AI Enthusiast Book Club

Greetings fellow AI enthusiasts,

Are you like me in that you think AI is cool but can't find anyone to talk about it with? Well, that's why I'm starting this group. As a way to guide discussions I propose we orient meetings in a book club format. That is, we agree upon reading material, read independently, and then come back and discuss.

I would prefer to constrain reading materials as such:

• Sci-fi that explores consciousness, intelligence, and what it means to be sentient is great. I'm less interested in action-oriented cyberpunk or pulp novels where AI is just set dressing.
• Non-fiction like "On Intelligence" or "Consciousness and the brain" would be in bounds in my opinion, though we may have trouble formulating a discussion around them.
• I'd rather leave out anything by Nick Bostrom, but that's just me.
• Something as simple as reading the latest Semi-Analysis article and having a quick chat about that might be a good start.

I'm not sure how this group will work. Are such discussions even tenable? Care to find out with me? Let's keep this first meeting focused on the goal of us picking a reading material.

-------------------

Meetup will not let me create this meeting as an online event unless I pay $20, which I don't want to do unless this gets some traction. So it is listed as a local event but it will be held in a google meet via https://calendar.app.google/WByVRxMR5u3hR1Sy9. I'm open to meeting in person though.