Why even read books?

[AION]

A book will be something from the past. Books are very one dimensional. AI learning through an AI coach will be the future. This won’t happen in one swoop but the trend and transition is clear. Books will exist just like how mechanical watches exist. Just a figment of the past. For example language learning through AI is already superior than just learning it from a book. Or I’m improving my articulation through AI. It works great. Especially the young people will prefer these methods. Children who solely grow up with AI, which will be children who are born now, will be something else. 

Edited April 2 by AION

[Natasha Tori Maru]

1 hour ago, AION said:

A book will be something from the past. Books are very one dimensional. AI learning through an AI coach will be the future. This won’t happen in one swoop but the trend and transition is clear. Books will exist just like how mechanical watches exist. Just a figment of the past. For example language learning through AI is already superior than just learning it from a book. Or I’m improving my articulation through AI. It works great. Especially the young people will prefer these methods. Children who solely grow up with AI, which will be children who are born now, will be something else. 

In a rather beautiful ideal world this can work.

But without addressing the systemic rot at the roots of society / capitalism there is NO WAY I will ever trust what is fed to me from AI.

Not disagreeing with you that this outcome is possible, I just feel it is unlikely 

Edited April 2 by Natasha Tori Maru

[Terell Kirby]

1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

Yes, there is a method, and only one method:

Infinite Intelligence

Can a book be written on Infinite Intelligence?

Chapter 1: How this book on Infinite Intelligence is being Imagined by you-the so called reader of the text (which is also being imagined)

 

Edited April 2 by Terell Kirby

[Leo Gura]

30 minutes ago, Terell Kirby said:

Can a book be written on Infinite Intelligence?

Chapter 1: How this book on Infinite Intelligence is being Imagined by you-the so called reader of the text (which is also being imagined)

 

You can write a book on anything. Doesn't mean it grants you it.

[AION]

2 hours ago, Natasha Tori Maru said:

In a rather beautiful ideal world this can work.

But without addressing the systemic rot at the roots of society / capitalism there is NO WAY I will ever trust what is fed to me from AI.

Not disagreeing with you that this outcome is possible, I just feel it is unlikely 

Most humans including myself are disappointing so I rather trust an AI to teach me something like a language or marketing or programming. I don’t get how that would rot my brain. I live in one of the wealthiest countries in the world and medical help and especially psychological help is very dire. Most of them do the job for the money and they don’t have the zest and cunningness to do the job. I mean I’m just expecting the bare minimum and I get disappointed. AI helped me more than most therapists. Most therapists get their degree and stop studying their field. It is disgusting.

 

Edited April 2 by AION

[Jayson G]

2 hours ago, Natasha Tori Maru said:

In a rather beautiful ideal world this can work.

But without addressing the systemic rot at the roots of society / capitalism there is NO WAY I will ever trust what is fed to me from AI.

Not disagreeing with you that this outcome is possible, I just feel it is unlikely 

@Natasha Tori Maru If you go deep with AI enough, you'll experiencially see that that is the case. I wouldn't blindly believe what AI is feeding, that's not the idea. AI can be wrong. But you can use it as a tool to help. But even in the case of language learning, even if you go by what its feeding you, it's surprisingly more accurate than anything, more than most humans, and more than most books. If you just run experiments and test it for yourself you will see for yourself. 

I also don't understand how a deeply capitalistic, greedy system collecting tons of data, much of which is messy can create such a thing. I really don't. But I am able to run tests to see what has higher accuracy, AI, books, or humans, and just the test results show me that AI wins, if used properly. You can verify that for yourself. 

[Husseinisdoingfine]

@Leo Gura Do you consider Arnold Schwarzenegger to be part of this book saturation problem? I'm asking because I want to read his latest book, Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life.  

 

Fun fact, did you know that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels spent approximately 30 years working on Das Kapital. A Critique of Political Economy, with the first volume published in 1867 and the remaining two volumes edited and published posthumously by Friedrich Engels. 

Currently reading it right now, and its so in depth, technical, and difficult to understand, with its use of mathematical equations and all. Super profound though, I'm learned a lot about commodity production; what is a commodity, the dual nature of labor, elementary or accidental form of value, etc... Currently reading chapter II about exchange, the social relation of exchange, role of money, the double character of commodities, and more.

 

The point that I'm trying to make is that this is some serious value that you cannot get within 30 days using a ghost writer. 

 

Edited Wednesday at 07:33 PM by Husseinisdoingfine

[Yimpa]

(Took me 30 minutes to make this, hehe)

[BlessedLion]

21 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

So we have millions of people writing shitty books with very low substance just as part of self-promotion. This has diluted and corrupted the whole book industry. Books have been corrupted into self-promotion vehicles.

That's fascinating and also disgusting at the same time. 

 

[Yimpa]

[BlessedLion]

17 hours ago, Natasha Tori Maru said:

In a rather beautiful ideal world this can work.

But without addressing the systemic rot at the roots of society / capitalism there is NO WAY I will ever trust what is fed to me from AI.

Not disagreeing with you that this outcome is possible, I just feel it is unlikely 

Ditto. They are going to corrupt in and fuck it up somehow, just wait. Everything that was once cool they have used to turn into a money making machine, like YouTube for example, even Facebook (when it first started it was pretty cool). 

My guess is the same will happen with ChatGPT who is now simply a helpful assistant, but once people become dependent on it, will turn into a biased monetization machine. 

 

Personally, I will always read simply because it is relaxing and feels good. It's not even so much about the information, I enjoy a nice masterfully written book , like Ralston or Wilber and soaking in every page while contemplating in a park. It's so delicious. An AI coach will never replace that. 

[The Renaissance Man]

2 minutes ago, BlessedLion said:

An AI coach will never replace that. 

Brother after creating this I learned to stop underestimating AI

Never say never!

[hyruga]

Reading books is a poor substitute for real life experience but still, it's better than gaming or watching show in general.

[ChrisZoZo]

On 30/03/2025 at 7:08 PM, AION said:

Just throw the ePub file in an AI grinder and link it to your existing common place book and bam it just filters out the juice. AI is basically the equivalent of man domesticating the work horse. It seems very mundane to do the monkey work.

I feel like doing that just really changes the vibe of what the author is trying to convince you to do. You think it’s a productive thing, but in reality you should’ve read the book to actually create positive, change but anyway I don’t know if this is true. It’s just a thought.

[D2sage]

Books expands your word database. Good for writers and also good for your brain instead of watching short videos.

Edited Saturday at 12:14 PM by D2sage

[WikiRando]

I read books for survival. World, finance, history etc. 

To me, books help you get your survival sorted so, you can actually live your life freely and pursue your inner work.

There is a depth in good books that other mediums cannot ever compare to.

As for the "snippet in time" issue, you either go for timeless books (plenty on Leo's list) or just look for good recent books. You can find plenty of amazing books that are recently published

Edited Saturday at 05:54 PM by WikiRando

[Schizophonia]

It develops your concentration and calms the mind.
It's definitely more enjoyable to read than to consume modern stuff like YouTube videos, even when you're brain-rot and used to TikTok.

In the sense, you feel you're brain is more adapted to a such activity. 

[Letho]

It's fascinating, the people devoted to books more than themselves, and too, the fragile opposites who commit the same crime, the lack of devotion to the meta-loop that defines their own becoming. It becomes the continuity that describes their continual reach for selfhood that slips just by the narrative they self-create, invisibly.

Books, are a meta-awareness of story, this as reader, you traverse the plains of multiplicity through the veins of another's imagination and this is how you should be learning to traverse the myth of yourself; at the very least, to escape the analogous or literal porn addiction I know many of you suffer from, evidence of your own lack of reading rather than of your supposed feats in literature which your synthesized thoughts hardly reflect. A critique that slips through deceptions to illuminate their contradictory truce to build you deeper into hidden misanthropy rather than judgement, as my hand is always outstretched towards those that find the sentience that aligns with it.

Should you read books is the same question as to whether you should swim in the ocean to discover your hidden fears of being plunged into depths you never dreamed of or find aerobic capacities that bring balance to an itch you never knew you had. The world offers its novelty in self with novel action, but don't get lost in novelty itself, for novelty is a means to an end, a business monopoly on identifying experiences you have not been through for the purpose of defining the unknown so you know where you should and shouldn't go. Every line in life is like a new sentence in a book in this way, fiction reveals hidden worlds that live just beyond the next letter of anticipation, to our own self-enlightenment the more we learn to transpose the street traffic of books into how to drive the red, orange and green lights of our lifes meta-narratives. Starting first, with our ability to see them.

Learn how to craft a category like a word, a chapter, a theme, a genre to your own life, these categories we've a layered understanding of your own life that books 📚 become the embodiment of reflecting how to do at the heights of standards of excellence. Our choices in words are an impulse of discernment in measuring the standards of our actions, and the narratives behind them, reveal the webs of our own lives many are either too afraid to look into deeply enough, or are still struggling in finding how to translate disconnected webs into those that capture the light for them to grow through and in return, guide others towards.

Love books truly... At their essence and their purpose in seeing the lessons they can provide, and you will learn how to love yourself by converting the minds myth into translatable structure, that changes the very function of your entire life forever.

Life is sentience, and you are the breath that we learn from by the same mythic potential.

 

[Michael569]

Lately (last 3-4 years) I've been particularly attracted to history books, anything from 5000 BC up to first part of 20th century. I find it really stimulates my imagination and it gives me great perspective on my own life as short as it is in the grand scheme of things. I creates a certain sense of finiteness and makes every day a bit more purposeful. It also helps me appreciate how fortunate I've been throughout my whole life despite all the issue we all continue focusing on. I also love, where I can, visiting sites I read about with a completely transformed story in my head. Couple years ago I took a backpack and a tent and hiked an ancient road built by Romans in Wales for 3 days , crossing a few sites of former Roman forts and cities on the way, spending 2 nights in the middle of Brecon Beacon national park. Was one of the most memorable experiences of my life and it was a particular history book that prompted me to do that. 

I no longer read books about health because it seems most of them are either biased, filled with delusional quackery or written for a quick profit, hijacking an ongoing fad trend. Similar problem with most new books written on self help, personal finance and mindfulness. 

Edited 22 hours ago by Michael569

[AION]

Books shouldn't be worshiped. It is a false god.