Reflections on A Brief History of Intelligence by Max Bennett

A surprisingly enjoyable read for someone with little interest in AI

Overall impression

I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. I wasn’t sure about the artificial intelligence connections in the beginning—that’s not my area of passion, and I hold some negative biases towards folks (especially white men) involved in those tech spaces—but it ended up being a great AI introduction for a creature-obsessed. My preexisting knowledge of animal evolution carried me to the edge of the precipice. It was easy to take a little step off and feel a fresh understanding of the intelligences we are trying to make in our own image.

So the AI stuff ended up being okay. Pretty interesting, actually.

Should we “stay in our lane”?

Then I came to love that Max Bennett is not a neuroscientist. At first this put me off—his introduction attempted to address the fact (and did so probably as well as any preface could attempt) but the thought lingered in the back of my mind that maybe he shouldn’t be the one writing this book. I’m thrilled I dismissed that idea over time.

Benn…