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The Humachine: Humankind, Machines, and the Future of Enterprise
There is a lot of hype, hand-waving, and ink being spilled about artificial intelligence (AI) in business. The amount of coverage of this topic in the trade press and on shareholder calls is evidence of a large change currently underway. It is awesome and terrifying. You might think of AI as a major environmental factor that is creating an evolutionary pressure that will force enterprise to evolve or perish. For those companies that do survive the "silicon wave" sweeping through the global economy, the issue becomes how to keep their humanity amidst the tumult. What started as an inquiry into how executives can adopt AI to harness the best of human and machine capabilities turned into a much more profound rumination on the future of humanity and enterprise. This is a wake-up call for business leaders across all sectors of the economy. Not only should you implement AI regardless of your industry, but once you do, you should fight to stay true to your purpose, your ethical convictions, indeed your humanity, even as our organizations continue to evolve. While not holding any punches about the dangers posed by overpowered AI, this book uniquely surveys where technology is limited, and gives reason for cautious optimism about the true opportunities that lie amidst all the disruptive change currently underway. As such, it is distinctively more optimistic than many of the competing titles on Big Technology. This compelling book weaves together business strategy and philosophy of mind, behavioral psychology and the limits of technology, leadership and law. The authors set out to identify where humans and machines can best complement one another to create an enterprise greater than the sum total of its the Humachine. Combining the global business and forecasting acumen of Professor Nada R. Sanders, PhD, with the legal and philosophical insight of John D. Wood, Esq., the authors combine their strengths to bring us this profound yet accessible book. This is a "must read" for anyone interested in AI and the future of human enterprise.
272 pages, Paperback
First published September 9, 2019
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21 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 10, 2019
The Humachine: Humankind, Machines, and The Future of Enterprise, co-authored by Nada R. Sanders and John D. Wood, is the latest book grappling with the near omnipresent topic of AI (artificial intelligence) and its potential effects on civilization as businesses large and small cope with adapting to this new transactional model. The authors acknowledge early on how this issue has transformed in a brief span of time; the question initially facing businesses was direct and simple – how to fuse human and machine capabilities into a cohesive whole to increase service and overall profits. However, businesses and corporations face more and more an existential dilemma – how will these changes affect humanity and the nature of enterprise itself? The Humachine attempts to address these issues by examining the limitations inherent to this new wave sweeping through business and, as well, how we recognize opportunity in this transformed landscape.
The vast majority of the book is text and there are only a handful of figures or illustrations included to help illuminate its points. The chapters are, almost always, short and concise. Sanders and Wood have a lot of ground to cover if they want to do justice to this topic and they keep their eye on the ball throughout resisting any desire to sermonize or digress. There are many philosophical reflections found within these pages, but the authors never apply these moments with heavy-handed portentousness; they are, instead, moments individual readers may “take or leave” as they wish without affecting the book’s overall impact.
BOOK WEBSITE: https://www.thehumachinebook.com/
The Humachine is free from scores of baseless assertions and blind theorizing found in other books of this type. There is little to nothing contained in its chapters that the writers do not pack up with experience or data, sometimes a mixture of both. The book’s structuring, as well, lends itself to making a strong impression on the reader – Wood and Sanders make their case in a systematic and lucid fashion and the transitions from one topic to the next are never leaps but, instead, often rather natural.
AMAZON: https://amzn.to/30XvDOn
Non-fiction of this type never needs to be a dry reading experience and The Humachine is not. The writing and thoughts shared by the authors make it clear the high stakes of the changes AI brings to our modern world in vivid and tightly wound prose that never loses readers in tortured tangles of language. All readers will appreciate this. Newcomers to the subject will find the authors make complex subject comprehensible without ever dumbing it down and those closer to the issues at hand will find their conclusions credible and often insightful. Even long after the future has arrived and AI is completely woven into our lives, Nada Sanders and John Wood’s The Humachine: Humankind, Machines, and The Future of Enterprise will retain considerable value as one of the more prescient publications about the emergence of a new age. It stands now as an important volume to read to help understand the massive changes our world will undergo in the years to come.
The vast majority of the book is text and there are only a handful of figures or illustrations included to help illuminate its points. The chapters are, almost always, short and concise. Sanders and Wood have a lot of ground to cover if they want to do justice to this topic and they keep their eye on the ball throughout resisting any desire to sermonize or digress. There are many philosophical reflections found within these pages, but the authors never apply these moments with heavy-handed portentousness; they are, instead, moments individual readers may “take or leave” as they wish without affecting the book’s overall impact.
BOOK WEBSITE: https://www.thehumachinebook.com/
The Humachine is free from scores of baseless assertions and blind theorizing found in other books of this type. There is little to nothing contained in its chapters that the writers do not pack up with experience or data, sometimes a mixture of both. The book’s structuring, as well, lends itself to making a strong impression on the reader – Wood and Sanders make their case in a systematic and lucid fashion and the transitions from one topic to the next are never leaps but, instead, often rather natural.
AMAZON: https://amzn.to/30XvDOn
Non-fiction of this type never needs to be a dry reading experience and The Humachine is not. The writing and thoughts shared by the authors make it clear the high stakes of the changes AI brings to our modern world in vivid and tightly wound prose that never loses readers in tortured tangles of language. All readers will appreciate this. Newcomers to the subject will find the authors make complex subject comprehensible without ever dumbing it down and those closer to the issues at hand will find their conclusions credible and often insightful. Even long after the future has arrived and AI is completely woven into our lives, Nada Sanders and John Wood’s The Humachine: Humankind, Machines, and The Future of Enterprise will retain considerable value as one of the more prescient publications about the emergence of a new age. It stands now as an important volume to read to help understand the massive changes our world will undergo in the years to come.
October 2, 2024
Post Covid the corporate world is something else, it has shifted from its traditional ways to more contemporary and AI-oriented approach. Picking up this book reminds me of the movie Matrix…it was human vs. machines. Well, in that AI wasn’t so powerfully shown. Anyway, this book is especially for organizations across the world looking to beat that competitive AI edge to emerge as super winners. A few years ago people would insist on using AI tools and apps to work faster, to produce more units, to become more efficient. And now the situation has gone to that edge that by reading this book you will realize what AI technologies can inevitably do for humans, including bad, good, and neutral. This book emphasis that we have to now become Humachine so as we can procure good from it and leave the rest to it.
From becoming Artificial Intelligence to Super intelligence, both authors charted out a roadmap for millions of business leaders and executives so that they can remain abreast in the market’s competition and lead in accurate integration of AI and human contribution.
Don’t worry this book is here to help you with the increasing terror of AI like generative AI. The authors will guide you as how your teams can match up and collaborate with AI. It is a kind of highly educating book. Its coverage on ‘4-I’ model is superb. That shows the right set of collaboration of intentionality and purpose in any organization. The book comes up with resourceful insights along with relevant examples and case studies. I personally loved the coverage on what machines can do and cannot and the same topic on humans. Surely, it is an impactful book written with clear narrative that keeps unfolding amazing highlights for the working world.
If you ever thought that how can you leverage and tame AI for your business needs, probably this is the right book for you. Highly recommended to AI, data scientists, business leaders that rely too much on data and AI worktech tools.
From becoming Artificial Intelligence to Super intelligence, both authors charted out a roadmap for millions of business leaders and executives so that they can remain abreast in the market’s competition and lead in accurate integration of AI and human contribution.
Don’t worry this book is here to help you with the increasing terror of AI like generative AI. The authors will guide you as how your teams can match up and collaborate with AI. It is a kind of highly educating book. Its coverage on ‘4-I’ model is superb. That shows the right set of collaboration of intentionality and purpose in any organization. The book comes up with resourceful insights along with relevant examples and case studies. I personally loved the coverage on what machines can do and cannot and the same topic on humans. Surely, it is an impactful book written with clear narrative that keeps unfolding amazing highlights for the working world.
If you ever thought that how can you leverage and tame AI for your business needs, probably this is the right book for you. Highly recommended to AI, data scientists, business leaders that rely too much on data and AI worktech tools.
March 30, 2025
📕 Why (Not) to read this book (Target Audience)
This book is a great read on how humans fit in an Ai revolution.
👀 How this book changed my daily live (Takeaways)
Machines lack: Commom sense, intuition, care, originalty, playfullness, esthetics
• Computers lack in invalidating historical data, when new concepts/realiities submerge: see pandamic
• Play is fun that drives intrinsic motivation
• Machines have no concept of esthetics, as they lack the human senses with the pleasures, feelngs, emotions connected to them.
Machines can move fast, and break without being accountable or transparentcy.
⁉ Spoiler Alerts (Highlights)
Collective intelligence: Better performance is related to better process, not excellent people or technology. AI is not yet able to handle change in context, a model is based upon historical data not new situations. Most Ai models could not handle the pandamic context in 2020.
This book is a great read on how humans fit in an Ai revolution.
👀 How this book changed my daily live (Takeaways)
Machines lack: Commom sense, intuition, care, originalty, playfullness, esthetics
• Computers lack in invalidating historical data, when new concepts/realiities submerge: see pandamic
• Play is fun that drives intrinsic motivation
• Machines have no concept of esthetics, as they lack the human senses with the pleasures, feelngs, emotions connected to them.
Machines can move fast, and break without being accountable or transparentcy.
⁉ Spoiler Alerts (Highlights)
Collective intelligence: Better performance is related to better process, not excellent people or technology. AI is not yet able to handle change in context, a model is based upon historical data not new situations. Most Ai models could not handle the pandamic context in 2020.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews