Why aren’t intelligent people happier

~ Veselin ~ 2 Comments

I found this nice article today that digs into the subject. Check it out.

The article suggests that we’ve been measuring intelligence the wrong way, which leads to poor correlation with life success metrics. Most of our intelligence metrics (like IQ) focus on how well someone can solve clearly defined problems. Real life rarely works that way. Living well, building relationships, raising children, and so on, depend more on the ability to navigate poorly defined problems. As a result, you can have a chess champion who is also a miserable human.

The article goes further and states that AIs can’t become AGIs because they’re only operating with human definitions (training data), and well-defined problems coming from prompts. AGIs would have to master poorly defined problems first.

The Nebula Collection by Artline

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

Publishing books with covers that are all part of the same image is still a relatively uncommon practice in Bulgaria. There have been some nicely designed series over the years, but not many that build a consistent visual identity across multiple titles.

This is the Nebula sci-fi series, featuring titles like Murderbot, Silo, and others. I’m curious to see how long this publisher plans to keep the style going. Something with the perspective feels limiting, as if it should end within 2-3 books.

And here is my success with the books, green are those I already read, red are those I did not start or did not finish. Overall, very solid books so far, mostly 5/5 with a rare 4/5 here and there.

For We Are Many by Dennis E. Taylor

~ Veselin ~ 1 Comment

In the second part of the Bobiverse series, the self-replicating Bob probes have now reached dozens of star systems, and their mission has grown far beyond exploration. With Earth in a nuclear winter, the Bobs take on the monumental task of coordinating humanity’s evacuation. In book 2, Earth isn’t the only place in trouble. In the nearby stars, two other civilizations face extinction, and the Bobs can’t help but get involved.

Meanwhile, a new threat threatens to end humans – the aliens called “Others.” Although their presence remains mostly peripheral, it’s clear that they will have to be dealt with.

The challenge that this book faces is that we now have lots of bobs and neither gets enough spotlight to make a difference between them, except maybe Bob 1. But Bob 1 doesn’t do anything interesting.

5*/5, I liked the book very much and recommend the series. My copy is part of the Nebula series, which has matching. Bob sits next to the Murderbot and Silo.