Bill Gates Recommends Four Books That 'Make Sense of the World' (gatesnotes.com) 43
This month Bill Gates recommended four books about making sense of the world, including The Coming Wave, by Mustafa Suleyman. Gates calls it "the book I recommend more than any other on AI — to heads of state, business leaders, and anyone else who asks — because it offers something rare: a clear-eyed view of both the extraordinary opportunities and genuine risks ahead."
After helping build DeepMind from a small startup into one of the most important AI companies of the past decade, [Suleyman] went on to found Inflection AI and now leads Microsoft's AI division. But what makes this book special isn't just Mustafa's firsthand experience — it's his deep understanding of scientific history and how technological revolutions unfold. He's a serious intellectual who can draw meaningful parallels across centuries of scientific advancement. Most of the coverage of The Coming Wave has focused on what it has to say about artificial intelligence — which makes sense, given that it's one of the most important books on AI ever written. And there is probably no one as qualified as Mustafa to write it...
But what sets his book apart from others is Mustafa's insight that AI is only one part of an unprecedented convergence of scientific breakthroughs. Gene editing, DNA synthesis, and other advances in biotechnology are racing forward in parallel. As the title suggests, these changes are building like a wave far out at sea — invisible to many but gathering force. Each would be game-changing on its own; together, they're poised to reshape every aspect of society... [P]rogress is already accelerating as costs plummet and computing power grows. Then there are the incentives for profit and power that are driving development. Countries compete with countries, companies compete with companies, and individuals compete for glory and leadership. These forces make technological advancement essentially unstoppable — and they also make it harder to control...
How do we limit the dangers of these technologies while harnessing their benefits? This is the question at the heart of The Coming Wave, because containment is foundational to everything else. Without it, the risks of AI and biotechnology become even more acute. By solving for it first, we create the stability and trust needed to tackle everything else... [Suleyman] lays out an agenda that's appropriately ambitious for the scale of the challenge — ranging from technical solutions (like building an emergency off switch for AI systems) to sweeping institutional changes, including new global treaties, modernized regulatory frameworks, and historic cooperation among governments, companies, and scientists...
In an accompanying Christmas-themed video, Gates adds that "Of all the books on AI, that's the one I recommend the most."
Gates also recommends The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt, saying it "made me reflect on how much of my younger years — which were often spent running around outside without parental supervision, sometimes getting into trouble — helped shape who I am today. Haidt explains how the shift from play-based childhoods to phone-based childhoods is transforming how kids develop and process emotions." (In the video Gates describes it as "kind of a scary book, but very convincing. [Haidt] writes about the rise of mental illness, and anxiety in children. He, unlike some books, actually has some prescriptions, like kids not using phones until much later, parenting style differences. I think it's a super-important book.")
Gates goes into the book's thesis in a longer blog post: that "we're actually facing two distinct crises: digital under-parenting (giving kids unlimited and unsupervised access to devices and social media) and real-world over-parenting (protecting kids from every possible harm in the real world). The result is young people who are suffering from addiction-like behaviors — and suffering, period — while struggling to handle challenges and setbacks that are part of everyday life." [Haidt] makes a strong case for better age verification on social media platforms and delaying smartphone access until kids are older. Literally and figuratively, he argues, we also need to rebuild the infrastructure of childhood itself — from creating more engaging playgrounds that encourage reasonable risk-taking, to establishing phone-free zones in schools, to helping young people rediscover the joy of in-person interaction.
Gates also recommends Engineering in Plain Sight, by Grady Hillhouse, a book which he says "encourages curiosity." ("Hillhouse takes all of the mysterious structures we see every day, from cable boxes to transformers to cell phone towers, and explains what they are and how they work. It's the kind of read that will reward your curiosity and answer questions you didn't even know you had.")
And finally, Gates recommends an autobiography by 81-year-old Pulitzer Prize-winning historian/biographer/former sports journalist Doris Kearns Goodwin, who assesses the impact of President Lyndon Johnson's policies in a surprising "personal history of the 1960s."
But what sets his book apart from others is Mustafa's insight that AI is only one part of an unprecedented convergence of scientific breakthroughs. Gene editing, DNA synthesis, and other advances in biotechnology are racing forward in parallel. As the title suggests, these changes are building like a wave far out at sea — invisible to many but gathering force. Each would be game-changing on its own; together, they're poised to reshape every aspect of society... [P]rogress is already accelerating as costs plummet and computing power grows. Then there are the incentives for profit and power that are driving development. Countries compete with countries, companies compete with companies, and individuals compete for glory and leadership. These forces make technological advancement essentially unstoppable — and they also make it harder to control...
How do we limit the dangers of these technologies while harnessing their benefits? This is the question at the heart of The Coming Wave, because containment is foundational to everything else. Without it, the risks of AI and biotechnology become even more acute. By solving for it first, we create the stability and trust needed to tackle everything else... [Suleyman] lays out an agenda that's appropriately ambitious for the scale of the challenge — ranging from technical solutions (like building an emergency off switch for AI systems) to sweeping institutional changes, including new global treaties, modernized regulatory frameworks, and historic cooperation among governments, companies, and scientists...
In an accompanying Christmas-themed video, Gates adds that "Of all the books on AI, that's the one I recommend the most."
Gates also recommends The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt, saying it "made me reflect on how much of my younger years — which were often spent running around outside without parental supervision, sometimes getting into trouble — helped shape who I am today. Haidt explains how the shift from play-based childhoods to phone-based childhoods is transforming how kids develop and process emotions." (In the video Gates describes it as "kind of a scary book, but very convincing. [Haidt] writes about the rise of mental illness, and anxiety in children. He, unlike some books, actually has some prescriptions, like kids not using phones until much later, parenting style differences. I think it's a super-important book.")
Gates goes into the book's thesis in a longer blog post: that "we're actually facing two distinct crises: digital under-parenting (giving kids unlimited and unsupervised access to devices and social media) and real-world over-parenting (protecting kids from every possible harm in the real world). The result is young people who are suffering from addiction-like behaviors — and suffering, period — while struggling to handle challenges and setbacks that are part of everyday life." [Haidt] makes a strong case for better age verification on social media platforms and delaying smartphone access until kids are older. Literally and figuratively, he argues, we also need to rebuild the infrastructure of childhood itself — from creating more engaging playgrounds that encourage reasonable risk-taking, to establishing phone-free zones in schools, to helping young people rediscover the joy of in-person interaction.
Gates also recommends Engineering in Plain Sight, by Grady Hillhouse, a book which he says "encourages curiosity." ("Hillhouse takes all of the mysterious structures we see every day, from cable boxes to transformers to cell phone towers, and explains what they are and how they work. It's the kind of read that will reward your curiosity and answer questions you didn't even know you had.")
And finally, Gates recommends an autobiography by 81-year-old Pulitzer Prize-winning historian/biographer/former sports journalist Doris Kearns Goodwin, who assesses the impact of President Lyndon Johnson's policies in a surprising "personal history of the 1960s."
Why in the HECK (Score:1)
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exactly, Bill Gates, how many people are homeless, hungry and poor because of your greed? Bill Gates and all those just like him are just an evil classist petty tyrants
evil assholes
Re: Why in the HECK (Score:2)
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The reason they recommend the book is so people can learn from the past. How to recognize when one side says the other side must be gotten rid of (such as is happening in Palestine by Israel), how words can be twisted to get a point across, and logical fallacies.
They are not saying it's a good book. They are saying people should understand how we got to the next step after the book.
Does not make sense (Score:4, Insightful)
If you really want to make sense of the world, read about human psychology.
Besides that, I ignore people like Gates.
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If you really want to make sense of the world, read about human psychology.
Besides that, I ignore people like Gates.
The list makes no sense regardless. One of the worlds wealthiest humans, holds the latest sales gimmick as the centerpiece of a handful of books that make “sense” of our (for-profit) world? Sounds just a bit too convenient there, Bill.
Tell me what his list was 5 years ago. Then tell me why it’s so unfashionable by comparison.
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I'm looking forward to his own books (Score:3)
Please, no more calls for censorship (Score:2)
No more calls for censorship to "save the children". Their small, fragile minds must only contain the information that you want to put into them, or they might grow up to have thoughts. This is a truly ugly concept. Not thoughts! Noooooo!
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We need parents to parent and schools to teach academics. Toss the rest.
You mean history? It's important.
Jay M. Feinman? (Score:3)
“Delay, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It,” by Jay M. Feinman.
If not, he can take his 640kBooks and defrag them.
the real crisis is massive undercapitalization (Score:2)
thanks to the unsustainable greed of Bill Gates and the upper class, the rest of us are in the lower class now
it cannot be capitalism when 85% of all our capital is being hoarded by an irresponsible upper class, that only leaves 15% of all capital for the rest of us to manage with, it's not enough
and these selfish people aren't letting up either
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it cannot be capitalism when 85% of all our capital is being hoarded
That is exactly what it is.
Capitalism means "capital controls the means of production" and nothing else.
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Not that I disagree with you in principle, but you do realize that's a bit of a tautology, right?
"Captial" here is being defined by being the "ownership class". So if you define a group by owning the means of production, then say "hey look, they own the means of production" it's kinda... duh?
A more cohesive theory needs to understand why someone is a member of the group that owns everything, and why someone else isn't.
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That is exactly what it is.
Capitalism means "capital controls the means of production" and nothing else.
it's a noun that means:
1. An economic system in which the means of production and distribution are privately or corporately owned and development occurs through the accumulation and reinvestment of profits gained in a free market.
2. An economic system based on predominantly private (individual or corporate) investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of goods and wealth; contrasted with socialism or especially communism, in which the state has the predominant role in
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hahahahahahhahahahahaha
AHED is fun, they have good notes on etymology, but that is NOT what capitalism means.
You also don't know how dictionaries work. ANY of those things can be what people mean when they say capitalism. It doesn't have to be all of them.
But followup, some of those people are wrong. For example, when people think that capitalism means there is a free market, they are demonstrating that they are brain damaged, since there never has been a perfectly free market. There never can be, because a
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it's not just fair pay either, it's fair prices, not corrupting our governments, public institutions and private markets, not to mention all the environmental degradation and human rights abuses
Re: the real crisis is massive undercapitalization (Score:1)
How is it not capitalism? They have the capital, so we do what they want.
I wonder if peasants used to complain that clearly they arenâ(TM)t living under True Monarchism, because they are not the king.
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it cannot be capitalism when 85% of all our capital is being hoarded by an irresponsible upper class
Loaded language aside ("hoard"), these types of statistics are universally true of all businesses and industries.
Even if you look at something as trivial as OnlyFans, as an example, according to OF itself the top 1% of creators account for 33% of the total platform's earnings. Source: https://social-rise.com/blog/onlyfans-statistics
I know that a lot of people like to call Google a "monopoly", and I don't care to nit-pick over definitions, but in the search engine market you see 90% of search traffic in the
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it's hoarding, no one needs or deserves that much capital, capital is supposed to be tied to the producer, not the owner of the producer
this is economic slavery, obviously
I dunno about you... (Score:2)
We're doomed anyway (Score:2)
Leaders should read more than one book about AI (Score:2)
Every tech advance comes with a flaw baked in (Score:3)
The problem is that whenever there's a significant technological advance, it is immediately pounced on by wealthy, greedy opportunists whose number one priority is to get as much money out of it as possible. Social costs, environmental costs, danger to average people...none of it matters if there's money to be made.
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"This is going to take along time to return to any sort of normalcy."
You mean it is going to take a long time before a toxic male dominance is re-established and men can go about abusing females at their whim.
All of your statements are skewed stupid:
"Raising children requires two parents, usually one male, and usually one female." No it doesn't. Families with two fathers and two mothers do just fine. What are you smoking?
"Today, the male input is largely subjugated, while the female is elevated." In what al
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"This is going to take along time to return to any sort of normalcy."
You mean it is going to take a long time before a toxic male dominance is re-established and men can go about abusing females at their whim.
All you are doing is illustrating that in today's world, expression of an opinion that is not yours gets an attack, which for some reason you believe is an appropriate response.
You simply must point out to me where I said anything like that.
All of your statements are skewed stupid:
"Raising children requires two parents, usually one male, and usually one female." No it doesn't. Families with two fathers and two mothers do just fine.
Sorry there homie - did you notice that I wrote "Usually one male and on
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The Coddling of the American Mind is also good.
See also Bad Therapy.
Containment of the rest (Score:2)
Technology is "unstoppable" and "containment is foundational to everything else" sounds like a recipe for a dystopian nightmare to me.
Interesting no serious thought or consideration seems to ever be given to simply not going there in the first place invoking the age old if we don't someone else will argument. It is merely presumed impossible to stop "progress" but apparently not so impossible to prevent software from being executed, information from being spread or trustworthy AIs to be developed. Nobody