Latest news with #RichardPowers
Arab News
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Arab News
What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Overstory'
Author: Richard Powers Published in 2018, 'The Overstory' by Richard Powers won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2019. The novel explores the lives of a group of people and trees, and how they are interconnected, emphasizing the relationship between humans and nature. In the book, nine characters whose lives were influenced by encounters with trees — either through family history, personal tragedy, science or activism — find their paths crossing. Their connection to trees and their shared goals lead them to join efforts to advocate for environmental health. Throughout the story, Powers threads the narrative with themes and concepts such as ecological interdependence, sacrifice and the necessity for conservation, creating a mixture of science, storytelling and environmental ethics. While the book is a great option for people interested in the environment and natural science, the pacing suffers a bit, despite being well-written. Some readers may struggle to stay captivated by the story. Richard Powers is an American novelist known for his fiction as well as science fiction works. Powers has published several works including 'Bewilderment,' 'Playground' and 'The Time of Our Singing.'
Irish Times
04-08-2025
- Irish Times
As AI improves, the temptation to use it grows, and our ability to think shrinks
In the revelatory closing pages of his 2024 novel Playground, Richard Powers has one of his narrators reflect on the arrival into the world of ChatGPT . We are at an indeterminate point in the future, and the technology is unnamed. But we recognise it from the familiar story that its 'overnight appearance rocked the world and divided humanity'. 'Some people saw glimmers of real understanding. Others saw only a pathetic pattern-completer committing all kinds of silly errors even a child wouldn't make.' It turns out, however, that this version of what we've learned to call a Large Language Model (LLM) was only the beginning. READ MORE Later improvements multiply the technology's power beyond imagination. Playground describes these developments with a tone of inevitability, as a question of when, rather than if. In a profile of him in the Spanish newspaper El País, I was struck by a single blunt statement by Powers: ' AI represents the complete victory of capital over labour'. Here was a sentiment – registered in a time-honoured Marxist vocabulary – that seemed absent from Playground, or at least significantly muted within it. The technology is mostly seen in the novel through the sympathetically rendered consciousness of a Big Tech magnate. Another strand considers AI's implications for the inhabitants of a small Pacific island. But its broader effects on the lives of workers or the market for jobs remain relatively unexplored. [ Tech shocks to industry have only just begun Opens in new window ] Richard Powers, author of 2024 novel Playground: 'AI represents the complete victory of capital over labour" This division between the prophetic speculations of Playground and the hard-nosed political analysis of its author is a version of the 'divided humanity' to which the novel alludes. Just as there are those who see 'glimmers of real understanding' in LLMs and are excited by the potential for untold technological breakthrough, there are others who view this 'pathetic pattern-completer' as robbing humans of the kind of cognitive labour that, on some accounts, is the core of who we are. Somewhere in the middle are the many – perhaps the overwhelming majority – for whom ChatGPT is just one more technology to adapt to, to use where one can, with the larger consequences of its widespread adoption lying somewhere out of sight. These thoughts have practical application to my day job as a lecturer in English (can you tell?) at University College Dublin. As in universities the world over, the last two years have seen an unprecedented challenge by LLM technology to our assessment procedures, which have until now centred on the analytical essay. Over recent decades, for a variety of good reasons, we have moved away from in-person exams towards more varied forms of assessment, but the take-home essay has remained at the heart of our pedagogy. All this now looks set to change. Unless you know a student well, marking an essay has become a battle between blind faith and cynicism. One of the most insidious effects of LLMs is that even good student work comes under suspicion as potentially the product of a machine. As the technology improves, the temptation to use it to game the system grows. This represents – to adopt Marxist language again – a form of alienation: the language we use is no longer our own. [ We need to talk about AI's staggering ecological impact Opens in new window ] And this is before we even reckon with the vast amounts of electricity and fresh water needed to power this technology, along with the exploited workers in the Global South that, as Karen Hao reports in Empire of AI, are required to improve its outcomes and clean up its language. Powers is right that AI represents the complete victory of capital over labour. That victory has been so fast and so discombobulating that it is hard to know on what ground to stand, never mind how to fight back. To consider AI part of a ruling class project is not to imagine it as a conspiracy, but simply to acknowledge that its effects align with the aims of the powerful. For all the talk about boosting productivity, authoritative studies have very quickly demonstrated that LLM use makes people less willing and able to think. The most widely reported study of this kind, conducted by the Media Lab at MIT, found lower levels of brain engagement among participants asked to use ChatGPT to write essays, by comparison with those writing them without such support. Other studies, this time in political science rather than neuropsychology, demonstrate that voting Republican in US elections is strongly correlated with not having a university degree. Since taking power, the Trump administration has launched an unprecedented war on universities, attacking not only humanities and social science programmes but also the previously untouchable architecture of STEM research. Top academics are leaving the US in droves. There is talk in Ireland and elsewhere of benefiting from this brain drain. [ 'Really scary territory': AI's increasing role in undermining democracy Opens in new window ] Top academics are leaving the US in droves. Photograph: Tierney L. Cross/ The New York Times At the same time, Trump and his cronies are pumping billions into AI research. This is not a coincidence. LLMs are the most effective tool ever created to curtail the traditional work of universities, the cultivation of critical individual minds. In these circumstances even those with university degrees, the pattern suggests, will become more likely to vote for Trump and his ilk. This in turn will enable further legislative abominations like the 'big beautiful bill,' which deprives the poorest of healthcare while lining the pockets of the already astronomically rich. In universities, we worry not only about student writing but about student reading. Anecdotal evidence suggests that students are becoming less willing and able to read the kinds of long novels that used to be the core of an English degree. This is not only a question of technology but of political economy, with many students now having to work part-time or even full time to support their studies. My colleagues and I have responded by gradually reducing the number of set texts on our courses. The sense of inevitability is hard to gainsay. I would love to have my students read and debate Playground, a novel that speaks to its moment like few artworks do. Is it too credulous about AI? Too cynical? Does it capture the world as they see it? Does it transform their perception of that world? But setting a multilayered and challenging text for students to read carries newfound risks. Asking them to write about such a text carries even more. Whirring away in the background, powered by looming data centres, ChatGPT stands ready to do a serviceable job in our absence. Dr Adam Kelly is associate professor in the School of English, Drama and Film at University College Dublin
Observer
22-04-2025
- General
- Observer
Let us live on a healthy earth...
Don't you feel that the environmental crisis that we are facing today is terrifying? That the air we breathe is polluted and the water that we drink is contaminated? Whoever does not see these signs now will probably never have the eyes for what lies ahead! The answer lies in what Robert Swan, the first person to walk to both poles, said: 'The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.' Whether climate change is an effect that is caused by natural processes, manmade activity or the combination of the two, what is visible is that changes are happening to the Earth's climate. And this is creating a strain on our environment. I am not an environmental expert, nor am I mindfulness professional. But still, there is ample scientific evidence that the climate is changing and that the change is being influenced by a host of human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. The only thing I can say, as a layman, is the changing weather patterns are going to force us to make more immediate and drastic changes to our existing infrastructure. It is clear that climate change, biodiversity loss, and other environmental issues are threatening the very foundation of our existence. So saving the earth is not merely the need of the hour but much more. Unfortunately, the only home we have is at a breaking point. It is even messier. We have damaged two-thirds of the earth's oceans and three-quarters of its land. These man-made changes to nature, as well as crimes that disrupt biodiversity, have gathered more pace, leading to the destruction of the planet. The final result is that millions of people are affected by extreme heat, wildfires, and floods. So saving the earth is not merely the need of the hour but much more. We need a healthier plant. We need nature more than it needs us. Our world has been changing and will continue to change — with or without us. Saving biodiversity and ecosystem by ecosystem, is the only way to save ourselves! April is Earth Month, a time when many people around the world come together to celebrate and raise awareness about environmental issues and take action to protect our planet. While Earth Month started as a movement in the 1960s, the first Earth Day was organised on April 22, 1970. Unlike any other annual event, Earth Day serves as a yearly 'wake-up call,' shaking us out of complacency and urging us to confront the harsh reality of our impact on the planet. Climate change, pollution, deforestation and biodiversity loss are no longer distant threats. Planting one single tree a year is a simple way to contribute to the environment because we believe that trees are nature's soldiers in the fight against global warming. In this context is The Overstory, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by American novelist Richard Powers. Though I may be one of the last to put my hands on the book so late, it reminded me of what I had forgotten — the wordless understanding I had about trees. Rather, it is a reminder of our environmental consciousness. The humans are not the important part of this book. It's the idea of how we relate to trees and nature itself. It's about the realisation that trees will find a way, with or without us. The novel provides an intimate case study of environmentalism. The novel stresses the need for co-existence of humans and non-humans this planet. 'All around the house, the things they've planted in years gone by are making significance, making meaning, as easily as they make sugar and wood from nothing, from air, and sun, and rain. But the humans hear nothing,' Powers writes. The Overstory inspires its readers to do more, act more for their planet. As the world still celebrating the Earth Month, let this novel be an inspiration to contemplate our relationship with nature.
Atlantic
09-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Atlantic
A Novel About a Father's Choice
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. Welcome back to The Daily's Sunday culture edition, in which one Atlantic writer or editor reveals what's keeping them entertained. Today's special guest is Shane Harris, a staff writer who covers intelligence and national-security issues. He has written about the Trump administration's military purge, what happens to federal agencies when DOGE takes over, and how Elon Musk is breaking the national-security system. Shane recommends reading Bewilderment, by Richard Powers, a novel that is 'freighted with insight, dread, hope, and often a mixture of the three.' He also enjoys daily online etymology lessons, studying Old Masters paintings, and listening to the film scores of the late composer Jóhann Jóhannsson. First, here are three Sunday reads from The Atlantic: The Culture Survey: Shane Harris The best novel I've recently read: Bewilderment, by Richard Powers. Like its predecessor—the towering, sylvan epic The Overstory —this novel worries about the possibly untenable relationship between humanity and the natural world. The books are thematically and stylistically similar; nearly every paragraph is freighted with insight, dread, hope, and often a mixture of the three. But Bewilderment is a quieter and more tangible story that sometimes felt like it could be The Overstory 's prequel. They are perfect companions, so if you've read one, read the other. [Related: The novel that asks, 'What went wrong with mankind?' ] If you've read neither, give yourself the gift! Bewilderment follows a widowed astrobiologist named Theo Byrne, who is desperate to contain the volatile, emotional outbursts of his 9-year-old son. Robin is a prime target for bullies at school because of his affliction, which presents as a neurodivergent constellation and makes him acutely, sometimes painfully, aware of the physical degradation of the Earth and all the nonhumans that inhabit it. Desperate for some treatment that doesn't use medication, Theo has Robin try an experimental neurofeedback therapy that allows him to spend time with a version of his dead mother's consciousness. The ramifications are … not 'bewildering,' per se, but profoundly altering. When you finish the book, ask yourself, as I did, whether you would have made the same choice to bring even a modicum of relief for your child. The best work of nonfiction I've recently read: I don't love the term revisionist history, but Heretic: Jesus Christ and the Other Sons of God, by Catherine Nixey, is a highly readable book that revised my understanding of early Christianity and my thoughts about the Catholic Church. I'll leave it to historians to debate the quality of Nixey's scholarship—I'm way out of my depth there, but the book seems impeccably sourced and added to my evolving view on the nature of religion. Nixey proposes that, contrary to the Catholic Church's teachings, there was no clear agreement in Christianity's early centuries about who Jesus was and why he mattered. Her argument is persuasive, and it excites me the way great investigative journalism does. Her book is as much a hunt to unearth old stories as it is an indictment of the Church fathers who buried them. The last museum show that I loved: I had only a few free hours when I was in Munich last month for the annual Security Conference, so I went to the Alte Pinakothek, which houses one of the world's most significant collections of Old Masters paintings. I wasn't prepared for the physical scale and the beauty of this collection—and I saw only a fraction of it. I have never spent much time on this period of art because I've never been a huge fan of Christian imagery, which always struck me as redundant. The Alte Pinakothek converted me. There is just so much more to know about that epoch than I understood, and much of the knowledge is in that museum. I could have spent days there. A quiet song that I love, and a loud song that I love: 'If Christopher Calls,' by Foy Vance, and 'What's the Frequency, Kenneth?,' by R.E.M. An online creator that I'm a fan of: Tom Read Wilson. I start most mornings with his word or phrase of the day on Instagram. Tom is a devoted lover of spoken language and a keen etymologist. He recently explained the Latin origins of the word risible, and demonstrated how it could be used positively and negatively. He shares colorful figures of speech from Australia, South Africa, and the American South, always in a regionally appropriate accent. (His Texas twang is really good.) On weekends, he will recite a Shakespearean sonnet— he is learning and performing all of them in order. That's all great. But I think Tom is at his best when he eschews the high-minded stuff. I first encountered him when the Instagram algorithm served up his straight-faced explanation of a ' shit sandwich.' 'Now, I don't mean a sandwich containing fecal matter, nor do I mean a really rubbish panini,' Tom explained. He asked us to imagine a three-paragraph email in which bad news or criticism is sandwiched between more pleasant and easier-to-swallow sentences. Well, we've all received one of those! [Related: The two most dismissive words on the internet ] A musical artist who means a lot to me: Jóhann Jóhannsson, the Icelandic composer who is probably best known for his collaboration with the filmmaker Denis Villeneuve. Jóhannsson scored Prisoners, Sicario, and Arrival, which is one of my 10 favorite films of all time. (Sicario, by the way, is a movie that bears rewatching in light of the actions that the U.S. government is poised to take against Mexican drug cartels.) I am also captivated by Jóhannsson's score for his own film, Last and First Men. He died from a drug overdose two years before the release; the composer Yair Elazar Glotman finished the music and collaborated with other superb musicians, including Hildur Guðnadóttir, who won an Oscar in 2020 for scoring Joker. [Related: The blockbuster that Hollywood was afraid to make ] I love Jóhannsson's film scores and often listen to them while I write. But don't overlook his studio albums. Fordlandia, inspired by a failed utopia that Henry Ford wanted to build in the jungles of Brazil, is so thematically coherent that you could imagine it was written for a movie. Jóhannsson's work is often dark, brooding, and eerie, but it can be surprisingly melodic, and I love that he treats any object that can make a sound as a musical instrument. He occupies the same place in my imagination as Philip Seymour Hoffman, the actor who also died far too young from an overdose. They would surely have given us more masterpieces, but any artist would envy the body of work they left behind. The Week Ahead Black Bag, Steven Soderbergh's new spy-thriller film about an intelligence agent whose wife is accused of betraying her country (in theaters Friday) Season 3 of The Wheel of Time, a fantasy series about five young villagers who are part of an ancient prophecy (out Thursday) Essay What Ketamine Does to the Human Brain By Shayla Love What Ketamine Does to the Human Brain By Shayla Love Last month, during Elon Musk's appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference, as he hoisted a chain saw in the air, stumbled over some of his words, and questioned whether there was really gold stored in Fort Knox, people on his social-media platform, X, started posting about ketamine. Read the full article. More in Culture Cling to your disgust. When a celebrity offers a 'harsh reality check' The nicest swamp on the internet 'Dear James': My husband is a mess. Coaching is the new 'asking your friends for help.' A thriller that's most fun when it's boring Conan O'Brien understood the assignment. Catch Up on The Atlantic Mitch McConnell and the president he calls 'despicable' Trump's most inexplicable decision yet Martin Baron: Where Jeff Bezos went wrong with The Washington Post Photo Album Revelers watch a giant wooden installation depicting a mill tower burn during the annual celebration of Maslenitsa at the Nikola-Lenivets art park southwest of Moscow, on March 1, 2025. The cherished Russian folk festival has its origins in an ancient Slavic holiday marking the end of winter and spring's arrival. Spend time with photos of the week, including a caretaking humanoid robot in Japan, prayers for Pope Francis in Brazil, a polar-bear-plunge record attempt in the Czech Republic, and more.
Washington Post
18-02-2025
- General
- Washington Post
Spy writers lost their go-to bad guy. Again.
You're reading the Today's Opinions newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox. In today's edition: If you read Richard Powers's novel 'The Overstory,' the sad fate of the American chestnut tree will be familiar to you. If you tried a few times to get into it and just quite couldn't — like me, I must admit — the story might be all new.
