The Functional Nerds Podcast

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome Max Bennett, author of A Brief History of Intelligence: Evolution, AI, and the Five Breakthroughs That Made Our Brains.

About A Brief History of Intelligence: Evolution, AI, and the Five Breakthroughs That Made Our Brains: In the last decade, capabilities of artificial intelligence that had long been the realm of science fiction have, for the first time, become our reality. AI is now able to produce original art, identify tumors in pictures, and even steer our cars. And yet, large gaps remain in what modern AI systems can achieve—indeed, human brains still easily perform intellectual feats that we can’t replicate in AI systems. How is it possible that AI can beat a grandmaster at chess but can’t effectively load a dishwasher? As AI entrepreneur Max Bennett compellingly argues, finding the answer requires diving into the billion-year history of how the human brain evolved; a history filled with countless half-starts, calamities, and clever innovations. Not only do our brains have a story to tell—the future of AI may depend on it.

Now, in A Brief History of Intelligence, Bennett bridges the gap between neuroscience and AI to tell the brain’s evolutionary story, revealing how understanding that story can help shape the next generation of AI breakthroughs. Deploying a fresh perspective and working with the support of many top minds in neuroscience, Bennett consolidates this immense history into an approachable new framework, identifying the “Five Breakthroughs” that mark the brain’s most important evolutionary leaps forward. Each breakthrough brings new insight into the biggest mysteries of human intelligence. Containing fascinating corollaries to developments in AI, A Brief History of Intelligence shows where current AI systems have matched or surpassed our brains, as well as where AI systems still fall short. Simply put, until AI systems successfully replicate each part of our brain’s long journey, AI systems will fail to exhibit human-like intelligence.

Endorsed and lauded by many of the top neuroscientists in the field today, Bennett’s work synthesizes the most relevant scientific knowledge and cutting-edge research into an easy-to-understand and riveting evolutionary story. With sweeping scope and stunning insights, A Brief History of Intelligence proves that understanding the arc of our brain’s history can unlock the tools for successfully navigating our technological future.

About Max Bennett: Max Bennett is the cofounder & CEO of Alby, an AI company based in New York City. Max was previously the cofounder and Chief Product Officer of Bluecore, a company that uses AI to help some of the largest brands in the world personalize their marketing. Bluecore was recently valued at over $1 billion dollars, ranked numerous times on the Inc 500 fastest growing companies in the US, and won the 2018 Glassdoor best places to work award. Bluecore is used by 25% of the top 100 retailers in the US. Prior to Bluecore, Max was a trader at Goldman Sachs.

Max holds several patents for AI-related technologies, and has published numerous research papers in peer reviewed journals on the topics of evolutionary neuroscience and intelligence.

Max graduated from Washington University in St. Louis, summa cum laude, with a BA in economics and mathematics, where he won the John M. Olin prize for the best economics honors thesis. In 2016, Max was featured in the Forbes 30 under 30 list. Max lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife Sydney and their dog, Charlie.

This week’s picks:

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© 2023 Patrick Hester

The post Episode 600-With Max Bennett appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week, Patrick and Tracy are talking about many things, including but not limited to: the rise of AI, students believing AI helps them, protecting creators, elastic principles, the excuses we make to support the bad thing that makes our lives easier, the convenience of the big box seller versus the mom and pop shop, moral justifications, game and hobby shops versus Amazon, The Office, the almighty AI-driven algorithms, social media and the great migration away from the channel formerly known as Twitter, the sense of online community, personal moral high ground versus connecting with your audience on their preferred platform, cookies and your digital footprint online, fandom, supporting the problematic thing, piracy, economics and the desire to have a thing outweighing the moral and ethical questions around how you got the thing…

This week’s picks:

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© 2023 Patrick Hester

The post Episode 599-Just Us and Elastic Principles appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome Dan Moren, author of ALL SOULS LOST.

About ALL SOULS LOST: After two years trying to run away from his past, Mike Lucifer’s back in his office less than ten minutes when a persistent young woman shows up asking for help: her boyfriend’s been possessed by a demon.

That’s exactly the kind of mess that drove him from his hometown of Boston to a sunny beach—and the bottom of a bottle—in the first place. But there are some problems that even booze can’t drown, and while Lucifer may be no hero, his dwindling bank account provides a thousand reasons to take the case.

No sooner is he back in the game then the complications and corpses start to add up. The boyfriend’s not possessed—he’s dead. The tech company where he worked is looking shadier by the second. And Lucifer’s client definitely knows more than she should…about everything. The deeper Lucifer digs, the more he wonders if whatever sinister entity lurks behind this case wants him to be the last to die…

About Dan Moren: Dan Moren is the author of the forthcoming supernatural detective novel All Souls Lost, as well as the Galactic Cold War series of sci-fi espionage capers from Angry Robot Books, and The Caledonian Gambit from Talos Press. He’s represented by Joshua Bilmes of JABberwocky Literary Agency.

A former senior editor at Macworld, Dan’s writing has also appeared in the Boston Globe, Fast Company, Popular Science, Yahoo Tech, Tom’s Guide, Six Colors, The Magazine, and TidBITS, among other places.

Additionally, Dan is a prolific podcaster: he serves as the co-host of tech shows Clockwise and The Rebound, writes and hosts nerdy quiz show Inconceivable!, and is a frequent panelist on the Parsec-award-winning podcast The Incomparable.

Dan lives with his family in Somerville, Massachusetts, where he’s never far from a twenty-sided die.

This week’s picks:

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© 2023 Patrick Hester

The post Episode 598-With Dan Moren appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

On a very special Just Us episode, we’re talking about all sorts of things, including Catholic guilt, Santiago’s breakfast burritos, television, Star Wars, video games, Ahsoka, teenagers and wet towels, the care and maintenance of still gestating microhumans, old school network tv, episodic vs serial television, streaming, connective tissue between shows, series and movies, fan service, Dave Filoni, animation vs live action, canon, Rebels, The Clone Wars, Grand Admiral Thrawn, The Mandalorian, Andor, storytelling, Marvel, the MCU, Disney+, headcannon, the identity crisis of who your audience is, Star Trek, Lower Decks, Ronan the pup barking his head off, polls, the best French fry, the class action lawsuit against Arby’s over ‘we have the meats’, TrekCulture, ScreenCrush, space whales plus SQUIRREL!

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© 2023 Patrick Hester

The post Episode 597-Just Us and The Connective Tissue Between TV, Movies and Books appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome Howard Andrew Jones, author of Lord of a Shattered Land.

About Lord of a Shattered Land: The Dervan Empire has at last triumphed over Volanus, putting the great city to the torch, its treasures looted, temples defiled, and fields sown with salt. What little remains of Volanus is scattered across the empire, its treasures plundered and its survivors sold into slavery. It is an absolute victory for the Dervans in every way but one.

Hanuvar, last and greatest general of Volanus, still lives. He now travels the length of the Dervan Empire that conquered his homeland, driven by a singular purpose—to find what remains of his people who were carried into slavery across the empire, and free them from subjugation by any means necessary.

Against the might of a vast empire, he had only an aging sword arm, a lifetime of hard-won wisdom, and the greatest military mind in the world, set upon a single goal. No matter what the Empire musters against him, no matter what man or monster stands in his way, from the empire’s festering capital to its furthest outposts, Hanuvar would find his people, every last one of them.

And he would set them free.

About Howard Andrew Jones: Howard Andrew Jones lives in a lonely tower by the Sea of Monsters with a wicked and beautiful enchantress. He’s the author of the Ring-Sworn heroic fantasy trilogy from St. Martin’s, starting with For the Killing of Kings, the critically acclaimed Arabian historical fantasy series starring Dabir and Asim (beginning with The Desert of Souls) and four Pathfinder novels. When he’s not editing Tales From the Magician’s Skull or hunched over his laptop mumbling about flashing swords and doom-haunted towers, you might find him lurking at www.howardandrewjones.com, where he blogs about writing craft, gaming, fantasy and adventure fiction, and assorted nerdery.

This week’s picks:

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© 2023 Patrick Hester

The post Episode 596-With Howard Andrew Jones appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome Jacqueline Carey, author of CASSIEL’S SERVANT.

About CASSIEL’S SERVANT: Cassiel’s Servant is a retelling of cult favorite Kushiel’s Dart from the point of view of Joscelin, Cassiline warrior-priest and protector of Phèdre nó Delaunay. He’s sworn to celibacy and the blade as surely as she’s pledged to pleasure, but the gods they serve have bound them together. When both are betrayed, they must rely on each other to survive.

From his earliest training to captivity amongst their enemies, his journey with Phèdre to avert the conquest of Terre D’Ange shatters body and mind… and brings him an impossible love that he will do anything to keep.

Even if it means breaking all vows and losing his soul.

About Jacqueline Carey: New York Times bestseller Jacqueline Carey is the author of the critically acclaimed Kushiel’s Legacy series of historical fantasy novels, The Sundering epic fantasy duology, postmodern fables Santa Olivia and Saints Astray, and the Agent of Hel contemporary fantasy series. Jacqueline enjoys doing research on a wide variety of arcane topics, and an affinity for travel has taken her from Finland to China to date. She currently lives in west Michigan. Although often asked by inquiring fans, she does not, in fact, have any tattoos.

This week’s picks:

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© 2023 Patrick Hester

The post Episode 595-With Jacqueline Carey appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome James L. Sutter, author of DARKHEARTS.

About DARKHEARTS: When David quit his band, he missed his shot at fame, trapped in an ordinary high school life while his ex–best friend, Chance, became the hottest teen pop star in America.

Then tragedy throws David and Chance back into contact. As old wounds break open, the boys find themselves trading frenemy status for a confusing, secret romance?one that could be David’s ticket back into the band and the spotlight.

As the mixture of business and pleasure becomes a powder keg, David will have to choose: Is this his second chance at glory? Or his second chance at Chance?

About James L. Sutter: James L. Sutter is a co-creator of the Pathfinder and Starfinder Roleplaying Games. From 2004 to 2017, he worked for Paizo Publishing, starting out as an editor on Dungeon Magazine, moving on to do foundational work for Pathfinder, and eventually becoming the Creative Director in charge of launching Starfinder, as well as the Executive Editor of the Pathfinder Tales novel line for Paizo and Tor.

James is also the author of the young adult romance novel Darkhearts, as well as the fantasy novels Death’s Heretic—a finalist for the Compton Crook Award for Best First Novel—and The Redemption Engine, which won the 2015 Scribe Award for Best Original Speculative Novel. His short stories have appeared in such venues as Nightmare, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Escape Pod, and the #1 Amazon best-seller Machine of Death. In addition, he’s written comic books, essays in venues like Clarkesworld and Lightspeed: Queers Destroy Science Fiction, a wealth of tabletop gaming material, and video games.

When not writing, James has performed with musical acts ranging from metalcore to musical theater. He lives in Seattle.

This week’s picks:

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© 2023 Patrick Hester

The post Episode 594-With James L. Sutter appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome Isabel Cañas, author of Vampires of El Norte.

About Vampires of El Norte: As the daughter of a rancher in 1840s Mexico, Nena knows a thing or two about monsters—her home has long been threatened by tensions with Anglo settlers from the north. But something more sinister lurks near the ranch at night, something that drains men of their blood and leaves them for dead.

Something that once attacked Nena nine years ago.

Believing Nena dead, Néstor has been on the run from his grief ever since, moving from ranch to ranch working as a vaquero. But no amount of drink can dispel the night terrors of sharp teeth; no woman can erase his childhood sweetheart from his mind.

When the United States attacks Mexico in 1846, the two are brought abruptly together on the road to war: Nena as a curandera, a healer striving to prove her worth to her father so that he does not marry her off to a stranger, and Néstor as a member of the auxiliary cavalry of ranchers and vaqueros. But the shock of their reunion—and Nena’s rage at Néstor for seemingly abandoning her long ago—is quickly overshadowed by the appearance of a nightmare made flesh.

And unless Nena and Néstor work through their past and face the future together, neither will survive to see the dawn.

About Isabel Cañas: Isabel Cañas is a Mexican-American speculative fiction writer. After having lived in Mexico, Scotland, Egypt, Turkey, and New York City, among other places, she has settled in the Pacific Northwest. She holds a doctorate in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and writes fiction inspired by her research and her heritage.

This week’s picks:

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© 2023 Patrick Hester

The post Episode 593-With Isabel Cañas appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome John Wiswell, author of BAD DOORS and the upcoming, SOMEONE YOU CAN BUILD A NEST IN (DAW, 2024).

About BAD DOORS: Kosmo is a simple English teacher with no interest in evil magic doors. However one day they take an interest in him. A burgundy door with a shiny black knob appears in his hallway, where no door has ever been.

Kosmo does what he thinks anybody would do: he grabs his dog, runs out of his house, and never goes back in. He thinks it’s over, but the door isn’t finished with him, as they pursue him everywhere he goes. They beckon old Kosmo. He struggles with why they’re appearing, but refuses to ever look inside one. Everyone in his life chides him to be adventurous and not be so afraid. However, this is 2020 and it’s the same time when everyone around him isn’t taking this “COVID thing” seriously. What’s a man to do to dodge a cursed door and a pandemic?

“Bad Doors” is the story of a man who refuses to be in a Horror story. What happens to you when you refuse to answer the call of a nightmare?

About John Wiswell: John Wiswell is a Nebula-winning and Locus-winning author who lives in the middle of the woods. John’s work has appeared in Uncanny Magazine, Tor.com, LeVar Burton Reads, Nature Magazine, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Weird Tales, the No Sleep podcast, Nightmare Magazine, Cast of Wonders, Podcastle, Escape Pod, Pseudopod, and other fine venues. He has been a finalist for the Hugo, World Fantasy, and British Fantasy Awards. His fiction has been translated into Italian, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Polish, Hungarian, Turkish, Hebrew, and Romanian.

He graduated Bennington College in 2005, and attended the Viable Paradise 17 workshop in 2013. He has multiple disabilities including a neuromuscular syndrome, and thinks healthy people’s capacity to complain is very funny. He finds a lot of things very funny and would like to keep it that way.

This week’s picks:

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© 2023 Patrick Hester

The post Episode 592-With John Wiswell appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome Temi Oh, author of MORE PERFECT.

About MORE PERFECT: When Moremi connects her brain to the Panopticon, a network which allows you to see inside the minds and dreams of others, she believes that it will save her from depression, loneliness and, eventually, death. That is until she meets Orpheus.

Orpheus was brought up in isolation by a Neo-luddite father. He was raised to question everything, including the government who plan to make the connection procedure compulsory.

They promise that connecting everyone to the Panopticon will end human suffering and usher in a more perfect world. But when Orpheus and Moremi uncover the dark side of the technology, they find themselves on opposite sides of a radical divide, between those who believe that the Panopticon will save humanity, and those who will stop at nothing to destroy it.

About Temi Oh: Temi Oh wrote her first novel while studying for a BSci in Neuroscience. Her novel, DO YOU DREAM OF TERRA-TWO?, was published by Simon & Schuster. It won the American Library Association’s Alex Award in 2020 and was an NPR Best Book of the year in 2019.

She has written stories for Marvel’s Black Panther, Dr Who and Overwatch.?

Her next novel, MORE PERFECT will be published by Simon and Schuster in May 2023

Her first short film MURMUR was funded by Sky Arts and the BFI. Since then, she has written on the Netflix TV series Castlevania: Nocturne and the CBBC series SILVERPOINT.

This week’s picks:

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© 2023 Patrick Hester

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