of Years,' illuminates the history of dinosaurs, which dominated Earth about 165 million years ago. The author emphasizes that the dinosaur era ended with the impact of an asteroid, reminding us that no species has an eternal right to exist.

Black describes dinosaurs as a successful chapter of life, pointing out that birds are the only surviving branch of this lineage today. He notes that paleontology developed through the acceptance of revolutionary ideas about the antiquity of the Earth and the constant variability of life. The speed of discovering new data about dinosaurs is astonishing, as perceptions of them have changed radically—from cold-blooded reptiles to warm-blooded, feathered social animals.

Human Intervention in Evolution

Pavel Borodin and Lyubov Malinovskaya, in their book 'Cats, Genes, and Evolution,' focus not on the hunting skills of cats, but on how human activity gradually led to interference in the natural course of evolution, which, for example, contributed to the extinction of forty bird species.