Hello World: How to be Human in the Age of the Machine by Hannah Fry (PDF)

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One of the best books yet written on data and algorithms. . .deserves a place on the bestseller charts.’ (The Times) You are accused of a crime. Who would you rather determined your fate – a human or an algorithm?An algorithm is more consistent and less prone to error of judgement. Yet a human can look you in the eye before passing sentence.Welcome to the age of the algorithm, the story of a not-too-distant future where machines rule supreme, making important decisions – in healthcare, transport, finance, security, what we watch, where we go even who we send to prison. So how much should we rely on them? What kind of future do we want?Hannah Fry takes us on a tour of the good, the bad and the downright ugly of the algorithms that surround us. In Hello World she lifts the lid on their inner workings, demonstrates their power, exposes their limitations, and examines whether they really are an improvement on the humans they are replacing.A BBC RADIO 4: BOOK OF THE WEEKSHORTLISTED FOR THE 2018 BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE AND 2018 ROYAL SOCIETY SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐This was a good read.It’s thoughtful & insightful about how we need algorithms in modern society but also points out their pitfalls and suggests how we might do better to manage them (& people).My only wish is there was a bit more. This book is a great start to a very needed discussion and then ends off with a nice frame of the discussion.The reader is left to fill in the picture with other books or resources.

⭐Although I’ve used computers since the 1980s, I am nothing near tech-savvy when it comes to understanding how they work. But I found this discussion of algorithms to be informative and down to earth. She discusses what algorithms are and why they are useful in many areas, including policing & criminal justice, healthcare, entertainment, retail sales, self-driving cars, etc. She devotes a chapter to the now-well-known truism that “if you are not paying for the data, you ARE the data,” and how the info we volunteer so readily is used and monetized. But the most important take-away from her book is her warning that algorithms will NEVER be perfected — it’s impossible — and anyone who thinks they can be is setting up unrealistic expectations which, she says, are already rampant in the general public. She documents a number of mishaps and errors, some amusing but others downright terrifying (up to and including ruining peoples’ lives), resulting from from our over-dependence on and misplaced trust in the infallibility of algorithms. Though software is an inevitable part of everyday life now, I’ll never again think of any “smart” technology the same way.

⭐The author addresses a subclass of Algorithms (defined p.7ff) and their effects, and potential effects, on society. The subclass of algorithms addressed, which could reasonable be called computer programs, are those that can have a significant effect on people’s lives. What she is not talking about are things like the algorithm used to calculate a tangent or to multiply two matrices. The algorithms address range from the massive data collected about people, used for advertising and other purposes, to potential design issues with self-driving cars, medical diagnosis, determining risk in the judicial system or the challenges in facial recognition. These are big tasks and, for the most part, usually considered human functions. Many of the algorithms involved are classed as ‘machine-learning’.The author does a good job of pointing out some of the benefits and problems with these algorithms and provides some suggestions for the future. She did, however, miss one of the most important things to warn against: Do not allow Microsoft to provide any life critical programs.The best part of the book is the extensive end-notes. Although the author does not go into great details about the algorithms of interest, she does provide plenty of references which are useful for further research.From reading the book, and my own 40+ years in the computer field, the author appears to be more of a researcher about algorithms than an implementer of algorithms. This results, I think, in a little bit of a lack of understanding about how some algorithms actually work, and what information can be gleaned from their operation (I am especially concerned with the machine-learning programs).I also strongly recommend the author’s other book,

⭐Hannah Fry, a British mathematician gives us a common sense evaluation of when to trust and when not to trust the algorithms that we encounter throughout our lives. Whether in health, justice, crime, entertainment, and more, these algorithms are only as good as the humans who use them. Example (of which there are many throughout this book): Petrov, a Russian who had to decide in a split second whether or not the United States was really sending a missile attack aimed at Russia and whether he should push the button to respond with return missiles, hesitated…. He trusted his own instincts rather than the algorithm which in this case had malfunctioned, thereby saving us all from nuclear war. Thank you Petrov. We owe you our lives!

⭐A great book that explains in easy to understand terms how artificial intelligence fits into the modern world. A fantastic read for anyone who wants to understand how computers are used in unexpected ways. Should be required reading for anyone interested in computer science.

⭐Ordered for school and it came in at the designated shipping time. Although, the book is interesting at times it’s not the best.

⭐I really enjoyed this book for the wide variety of algorithm applications it showed! As a software engineer, I loved seeing a layman’s overview of how algorithms are useful in so many fields.I disagree with the author’s viewpoint in several places though. Especially when it came to choices of not using algorithms.I was also surprised to see no reference to some things I expected to find in the book. Like Asimov’s laws of robotics or a reference to Star Trek Lt. Cmd. Data in the art chapter or even the Coded Bias studies and documentary in the crime chapter. If I read this book with a book club, I look forward to discussing these connections in the book context!Overall a great read!

⭐It is a scary world where businesses exploit algorithms to spy on ordinary people. Man still rules because AI hasn’t learned gut feeling and certainty.

⭐Richard Feynman is alleged to have said “If you can’t explain something in simple terms, you don’t understand it”. On that basis, mathematician and broadcaster Hannah Fry definitely understands how algorithms are increasingly used in decision making in our society – this book is a chatty, amusing and straightforward introduction to the subject, avoiding all the “Robots are taking over” nonsense that too often fills the debates about artificial intelligence.Not sure what an algorithm is? Dr Fry provides a lucid explanation of what they are, how they work and the different types, together with a clear and basic explanation of the maths behind them.After that, she focuses on how they are used in the justice system, medicine and crime as well as the creative arts, and ultimately leaves the reader with a lot of philosophical and ethical questions, such as “Do we rely on them too much?” “How accurate are they and can we ever make them ‘fair’?” “At what point do we question their decisions?” and “who decides ultimately?”Probably my only criticism is relating to the Kindle edition – there are several photographs used to illustrate points (such as how a tiny change to a picture can make a machine see a dog instead of a truck). These don’t work well on a Kindle where the picture quality is too poor for the illustration to be meaningful.

⭐This book is publicized with an accolade of prizes, “best of” lists inclusions and the usual. Surprisingly, it appears as “the best book on algorithms” in a references blog. The same website ranks the autobiography of Julie Andrews, as the best book on cinema ever written – this should have warned the reader, as said autobiography (both volumes of it) is, at most, a fair recollection of reminiscences written without much passion of personality. And then, however, and in spite of all the previous, I do fail to see any greatness in “Hello World…”.First, the book reads as a long list of examples on the current uses of the algorithm – the usual: driverless cars, computers playing chess, medical predictions, dangerous legal applications, etc. Some examples we have read a few times elsewhere. And after the reader goes through a panoply of already known examples, and some obvious platitudes, sadly the book gets nowhere. So much, that it looks more like a long introduction for the real thing. In this line, when we get to the end (without getting to any worthy conclusion) we are left wondering: is that all?In several reviews of the book we can read that “it deals with the Cambridge Analytica case”. Great, it is a shady case in which IT & science are used to spurious aims – influencing an election. But then the case is dealt with in a mere page and a half, it is almost a headline elongated into some paragraphs which (to repeat) we have read a few times before and nothing else.Another flaw, unfortunately and tediously common in technology, is that the book was written in 2018, yet it looks already dated, quite so. For instance, when the author quotes some car makers promising to deliver driverless cars for 2020 – then the future, now already past – with that promise not fulfilled.It is a book well written, the author knows her trade and she’s a passionate writer – she has the authority and the knowledge, without a question. But she falls short and never grasps fully the reader’s attention and, more importantly, never seems to lead to any worthy or new conclusion or to provide the reader with an insightful (let alone adventurous) analysis. It doesn’t supply the answers for the many questions out there on the power and potential of the machines, often not even succeeding at making the proper questions. After finishing the book we feel we’ve completed a superficial comment on things we already knew.

⭐I like Hannah Fry on her regular TV shows as one of a burgeoning army of academics promoting ‘hard’ subjects. This book is really well written for the current times and I couldn’t put it down. It’s written in an accessible discursive style that doesn’t intimidate the reader, but at the same time, is well referenced. I’ve knocked one star off because the book is clearly pitched at a North American audience – perhaps the publisher’s algorithm suggested this was a good idea. While I have no objective reasons to dislike this feature of the narrative- I do wonder why similar facts and examples couldn’t have been found nearer to home – like mainland Europe!

⭐The author is an Associate Professor in the Mathematics of cities at University College London. While the merit of the book rests on several gratifying traits, an important recurring theme is that algorithms should be correctly viewed as an aid to humans in arriving at better decisions rather than as an infallible authority.The book is concise while it is simply, clearly, and judiciously written. Despite its brevity, the reader will obtain a valuable insight into the merit and limitations of algorithms, even on their unintended consequences. The author explains the nature of the algorithms and their application in different areas such as the games of chess and jeopardy, justice, medicine, self-driving cars, crime, even art.The author emphasizes the complementarity of humans and algorithms: humans are good at understanding subtleties, at analyzing content, applying experience and distinguishing patterns. Humans are bad paying attention,at precision,at consistency and at being fully aware of their surroundings, skills in which algorithms excel.

⭐Let me start off by saying I enjoyed this book immensely. Hannah Fry manages to offer up a book that explores algorithms and their place in various areas of society and she manages to do so in an engaging and fascinating way.This book looks at how algorithms have crept into society and how they impact upon Data collection, Justice systems, Medicine, autonomous cars and other transportation, Crime prevention/prediction and Art. It is eye opening and even shocking at times to learn how algorithms are already an integral part of wider society. You also gain a deeper appreciation of what they’re capable of achieving.Fry also explores to what level we already trust algorithms and allow them to make decisions for us and this leads on to one of her key arguements; that algorithms should be used to supplement and support human decisions, not take over and make them for us.Fry writes in such a clear and engaging way that I zipped through this in no time at all. It is a little light on technical information, but perfectly pitched as an accessible popular science read to give you food for thought and ideas to mull over and research more if you so wish. The anecdotes and case studies used to illustrate various points were often compelling to read in their own right.I thought this was a fascinating topic, extremely well written and pitched perfectly as an introduction to algorithms to the layman on the street. Highly recommended.

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