Person
Every book Demis Hassabis recommended on podcasts
Across 2 podcasts. Every show Demis Hassabis appears on, in one place — not just one.
Demis Hassabis’s most recommended books
- Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks
- Permutation City by Greg Egan
- The Fabric of Reality by David Deutsch
- The MANIAC by Benjamín Labatut
- The Chess Computer Handbook by David N. L. Levy
- The Emperor's New Mind by Roger Penrose
- The Metatheory of Physics Theories, and the Theory of Everything as a Quantum Computer Language by Stephen Blaha
Sir Demis Hassabis is a British artificial intelligence (AI) researcher and entrepreneur. He is the chairman and co-founder of Google DeepMind and the chief scientist of Alphabet, as well as the chief executive officer and co-founder of Isomorphic Labs. Hassabis is also a UK Government AI Adviser. In 2024, Hassabis and John M. Jumper were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their AI research contributions to protein structure prediction. On various podcasts, Hassabis recommended several influential works, including Nick Lane's The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution while discussing the origin of life, David Deutsch's The Fabric of Reality for its big physics questions, Greg Egan's Permutation City as a story about simulations and AI, and Iain M. Banks's Consider Phlebas as an optimistic post-AGI novel. He also discussed reading Stephen Weinberg's Dreams of a Final Theory in high school, David N. L. Levy's The Chess Computer Handbook as a formative childhood text on chess programming, and Roger Penrose's The Emperor's New Mind in relation to debates on consciousness and computation.
Books recommended by Demis Hassabis
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Consider Phlebas
Consider Phlebas by Iain M.
Recommended“and then finally I would recommend consider flibers by Ian Banks”
Where to get it
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Permutation City
Permutation City by Greg Egan is an imaginative and mind-bending science fiction novel that explores the complex implications of digital consciousness, virtual reality, and software-based AI simulations.
Recommended“the second book I would say is permutation City by Greg Egan”
Where to get it
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The Fabric of Reality
The Fabric of Reality by David Deutsch is a seminal work of popular science and philosophy that explores four foundational strands of thought: quantum physics, epistemology, computation, and evolution.
Recommended“I would say first of all fabric of Reality by David Deutsch”
Where to get it
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The MANIAC
Benjamín Labatut's biographical novel explores the complex lives of visionary scientists and mathematicians who reshaped the modern technological landscape.
Recommended“You know, there's people like, there's a great book by Nick Lane, one of the top experts in this area called 'The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution.' I think it's fantastic.”
Where to get it
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The Chess Computer Handbook
Discussed“and i remember thinking um this is amazing you know how how has someone programmed uh uh this this chess board to play chess uh and uh it was very formative book i bought which was called the chess computer handbook by david levy which came out in 1984 or something”
Where to get it
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The Emperor's New Mind
Roger Penrose's influential work explores the intersections of physics, consciousness, and the philosophy of mind, famously challenging the notion that human brains operate merely like computers.
Discussed“he he thinks that consciousness is more than just a computation uh do you think all of it the whole shebang is can be can be a competition yeah i've had many fascinating debates with uh sir roger penrose and obviously he's he's famously and i read you know emperors of new mind and and uh and his books uh”
Where to get it
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The Metatheory of Physics Theories, and the Theory of Everything as a Quantum Computer Language
Discussed“I actually read this book must have been a high school called dreams of a final Theory by Stephen Weinberg”
Where to get it
