A lively, optimistic counter to AI doomsaying, but one that may not convince all skeptics.
Branfman presents a rebellious take on the alleged inevitability of machine domination.
The author immediately notes the standard dystopian paradigm that seems to rule the cultural landscape: the idea that artificial intelligence and machine learning will not only replace many humans at their places of employment but also supplant humanity’s domination of the world. The view he puts forward is grounded in evolutionary development; he notes that humans evolved to be skilled in certain areas and less skilled in others, which is why humans created tools, such as AI: “In other words,” he writes, “AI is beating us at things we’re supposed to be bad at.” However, he confidently asserts that AI is not a threat: “it won’t likely care about conquest, and it won’t likely erase our intellect.” He takes readers through familiar aspects of AI discourse, from the job market to art forgery, and bases many of his contentions on what he sees as AI’s inherent stupidity—that is, its inability to do many of the miraculous (and ominous) feats ascribed to it—and he takes pains to address every fear or worry about the rise of the technology with ample historical antecedents. People have always worried that some new invention would destroy the very fabric of society, he points out, and there’s always been fears that some kind of new automation would drive thousands of people out of jobs. In all those cases, he argues—with pleasingly extensive footnotes in every chapter—the world went on, and often improved.
Branfman strengthens his presentation with consistently irreverent humor, as when he caps off a brief overview of the human propensity for violence by poking fun at himself: “Oh hey, look at that! All of human conflict, summed up in a few paragraphs. Neat!” He’s teasingly aware of the strength of readers’ skepticism, and at every turn, he seeks to bring light to the gloom. He doesn’t always succeed; skeptics will note how often the book opposing points of view into strawmen, and also how often the extent the book’s subject seems underplayed; one would hardly guess from this text how ubiquitous AI is in 21st-century American culture: “Will AI-generated deepfakes completely upend our society?” the author asks, for instance, before immediately answering, “In a word: No”—without deeply considering how disruptive it would be if people could no longer distinguish fantasy from reality on their screens. When people predict that AI will take over the world, he writes, they’re assuming that it will behave as aggressively as humans do—an observation that seems to forget that it’s humans who create AI. The book does consider the possibility that he might be wrong, but such observations feel rather bland: “Perhaps, as eons pass, we'll become intellectual again,” he avers. “Or perhaps we'll remain mindless until our species eventually goes extinct.” Overall, Branfman writes with energy and easy readability. However, some readers may wonder if his book’s nothing-to-see-here approach gives the topic the seriousness it deserves.
A lively, optimistic counter to AI doomsaying, but one that may not convince all skeptics.Pub Date: Aug. 31, 2025
ISBN: 9798287876524
Page Count: 213
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.
Words that made a nation.
Isaacson is known for expansive biographies of great thinkers (and Elon Musk), but here he pens a succinct, stimulating commentary on the Founding Fathers’ ode to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” His close reading of the Declaration of Independence’s second sentence, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the document’s adoption, doesn’t downplay its “moral contradiction.” Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people yet called slavery “a cruel war against human nature” in his first draft of the Declaration. All but 15 of the document’s 56 signers owned enslaved people. While the sentence in question asserted “all men are created equal” and possess “unalienable rights,” the Founders “consciously and intentionally” excluded women, Native Americans, and enslaved people. And yet the sentence is powerful, Isaacson writes, because it names a young nation’s “aspirations.” He mounts a solid defense of what ought to be shared goals, among them economic fairness, “moral compassion,” and a willingness to compromise. “Democracy depends on this,” he writes. Isaacson is excellent when explaining how Enlightenment intellectuals abroad influenced the founders. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Declaration’s “five-person drafting committee,” stayed in David Hume’s home for a month in the early 1770s, “discussing ideas of natural rights” with the Scottish philosopher. Also strong is Isaacson’s discussion of the “edits and tweaks” made to Jefferson’s draft. As recommended by Franklin and others, the changes were substantial, leaving Jefferson “distraught.” Franklin, who emerges as the book’s hero, helped establish municipal services, founded a library, and encouraged religious diversity—the kind of civic-mindedness that we could use more of today, Isaacson reminds us.
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781982181314
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
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