Book of the dayScience and nature booksReviewYuval Noah Harari responds to an account of the artificial intelligence era and argues we are profoundly ill-prepared to deal with future technology
Artificial intelligence will probably be the most important agent of change in the 21st century. It will transform our economy, our culture, our politics and even our own bodies and minds in ways most people can hardly imagine. If you hear a scenario about the world in 2050 and it sounds like science fiction, it is probably wrong; but if you hear a scenario about the world in 2050 and it does not sound like science fiction, it is certainly wrong. Read More...
Sean O'Hagan on photographyPhotographyFrom the African Choir posing like Vogue models to an Abyssinian prince adopted by an explorer, a new exhibition spotlights the first black people ever photographed in Britain
Hidden histories: the first black people photographed in Britain – in pictures The African Choir were a group of young South African singers that toured Britain between 1891 and 1893. They were formed to raise funds for a Christian school in their home country and performed for Queen Victoria at Osborne House, a royal residence on the Isle of Wight. Read More...
Saul BellowZachary Leader, Bellow’s biographer, selects five must-reads by the great American author The Adventures of Augie March (1953)
This is the novel in which Bellow found his voice. Augie, its picaresque hero, declares himself “a Columbus of those near-at-hand”, by which he means a discoverer of new fictional territory, since he himself narrates his adventures. The “reality instructors” and “Machiavellis of small street and neighbourhood” that Augie delights in portraying, most of them Jewish, come from Bellow’s childhood and youth in immigrant Chicago. Read More...
