Algorithms to Live By

Algorithms to Live By

Author: Brian Christian

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2016-04-19

Total Pages: 366

ISBN-13: 1627790365

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'Algorithms to Live By' looks at the simple, precise algorithms that computers use to solve the complex 'human' problems that we face, and discovers what they can tell us about the nature and origin of the mind.


Disastrous Decisions

Disastrous Decisions

Author: Andrew Hopkins

Publisher: Cch Australia Limited

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 9781921948770

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Takes the reader into the realm of human and organisational factors that contributed to the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010. This event resulted in the loss of 11 lives, the sinking of the rig and untold damage to the environment. It is important to know what people did, but even more important to know why they did it. Hopkins from ANU.


Decisions, Uncertainty, and the Brain

Decisions, Uncertainty, and the Brain

Author: Paul W. Glimcher

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2004-09-17

Total Pages: 404

ISBN-13: 9780262572279

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In this provocative book, Paul Glimcher argues that economic theory may provide an alternative to the classical Cartesian model of the brain and behavior. Glimcher argues that Cartesian dualism operates from the false premise that the reflex is able to describe behavior in the real world that animals inhabit. A mathematically rich cognitive theory, he claims, could solve the most difficult problems that any environment could present, eliminating the need for dualism by eliminating the need for a reflex theory. Such a mathematically rigorous description of the neural processes that connect sensation and action, he explains, will have its roots in microeconomic theory. Economic theory allows physiologists to define both the optimal course of action that an animal might select and a mathematical route by which that optimal solution can be derived. Glimcher outlines what an economics-based cognitive model might look like and how one would begin to test it empirically. Along the way, he presents a fascinating history of neuroscience. He also discusses related questions about determinism, free will, and the stochastic nature of complex behavior.


Framers

Framers

Author: Kenneth Cukier

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2021-05-11

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 059318260X

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“Cukier and his co-authors have a more ambitious project than Kahneman and Harari. They don’t want to just point out how powerfully we are influenced by our perspectives and prejudices—our frames. They want to show us that these frames are tools, and that we can optimise their use.” —Forbes From pandemics to populism, AI to ISIS, wealth inequity to climate change, humanity faces unprecedented challenges that threaten our very existence. The essential tool that will enable humanity to find the best way foward is defined in Framers by internationally renowned authors Kenneth Cukier, Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, and Francis de Véricourt. To frame is to make a mental model that enables us to make sense of new situations. Frames guide the decisions we make and the results we attain. People have long focused on traits like memory and reasoning, leaving framing all but ignored. But with computers becoming better at some of those cognitive tasks, framing stands out as a critical function—and only humans can do it. This book is the first guide to mastering this human ability. Illustrating their case with compelling examples and the latest research, authors Cukier, Mayer-Schönberger, and de Véricourt examine: · Why advice to “think outside the box” is useless · How Spotify beat Apple by reframing music as an experience · How the #MeToo twitter hashtag reframed the perception of sexual assault · The disaster of framing Covid-19 as equivalent to seasonal flu, and how framing it akin to SARS delivered New Zealand from the pandemic Framers shows how framing is not just a way to improve how we make decisions in the era of algorithms—but why it will be a matter of survival for humanity in a time of societal upheaval and machine prosperity.


The Economic Approach to Human Behavior

The Economic Approach to Human Behavior

Author: Gary S. Becker

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2013-02-06

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 022621706X

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Since his pioneering application of economic analysis to racial discrimination, Gary S. Becker has shown that an economic approach can provide a unified framework for understanding all human behavior. In a highly readable selection of essays Becker applies this approach to various aspects of human activity, including social interactions; crime and punishment; marriage, fertility, and the family; and "irrational" behavior. "Becker's highly regarded work in economics is most notable in the imaginative application of 'the economic approach' to a surprising breadth of human activity. Becker's essays over the years have inevitably inspired a surge of research activity in testimony to the richness of his insights into human activities lying 'outside' the traditionally conceived economic markets. Perhaps no economist in our time has contributed more to expanding the area of interest to economists than Becker, and a number of these thought-provoking essays are collected in this book."—Choice Gary Becker was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Science in 1992.


Your Brain Is (Almost) Perfect

Your Brain Is (Almost) Perfect

Author: Read Montague

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2007-09-25

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 0452288843

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"A fascinating introduction" (Steven Pinker) to the science of decision-making One of the leading thinkers in the computational neuroscience revolution offers a brilliant new perspective on the mind?s decision-making process. Why do we make the choices we make? How can science explain free will? If our brains are like slow computers originally programmed for survival with goals like food, water, and sex, why do we make choices that go against our own biological best interests? Where do values come from? What role do emotions play? From how we decide what we consume to the romantic, ethical, and financial choices we make, Read Montague guides readers through a new approach to the mind that is both entertaining and illuminating.


How We Decide

How We Decide

Author: Jonah Lehrer

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Published: 2010-01-14

Total Pages: 357

ISBN-13: 0547347480

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The first book to use the unexpected discoveries of neuroscience to help us make the best decisions Since Plato, philosophers have described the decision-making process as either rational or emotional: we carefully deliberate, or we “blink” and go with our gut. But as scientists break open the mind’s black box with the latest tools of neuroscience, they’re discovering that this is not how the mind works. Our best decisions are a finely tuned blend of both feeling and reason—and the precise mix depends on the situation. When buying a house, for example, it’s best to let our unconscious mull over the many variables. But when we’re picking a stock, intuition often leads us astray. The trick is to determine when to use the different parts of the brain, and to do this, we need to think harder (and smarter) about how we think. Jonah Lehrer arms us with the tools we need, drawing on cutting-edge research as well as the real-world experiences of a wide range of “deciders”—from airplane pilots and hedge fund investors to serial killers and poker players. Lehrer shows how people are taking advantage of the new science to make better television shows, win more football games, and improve military intelligence. His goal is to answer two questions that are of interest to just about anyone, from CEOs to firefighters: How does the human mind make decisions? And how can we make those decisions better?


Noise

Noise

Author: Daniel Kahneman

Publisher: Little, Brown

Published: 2021-05-18

Total Pages: 429

ISBN-13: 031645138X

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From the Nobel Prize-winning author of Thinking, Fast and Slow and the coauthor of Nudge, a revolutionary exploration of why people make bad judgments and how to make better ones—"a tour de force” (New York Times). Imagine that two doctors in the same city give different diagnoses to identical patients—or that two judges in the same courthouse give markedly different sentences to people who have committed the same crime. Suppose that different interviewers at the same firm make different decisions about indistinguishable job applicants—or that when a company is handling customer complaints, the resolution depends on who happens to answer the phone. Now imagine that the same doctor, the same judge, the same interviewer, or the same customer service agent makes different decisions depending on whether it is morning or afternoon, or Monday rather than Wednesday. These are examples of noise: variability in judgments that should be identical. In Noise, Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, and Cass R. Sunstein show the detrimental effects of noise in many fields, including medicine, law, economic forecasting, forensic science, bail, child protection, strategy, performance reviews, and personnel selection. Wherever there is judgment, there is noise. Yet, most of the time, individuals and organizations alike are unaware of it. They neglect noise. With a few simple remedies, people can reduce both noise and bias, and so make far better decisions. Packed with original ideas, and offering the same kinds of research-based insights that made Thinking, Fast and Slow and Nudge groundbreaking New York Times bestsellers, Noise explains how and why humans are so susceptible to noise in judgment—and what we can do about it.


The Mind Within the Brain

The Mind Within the Brain

Author: A. David Redish

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2013-08

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13: 0199891885

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With verve and humor in an easily readable style, David Redish brings together cutting edge research in psychology, robotics, economics, neuroscience, and the new fields of neuroeconomics and computational psychiatry, to show how vulnerabilities, or "failure-modes," in the decision-making system can lead to serious dysfunctions, such as irrational behavior, addictions, problem gambling, and PTSD. Ranging widely from the surprising roles of emotion, habit, and narrative in decision-making, to the larger philosophical questions of how mind and brain are related, what makes us human, the nature of morality, free will, and the conundrum of robotics and consciousness, The Mind within the Brain offers fresh insight into one of the most complex aspects of human behavior.