Reviews of Habibi Funk 031, Kayatibu, and The Good Ones
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Is our currently experienced reality a simulation?
ANDY HEDGECOCK recommends a book which is the perfect starting point for those with an interest in the possibilities of immersive technology
[Samuel Zeller/CC]
SIMON DUFF relishes the cross contamination of Damien Hirst’s greatest hits by street artists from France and the US
In view of the grooming gangs inquiry, SIMON PARSONS feels the relevance of this powerful examination of trauma suffered at Medomsley Youth Detention Centre
JOHN GREEN doubts the motivations of a US war photographer who never questions why, or for whom, she is producing images of imperialist conflict
MARIA DUARTE reviews Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, Hedda, The Mastermind, and Regretting You
TONY CONWAY welcomes a thrilling and concise history of Hope not Hate, that is also a manual full of tactical advice
PAUL DONOVAN welcomes an inspiring account of living with deafness that has important lessons for the treatment of deaf people in today’s UK
Reality+
by David J Chalmers
Allen Lane, hardback, £25
THIRTY-EIGHT years ago, I was struggling to understand the use of Boltzmann machines, cellular automata and neural networks in the simulation of human behaviour and development. Using these mathematical models as the basis for computer programmes was a challenge, but I was even more bemused by the philosophical implications of simulated worlds.
The experience might have been less perplexing if I’d had access to the thoughts and teaching of David J Chalmers, whose latest book is a comprehensive and painstaking study of simulation, consciousness, and being.
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ANDY HEDGECOCK admires a critique of the penetration of our lives by digital media, but is disappointed that the underlying cause is avoided
WILL PODMORE is enlightened by the achievements of a 17th century scientist whose work anticipates computer programming as well as Marx’s materialism
GORDON PARSONS recommends the biography of the German polymath whose life provides an interesting take on a revolutionary age
JOHN HAWKINS marvels at the blithe dismissal of people as a passive mass in a new work that extols the coming merger of human intelligence with AI