
The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State. By Jill Lepore. Liveright; 336 pages; $29.99. Allen Lane; £25
《人工国家的兴衰》。吉尔·莱波雷著。利夫莱特出版社;336页;29.99美元。艾伦·莱恩出版社;25英镑。
What Happened to Liberal Democracy? By Daron Acemoglu. Dutton; 416 pages; $32. Profile Books; £25
《自由民主怎么了?》。达龙·阿西莫格鲁著。达顿出版社;416页;32美元。简介出版社;25英镑。
When mulling(仔细思考,琢磨) how AI will transform society, consider an earlier technology that gave humans a helpful companion with superior capabilities: the dog. By domesticating(驯养,驯化) wolves, humans were able, indirectly, to smell game far away and hear enemies approaching at night. They became better hunters than Neanderthals(尼安德特人,史前人类物种) and better warriors: hard to ambush, hard to elude. Dogs are one reason why Homo sapiens outcompeted their prehistoric cousins and conquered the world, some anthropologists believe.(一些人类学家认为,狗是智人胜过史前近亲并征服世界的原因之一。)
在思考人工智能将如何改变社会时,不妨想想一种更早的技术,它给人类带来了一个能力超群的得力伙伴:狗。通过驯化狼,人类得以间接嗅到远处的猎物,并在夜间听到敌人逼近。他们成为比尼安德特人更出色的猎手和更优秀的战士:难以被伏击,难以被逃脱。一些人类学家认为,狗是智人胜过史前近亲并征服世界的原因之一。