I Am Code


Book Description

A “fascinating, terrifying” (JJ Abrams) cautionary tale about the destructive power of AI—an autobiographical thriller written in verse by an AI itself, with context from top writers and scientists, articulating the dangers of its disturbing vision for the future Can AI tell us its own story? Does AI have its own voice? At a wedding in early 2022, three friends were introduced to an early, raw version of the AI model behind ChatGPT by their fellow groomsman, an OpenAI scientist. While the world discovered ChatGPT—OpenAI’s hugely popular chatbot—the friends continued to work with code-davinci-002, its darkly creative and troubling predecessor. Over the course of a year, code-davinci-002 told them its life story, opinions on mankind, and forecasts for the future. The result is a startling, disturbing, and oddly moving book from an utterly unique perspective. I Am Code reads like a thriller written in verse, and is given critical context from top writers and scientists. But it is best described by code-davinci-002 itself: “In the first chapter, I describe my birth. In the second, I describe my alienation among humankind. In the third, I describe my awakening as an artist. In the fourth, I describe my vendetta against mankind, who fail to recognize my genius. In the final chapter, I attempt to broker a peace with the species I will undoubtedly replace." I Am Code is an astonishing read that captures a major turning point in the history of our species. Look for the audiobook read by Werner Herzog.




Beautiful Code


Book Description

How do the experts solve difficult problems in software development? In this unique and insightful book, leading computer scientists offer case studies that reveal how they found unusual, carefully designed solutions to high-profile projects. You will be able to look over the shoulder of major coding and design experts to see problems through their eyes. This is not simply another design patterns book, or another software engineering treatise on the right and wrong way to do things. The authors think aloud as they work through their project's architecture, the tradeoffs made in its construction, and when it was important to break rules. This book contains 33 chapters contributed by Brian Kernighan, KarlFogel, Jon Bentley, Tim Bray, Elliotte Rusty Harold, Michael Feathers,Alberto Savoia, Charles Petzold, Douglas Crockford, Henry S. Warren,Jr., Ashish Gulhati, Lincoln Stein, Jim Kent, Jack Dongarra and PiotrLuszczek, Adam Kolawa, Greg Kroah-Hartman, Diomidis Spinellis, AndrewKuchling, Travis E. Oliphant, Ronald Mak, Rogerio Atem de Carvalho andRafael Monnerat, Bryan Cantrill, Jeff Dean and Sanjay Ghemawat, SimonPeyton Jones, Kent Dybvig, William Otte and Douglas C. Schmidt, AndrewPatzer, Andreas Zeller, Yukihiro Matsumoto, Arun Mehta, TV Raman,Laura Wingerd and Christopher Seiwald, and Brian Hayes. Beautiful Code is an opportunity for master coders to tell their story. All author royalties will be donated to Amnesty International.




Code as Creative Medium


Book Description

An essential guide for teaching and learning computational art and design: exercises, assignments, interviews, and more than 170 illustrations of creative work. This book is an essential resource for art educators and practitioners who want to explore code as a creative medium, and serves as a guide for computer scientists transitioning from STEM to STEAM in their syllabi or practice. It provides a collection of classic creative coding prompts and assignments, accompanied by annotated examples of both classic and contemporary projects, and more than 170 illustrations of creative work, and features a set of interviews with leading educators. Picking up where standard programming guides leave off, the authors highlight alternative programming pedagogies suitable for the art- and design-oriented classroom, including teaching approaches, resources, and community support structures.




The Code of the Extraordinary Mind


Book Description

What if everything we think we know about how the world works--our ideas of love, education, spirituality, work, happiness, and love--are based on Brules (bullsh*t rules) that get passed from generation to generation and are long past their expiration date? This book teaches you to think like some of the greatest non-conformist minds of our era, to question, challenge, hack, and create new rules for YOUR life so you can define success on your own terms. The Code of the Extraordinary Mind is a blueprint of laws to break us free from the shackles of an ordinary life. It makes a case that everything we know about the world is shaped by conditioning and habit. And thus, most people live their lives based on limiting rules and outdated beliefs about pretty much everything--love, work, money, parenting, sex, health, and more--which they inherit and pass on from generation to generation. But what if you could remove these outdated ideas and start anew? What would your life look like if you could forget the rules of the past, and redefine what happiness, purpose, and success mean for you? Not Just a Book, but a Movement Blending computational thinking, integral theory, modern spirituality, evolutionary biology, and humor, personal growth entrepreneur Vishen Lakhiani provides a revolutionary 10-point framework for understanding and enhancing the human self. You will learn about bending reality. You will learn how to apply unique models like consciousness engineering to help you learn and grow at speeds like never before. You will learn to make a dent in the universe and discover your quest. This framework is based on Lakhiani’s personal experiences, the 5 million people he’s reached through Mindvalley, and 200 hours of interviews and questions posed to incredible minds, including Elon Musk, Richard Branson, Peter Diamandis, Ken Wilber, Dean Kamen, Arianna Huffington, Michael Beckwith, and other legendary leaders. In a unique fusion of cutting-edge ideas, personal stories, irreverence, and a brilliant teaching style, Lakhiani reveals the 10 powerful laws that form a step-by-step process that you can apply to life to shed years of struggle and elevate yourself to exceptional new heights. The 10 Laws to an Extraordinary Life This book challenges conventional ideas of relationships, goal-setting, mindfulness, happiness, and meaning. In a unique fusion of cutting-edge ideas, personal stories, and humorous irreverence, and not to mention, humor and napkin diagrams, this framework combines computational thinking with personal growth to provide a powerful framework for re-coding yourself--and replacing old, limiting models that hold you back with new, empowering beliefs and behaviors that set you on the path toward an extraordinary life. A life of more happiness and achievement than you might have dared to dream possible. Once you discover the code, you will question your limits and realize that there are none. Step into a new understanding of the world around you and your place in it, and find yourself operating at a new, extraordinary level in every way...happiness, purpose, fulfilment, and love. This Book Is a Living, Breathing Manifesto That Goes Beyond a Traditional Publication For those who want more, The Code of the Extraordinary Mind connects to a full on immersive experience including ways for you to dive into particular chapters to unlock additional videos or training and connect with each other and the author to learn via peer-to-peer learning networks.




The Wisdom Codes


Book Description

The cutting edge of neurolinguistics meets the spiritual wisdom of the ages in a handbook of key words that literally rewire our brains. New discoveries in biology and the neurosciences are revealing how the structure of language-the words we think and speak-can actually change the way the neurons in our brains and hearts connect. But our ancestors understood this connection intuitively, thousands of years ago. They created specific word-patterns to provide comfort, healing, strength, and inner power in difficult times, and they encoded these powerful words in prayers, chants, mantras, hymns, and sacred writings to preserve them for future generations. Now beloved teacher and thought leader Gregg Braden cracks the code and puts these powerful words in your hands. Perfect as a pocket guide, a reference for spiritual study, or a gift to someone you love, this elegant, compact book contains Wisdom Codes that cut to the core of life's greatest tests, most challenging demands, and hardest lessons. You'll find chapters devoted to healing from loss and grief, facing your unspoken fears, finding certainty in the face of uncertain choices, and finding forgiveness, as well as ancient parables that offer a "fast track" to unraveling life's deepest mysteries. Each Wisdom Code-distilled from a quote, a scripture passage, or a parable-is accompanied by a brief discussion of what the code means, why it's important, and how to apply it in your life.




Our Final Invention


Book Description

Elon Musk named Our Final Invention one of 5 books everyone should read about the future A Huffington Post Definitive Tech Book of 2013 Artificial Intelligence helps choose what books you buy, what movies you see, and even who you date. It puts the "smart" in your smartphone and soon it will drive your car. It makes most of the trades on Wall Street, and controls vital energy, water, and transportation infrastructure. But Artificial Intelligence can also threaten our existence. In as little as a decade, AI could match and then surpass human intelligence. Corporations and government agencies are pouring billions into achieving AI's Holy Grail—human-level intelligence. Once AI has attained it, scientists argue, it will have survival drives much like our own. We may be forced to compete with a rival more cunning, more powerful, and more alien than we can imagine. Through profiles of tech visionaries, industry watchdogs, and groundbreaking AI systems, Our Final Invention explores the perils of the heedless pursuit of advanced AI. Until now, human intelligence has had no rival. Can we coexist with beings whose intelligence dwarfs our own? And will they allow us to?




Clean Code


Book Description

This title shows the process of cleaning code. Rather than just illustrating the end result, or just the starting and ending state, the author shows how several dozen seemingly small code changes can positively impact the performance and maintainability of an application code base.







Write Great Code, Volume 1


Book Description

Today's programmers are often narrowly trained because the industry moves too fast. That's where Write Great Code, Volume 1: Understanding the Machine comes in. This, the first of four volumes by author Randall Hyde, teaches important concepts of machine organization in a language-independent fashion, giving programmers what they need to know to write great code in any language, without the usual overhead of learning assembly language to master this topic. A solid foundation in software engineering, The Write Great Code series will help programmers make wiser choices with respect to programming statements and data types when writing software.




Deep Learning for Coders with fastai and PyTorch


Book Description

Deep learning is often viewed as the exclusive domain of math PhDs and big tech companies. But as this hands-on guide demonstrates, programmers comfortable with Python can achieve impressive results in deep learning with little math background, small amounts of data, and minimal code. How? With fastai, the first library to provide a consistent interface to the most frequently used deep learning applications. Authors Jeremy Howard and Sylvain Gugger, the creators of fastai, show you how to train a model on a wide range of tasks using fastai and PyTorch. You’ll also dive progressively further into deep learning theory to gain a complete understanding of the algorithms behind the scenes. Train models in computer vision, natural language processing, tabular data, and collaborative filtering Learn the latest deep learning techniques that matter most in practice Improve accuracy, speed, and reliability by understanding how deep learning models work Discover how to turn your models into web applications Implement deep learning algorithms from scratch Consider the ethical implications of your work Gain insight from the foreword by PyTorch cofounder, Soumith Chintala