12 Bytes: How We Got Here. Where We Might Go Next by Jeanette Winterson

Jeanette Winterson’s latest offering, 12 Bytes: How We Got Here. Where We Might Go Next, presents a compelling exploration of artificial intelligence through a series of twelve essays. Each essay, divided into thematic zones, delves into different aspects of AI’s impact on humanity—past, present, and future. Winterson’s signature prose shines throughout, offering readers a blend of intellectual depth and engaging narrative.

Winterson’s writing, as always, is a treat. Her ability to weave together historical perspectives with contemporary issues makes the collection both informative and thought-provoking. The book opens with a reflection on the history of computing, exploring the foundational moments that have led to our current technological landscape. From Ada Lovelace’s pioneering work to the modern-day advancements in AI, Winterson provides a nuanced account of how we arrived at this juncture.

The essays cover a range of topics, including the philosophical implications of AI, its potential impact on human relationships, and its future trajectory. Winterson’s examination of gender and technology is particularly notable. She highlights the often-overlooked contributions of women in the history of computing and critiques the gender biases that persist in the field.

What sets this collection apart is Winterson’s ability to blend serious analysis with wit and humor. Her reflections on the ethical and philosophical questions posed by AI are both incisive and accessible. For instance, her essay on AI and human relationships is a fascinating exploration of how technology might reshape our understanding of love and intimacy.

However, the collection is not without its challenges. Some essays feel more impactful than others, and there are moments when the breadth of topics covered can make the book seem disjointed. Despite this, Winterson’s exploration of AI remains a valuable contribution to the discourse, offering readers both a historical context and a forward-looking perspective.

In conclusion, 12 Bytes is a thought-provoking collection that combines Winterson’s lyrical writing with a deep dive into the world of AI. It’s a must-read for anyone interested in the intersection of technology, gender, and society, offering both insights and provocations about where we’ve been and where we might be headed.

This was such a good exploration of AI. I’ve never seen much written about the history of computing and artificial intelligence and in that way I think this is a very thoughtprovoking read for many people.

Additionally, I think Jeanette Winterson’s wrting just makes this collection marvellous. It beings together so many areas to ultimately talk about AI and how it is impacting and will impact the world.

This was a great book! I really enjoyed Jeanette’s insights and I love her writing. Thanks for the free review copy!

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience

Jeanette Winterson's writing is never an easy read, whether fiction or nonfiction. The collection of essays demands serious time and application from readers--and readers who put in that work will be well rewarded with an intellectual harvest of originality, challenge, and unanticipated perspectives.

Winterson's Frankissstein is one of my favorite genre-smashing books. I had such high hopes for these essays but they failed to make a mark on me.

The book had 12 mediocre essays presenting Winterson's views on AI and technology and its impact in our daily lives. I have enjoyed Winterson's fiction but this was unlike any of hers which I've read in the past.
I wasn't intrigued enough on and by this book.
However I'd still thank the publisher and NetGalley for giving the access to eARC in exchange of an honest feedback.

Jeanette Winterson's 12 bytes is an eclectic collection of essays harking back to the history of technology while seeking to make sense and bring us all a bit closer to the AI focused reality that would soon dominate our lives. In the process, Winterson profiles some hitherto pioneer women starting from Mary Shelly and Ada Lovelace, the world's first woman computer programmer. Using her trademark engaging prose, Winterson takes the readers through technological innovations on the anvil. There's the shocking revelation that: "The process of training the AI is exactly as Ada envisioned it nearly 200 years." 12 Bytes is filled with such extraordinary insights and revelations: "Capitalism is adaptable" and "For all of recorded history - until the last 150 years - the world has been made by men and for men, mostly white men, and men have the ones to write about it." For its gender bending nature and its feminist connotations alone, 12 Bytes is worth reading!

i love winterson's writing but these essays left me a bit cold. i was expecting something more engaging or intellectually stimulating but...meh.

First, let's consider the clever, clever name of Jeanette Winterson's newest offering: 12 Bytes. . . .twelve essays about AI and how it affects our (humanity's) journey. . .12 "bites" of scintillating, interesting, wide-ranging observations on where we've been, and needle sharp opinions on what could be just around the corner. (I'm still chuckling. 12 Bites. 12 Bytes. 12 Essays ranging on all aspects of human life defined in the essay titles and their grouping in "zones":

Zone 1: The Past / How we got here. A few lessons from history
Zone 2: What's Your Superpower / How vampires, angels, and energy reimagined matter
Zone 3: Sex and Other Stories / How love, sex, and attachment is likely to change as we share our lives with AI
Zone 4: The Future / How the future will be different to the past - and how it won't

Second and best of all - JW's writing. . . seriously - so smart, funny and wise, all delivered in that dry, patient (waiting for it to soak in), with a "come on along with me" beat. She asks the best questions, and thinks out loud about the most pragmatic considerations - don't miss the entire essay about AI sex dolls, past, present and future. And it is not all a romp, or just words for fun - serious ethical and philosophical positing (dueling with the Greeks, even!) happens between these covers.

Lastly, to seal her book she includes 3 news items of the day as a date-stamp. Taking the relevance dare for history's sake. Brave and brilliant.

A Sincere Thank You to Jeanette Winterson, Grove Press and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review. #12Bytes #NetGalley

These essays were engagingly written, but the ultimate effect struck me as neither groundbreaking nor especially novel. I like and admire Winterson's work, and I appreciate her point of view and her insight. That said, while these essays are earnest and written with flair and style, they pretty much cover well worn territory.

Jeanette Winterson has done it yet again, through this engaging essay collection.

12 Bytes is an intelligent account of all the research and reading that Winterson has done in the areas of artificial intelligence and the impact it would have in the society and our lives. what I absolutely loved about the book, was how he has urged the readers to not just nitpick the ill-effects of AI but also look at these ill-effects to build a mechanism to mitigate it, hence directing AI and it uses towards the betterment of life. The final driving point that she attempts to make with this book is the importance of the existing government and generation to learn and understand as much as possible about the advancements that are being made in this space in order to regulate these advancements and even just ask the right questions. In her pursuit to talk about the positives of advancements she does not sweep the negatives under the rug.

For those who have read Frankisstein, this would seem like a non-fiction extended part to the main themes that are covered in that book. As always, Winterson's writing does an impeccable job at drawing your attention from the very first page. LOVED IT AND HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT!

#bookthoughts
12 Bytes - Jeanette Winterson
#nonfictionnovember #1 #netgalley

I wanted to read this as soon as I saw it as Jeannette winterson is an author high on my list and definitely going to get to a few books by her soon.

In this book, her strong feminist stance takes center stage as well as her own thoughts and understanding of the world. I am not someone who really enjoys reading too much about our probable future in non fiction. Sure I am all for the one off post apocalyptic fiction but when it comes to non fiction the future world is imagined from an individual persepective and it can be extreme in parts and could lose objectivity. I could not get through homo deus but I loved sapiens by the same author for example.

Similarly in this the book, the title says its about how we got here and where we might go next, might being the operative word.

I did enjoy reading the bits about how we got here. There were certain enlightening chapters and specially the ones which dwelled on the history of women and how we have come to our present status quo and gender stereotypes. In one of the chapters Winterson writes about how in the history of computer science women have always been working side by side with men specially during ww2 and other times. But in 1984 the mac was launched targeted only at men and that’s when women were told that being programmers was a man’s job and that our brains are wired differently and things like that.

I would say that this book started growing on me a quarter of the way in. Once I got into the flow of it I quite enjoyed her quirky writing and her tongue and cheek observations. I always love theories on why we as humans stand tall at the moment and how long our day in the sun may last. She explores where our thinking of ourselves as the apex of civilisation comes from and how everything else including women became secondary to men. Winterson thinks the next species that overtake us maybe be Ai and not biological.
Farfetched? Well our world today would have been extremely farfetched to imagine over a 100 years ago so who is to say?

This is not and easy or fast read. Theres a lot to take in or leave though.

Thank you #netgalley for this read !

Winterson's essays on computers and AI, the past, present, and future of humankind's co- habitation with technology are insightful, humorous, enlightening, and even a little bit foreboding. The idea of being locked out of my fridge because of a synced during app is part hilarious, part scary. The fine line between the convenience of connectivity and overbearing restrictions has been dystopian fodder for years. But, as they say, the future is now. A definite recommend for fans of non-fiction, technology, and a little dark humor. Winterson covers so much ground in these essays, I think everyone will find at least one or two they really enjoy.

3,5* rounded to 4
I think I could love Jeanette Winterson shopping list but I found a bit hard to keep reading this series of essay on AI and feminism.
Her style of writing is as good as always but the content is a bit disjointed and sometimes I found it confusing.
Some interesting food for thought.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

In 12 Bytes, Jeanette Winterson offers up a dozen essays on Artificial Intelligence divided into four sections: “How we got here” (a dip into the history of computing), “What’s Your Superpower” (a philosophical/religious change in vision of matter), “Sex and Other Stories” (AI’s potential impact on love and sex), and “The Future” (what will change and what might not with the advent of AI). The essays are generally interesting and well written; there’s really not a “bad” one in the bunch. They do, however, still range somewhat in impact; in her introduction Winterson notes her “aim is modest,” and some of the essays admittedly don’t exceed that relatively humble goal.

“Love (lace) Actually” traces Ada Lovelace’s story: her connection to Byron, her early education, how she met and began working with Charles Babbage on his Difference Engine and his more theoretical (never-built) Analytical Engine and then connect s Ada’s story to the (uncredited) women who worked on ENIAC, Alan Turing, gender barriers in mathematics and computing, AI and creativity. A solid essay if much of it is pretty familiar —the stories of Lovelace, Babbage, and Turing are pretty well known, as are the problems of women’s numbers in computing, and the musing on the growing Internet of Things isn’t particularly groundbreaking. The following essay, “Loom with a View” is one of the weaker ones, skimming through large ideas too quickly and while its aim appears to be a concise history (it begins with one of the earliest large-scale automations—the punchcard looms of England) so one expects skimming, it remains pretty superficial with what felt like a number of missed opportunities for more thoughtful delving.

“From Sci-Fi to Wi-Fi to Mi-Fi” has a similar issue, but ends more strongly and thus is more successful. “Gnostic Know-How” opens with an exploration of Turing and Lovelace again (as Winterson herself notes in the intro, there is some inevitable overlap in these essays), but then shifts to a look at Gnosticism which may seem off-topic, but then Winterson brings us back around by telling us that AI is a “new kind of quasi-religious discourse with its own followers, its creed, its orthodoxy, its heretics . . . what all religions have .” Then, becoming more personal, she notes that “Those of us brought up in religious homes are fascinated and horrified in equal measure by the similarities between AI enthusiasts and ole-time religion.” While the point is valid, as are her musings on the impact of our shifting world view toward the spirit world, matter, and light, this essay felt more than a little disjointed.

The next essay, “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Buddha,” felt it was going down that same path, felt a bit “listy” as we take an early tour of Greek philosophy, Newton, and Einstein (again, all pretty familiar by now), but it felt like Winterson and the book began to hit their stride about midway through as she discusses the differences between the mechanical viewpoint of the universe and Descartes’s conceptual framework and quantum/Buddhist viewpoints. It felt like Winterson finally began to not skim through large ideas but really wrestle with them in thoughtful, insightful fashion. That continued with “Coal-Fired Vampire”, a look at the search for immortality that seamlessly and skillfully weaves together subjects such as Dracula, cryogenic preservation, Gilgamesh, transhumanism, Polidori’s The Vampyre, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and uploaded consciousness. In the end, Winterson worries that all those means of extending our lifespan will mean naught if “we are still violent, greedy, intolerant, racist . . . and generally vile . . . That’s the vampire warning — maybe you do live forever, but your mindset is tuck in a medieval castle in Transylvania.” This was a fantastic essay and, as I wrote in my notes, “the best of the bunch so far.”

From this point on the book mostly stayed at this high level. The essay on automatons and sex dolls was familiar in subject matter but Winterson’s exploration was both compelling and witty (sometimes bitingly so), and I found myself highlighting a number of passages despite my familiarity with the topic. The essay on AI/robots as companions and caretakers was a bit more vanilla, both in topic and tone and also was familiar just from basic news stories, but still read more smoothly and more thoughtful than the early essays in the collection. It was a welcome return to Winterson’s more personal and more biting tone in her essays on gender, that tone evident in the title of one — “Fuck the Binary.” Another essay does a nice job of exploring the reasons for gender inequality in computing and even better offering up both solutions (based on changes that have actually achieved results) as well as bringing into the light the names of women whose impact in the field has been erased/ignored.

The last few look at fears of Terminator-like dystopias and potential misuse of AI, issues rooted in what Winterson sees as our number one problem: love, which “for all of history, has been seen as a weakness, as a diversion, as a spanner in the works in the fight between rationality and emotion . . . relegated as women’s work . . . disembodied.” But if it is our problem, she notes it is also our solution. If this sounds schmaltzy or sentimental or glib, it is not. Or maybe it is, but it isn’t only that. It isn’t simply a Hallmark card. In Winterson’s capable hands and mind it’s also insightful and thoughtful and centered in historical, social, and cultural contexts.

I confess I was a bit concerned after reading the first two essays, thinking there was little of value here either in subject matter, style, or depth. But things shifted into higher gear soon enough and even if a lot of this has already been written about, Winterson still brings enough to the table to warrant reading her take on the subjects as well. Recommended.

Amazing idea, poorly executed.

I am such a fan of Jeanette Winterson - particularly how she explores questions of gender, time, and the body through a postmodern lens in her fiction. So, when I discovered that she had written a nonfiction book on technology and AI - I jumped at the chance to read her book.

What she gets right: The approach Winterson takes to questions of technology by drawing from a feminist perspective is exactly the kind of socio-critical analysis we need within the space today. Her research is extensive but not quite thorough (more on this in cons) and her characteristic writing style is brilliant.

What doesn't work at all: The research has significant gaps which prevents her feminist analysis from being truly intersectional. I would say she would benefit from reading on the history of race and technology, the decolonial perspectives on technological innovation as well as marxist analyses of the digital age to truly round out her perspectives. Secondly, her rhetoric is based entirely on structure and juxtaposing different historical stories to create contrast. This approach works perfectly in fiction but in an essay format, I would expect this evidence to be sandwiched between original analyses and that simply did not happen. So the book feels like a well-curated book on the history of technology with little to know original insights.

Overall, I would say, if you enjoy Winterson's previous work for her writing style, her smooth sentences and her use of verbs, you can find good examples of that here. For the deep insight into technology, I would recommend a writer like Ruha Benjamin instead.

This book is a fever dream. Poorly organised, rambling, full of statements that may be facts or may be presumptions. Each essay moves swiftly through 10s or hundreds of concept and years with an organising principle that is not always evident. The odd sentence that is clearly true but illogical in context. This could be written by an undergraduate Arts student who left writing an essay to the last minute, and drank a lot of coffee to get it done. Winterson's sin, in my opinion, isn't that these essays are barely coherent, it's that tehy are not that interesting.

Winterson's feminist analysis of artificial intelligence - its history and its future - is an excellent example of how you use the humanities to better scientific practice and policy. A fascinating read that takes you from Ada Lovelace to augmented reality, sex robots to selfhood.

A unique collection highlighting the impact of technology on humanity. While not all of the essays resonated with me, some of them were quite funny, observant, and thought provoking.

Thank you to Grove Press and Netgalley for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.