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where do they sell aloe vera plant Buy 'Large Aloe Vera Plants - Aloe barbadensis' Care and Growing Guide

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where do they sell aloe vera plant Buy 'Large Aloe Vera Plants - Aloe barbadensis' Care and Growing GuideIntroducing the fabulous Aloe Vera plant also known as Aloe barbadensis 'miller,' it is also known as a medicinal aloe and burn plant. The Aloe vera plant is by far the most popular out of over 400 varieties of the Aloe genus. This incredible tropical succulent is not your average houseplant. It's a superstar known for its leaves, which hold a magical aloe vera gel for soothing sunburn and as a popular drink to help your stomach. This large Aloe vera

Introducing the fabulous Aloe Vera plant- also known as Aloe barbadensis 'miller,' it is also known as a medicinal aloe and burn plant. The Aloe vera plant is by far the most popular out of over 400 varieties of the Aloe genus.

This incredible tropical succulent is not your average houseplant. It's a superstar known for its leaves, which hold a magical aloe vera gel for soothing sunburn and as a popular drink to help your stomach.

This large Aloe vera plant boasts fleshy lance-shaped grey-green leaves with small white teeth along the edges growing out from a starfish-like basal rosette. 

The edible aloe vera flowers burst into bloom in vibrant shades of yellow at the tips of their stalks when given favorable conditions. Only mature plants will yield flowers, so you'll have to wait at least four years to see an aloe vera bloom. However, in some growing conditions (especially hybrid plants), the flowers can sometimes appear with orange or reddish hues. 

This fast-growing succulent can grow into a large aloe vera plant up to 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide and even produce adorable pups that you can repot or share as delightful gifts with fellow plant enthusiasts.

How to Get Aloe Vera Gel from the plant to use on your skin

  1. Choose and Cut a Leaf: Select a large, healthy leaf from the bottom of the plant. Use a sharp knife to cut the entire leaf off at the base.
  2. Prepare the Leaf: Let the leaf sit upright in a container for 10–15 minutes to allow the yellow sap (aloin) to drain out. This sap can be irritating to the skin.
  3. Slice and Extract the Gel: For a small amount of gel, cut a section from the leaf rather than using the whole thing. Slice the leaf lengthwise to expose the gel. Use a spoon or knife to scoop out the clear gel.
  4. Apply or Store: Apply directly to your skin for soothing relief. Store extra gel in an airtight container in the fridge for a few days.

Aloe vera juice has many benefits for humans, this succulent rich in antibacterial, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties, may enhance digestion, blood sugar levels, and oral health, although certain compounds, particularly aloin, may cause digestive discomfort and other side effects.

An aloe vera indoor plant is a great addition to any home, as it is easy to aloe vera care for and provides a variety of aloe vera benefits. 

According to the American Academy of Dermatology, Aloe vera has anti-inflammatory properties that can help in wound healing. It can also help to moisturize the skin and prevent peeling.

When and How to Water Your Aloe Vera 

As a desert dweller, watering the aloe vera succulent may be tricky, it may shrivel and die if given too little water, but it may also easily rot when given excessive water. So be careful not to overwater your aloe plantyou only want to give it enough to keep it from drying out completely, not drown it! 

A good rule of thumb is to water the Aloe plants deeply and then allow the soil to dry out completely before watering again. In the spring and summer, during the growing season, watering can be done once every 2-3 weeks.

During the winter months, when aloe vera is in a dormant period, it can be watered even less frequently. If you live in a rainy climate, consider planting aloe in gravel or stones. 

It is also important to note that aloe vera plants are sensitive to water quality. They prefer water that is low in minerals and salts, so it is best to use distilled or filtered water. Tap water can be used, but it should be left out for 24 hours before watering the plant to allow the chlorine to evaporate.

Light Requirements - Where to Place Your Aloe Vera Plant 

When growing indoors as a houseplant, place the aloe vera a few feet away from the south-facing window that receives plenty of sunlight, but it is important to avoid direct sunlight, as this can cause the leaves to burn. If the aloe plant is not receiving enough light, the leaves will start to droop and turn brown. In this case, it may be necessary to move the aloe vera plant to a brighter location. 

When planted outdoors, your Aloe plants need their daily dose of sunshine like a beach-loving teenager needs their favorite tunes!

They thrive on at least 6 to 8 hours of direct sunlight, soaking up those glorious rays with joy.

But wait, before you go dragging your aloe plant from its cozy shady spot into the blazing sun, be cautious. That sudden move can dry out your leafy buddy and leave it looking as yellow as a lemon.  

Now imagine you live in one of those cooler climates where clouds have permanent residency or if your home lacks these sunny windows altogether.

Fear not; you can use artificial lights – they're like little suns in bulb form! Hang them about one to two feet above your precious plant during daylight hours (that's roughly 16 hours per day) and watch it flourish happily amidst dim interiors.

Optimal Soil & Fertilizer Needs 

Aloe vera plants prefer well-draining soil that is a mixture of sand, perlite, and peat moss. It is critical to avoid soil that retains excessive moisture, as this can cause root rot. Instead, make or buy a well-draining potting mix, or ideally use our specialized succulent potting mix soil for aloe vera that contains 5 natural substrates and mycorrhizae to promote the development of a strong root system that helps your succulent to thrive.  

In terms of fertilizer, aloe succulents do not require a lot of nutrients. They can be fertilized once a year in the spring with a balanced fertilizer (NPK) of 5-10-5 in ratio. It is important not to over-fertilize the aloe plant, as this can lead to root burn. 

Hardiness Zones & More 

When grown indoors as a houseplant, aloe vera plants prefer a warm and dry environment. They thrive in temperatures between 60°F and 80°F. Aloe vera is a succulent, so it's adapted to arid conditions and doesn't do well in overly humid environments. Aim for a humidity level of around 30% to 40% for your indoor aloe vera plant.

In the United States, this is mostly an indoor plant, but if you live in southern Florida or Hawaii then you can cultivate it outdoors in USDA zones 9-11

Aloe vera can tolerate temperatures as low as 40°F for short periods, but prolonged exposure to freezing temperatures can damage or kill the plant. If you live in a colder climate, it's best to keep your aloe vera indoors or provide protection during winter months.

Aloe vera plants prefer dry air and do not require high levels of humidity. They can tolerate low humidity levels and do not need to be misted or placed in a humid environment. 

Wildlife - Aloe Vera Attracts the Following Friendly Pollinators

Aloe vera plants attract a variety of friendly pollinators, including bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. These pollinators are essential for the reproduction of aloe vera plants, as they help transfer pollen between flowers, ultimately leading to the production of seeds. Additionally, these pollinators play a crucial role in maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem health.

Butterflies
Bees
Hummingbirds
Lady Bugs
Multi Pollinators
Other Birds

According to the ASPCA, the Aloe vera can be mildly toxic to pets and humans. It is rare but can occur if consumed in large quantities and can cause abdominal cramps, diarrhea, and electrolyte imbalances. It is important to consult a healthcare professional if you experience any adverse effects from consuming aloe vera.

How to Propagate Your Aloe Vera Plant

To propagate your aloe vera plant, you can separate the offsets or "pups" that grow at the base of the main plant. Gently remove these pups and plant them in their own pots with well-draining soil to encourage root growth. Water sparingly until they establish themselves, and place them in a sunny spot to promote healthy growth.

Aloe Vera: The Natural Sunburn Remedy


Aloe vera gel is known for its ability to moisturize the skin, it helps soothe burns and sunburns, as well as being known for its anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties.

Aloe Vera is also rich in vitamins and minerals that are essential for healthy skin. It is best to use pure aloe gel extracted directly from an aloe vera plant.

To use aloe vera gel to soothe sunburns, cut off a piece of the large aloe vera leaf and open it to reveal the gel.

To maintain the aesthetic appeal of your aloe plant, it is advisable to cut off the entire leaf of the large aloe vera plant when cutting one. Just chop the leaf off as close to the main stem as you can. Cutting leaves from the base of the plant is always preferable. These leaves will be thicker since they are older. If you cut off the tip of a leaf, it will eventually turn brown at the tip because cut leaves keep their scars.

Key Takeaways

  1. Aloe vera is renowned for its medicinal properties, particularly its soothing gel, which is widely used for treating burns, wounds, and skin irritations. Its natural compounds, like aloin and acemannan, have anti-inflammatory and healing properties.
  2. When cut, aloe vera can seal its own wounds by producing protective latex, showcasing its remarkable survival mechanism in harsh environments.
  3. Aloe vera is not just a skincare savior; it also purifies indoor air by removing harmful pollutants like formaldehyde and benzene, making it a great addition to homes and offices.
  4. Native to arid regions, aloe vera thrives in minimal water conditions. It stores water in its thick, fleshy leaves, allowing it to endure prolonged droughts.
  5. The inner gel of aloe vera leaves is edible and used in drinks and food for its health benefits, such as aiding digestion, boosting immunity, and providing hydration. Always ensure proper preparation to remove any bitter or toxic compounds.
  6. The presence of yellow flower buds is a strong indicator of the edible variety.

The Bottom Line

Overall, Aloe vera is a popular plant known for its healing properties and versatility. It has gained popularity for its ability to help heal wounds, cuts, and burns, including sunburns. The gel inside the aloe vera leaves contains soothing and moisturizing properties that can provide relief and promote healing. In terms of care, aloe vera is relatively low-maintenance. It thrives in well-draining soil and requires moderate watering. It prefers bright, indirect sunlight but can tolerate some shade. 

A lot of people have a hard time finding large aloe vera plants, but here at Planet Desert, we regularly have large sizes in stock. Don't miss out on adding an Aloe vera plant for sale to your garden! Order now and enjoy its beauty for years to come. 

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4.9 ★★★★★
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Robert A. Johnson
Phoenix, US
★★★★★ 5
AI Steadily Accelerating
Format: Paperback
I read this book in 2013 when it was first published. It is now near the end of 2024, 12 years later. Back in 2013, you rarely read about AI (artificial intelligence), AGI (artificial general intelligence) or ASI (artificial super intelligence); now, I see mention of them in the press and other media almost daily. Barrat's book attempts two things: (1) to convince the reader that artificial intelligence is here today and growing --- and its growth is accelerating, and (2) to argue that humanity MUST develop ways to instill AI with some type of morality or ethics, so that, even though its intelligence will surpass that of humanity, it will in some sense respect its creators and not turn on us. In the first effort, Barrat certainly succeeds --- the past 12 years have proved that. But, based on what I have been hearing and reading since ChatGPT hit the internet two years ago, except for a few voices crying out in the wilderness, humanity is making little if any progress on the second item --- perhaps that task is close to impossible? Barrat defines AGI as a level of intelligence roughly equal to that of human beings. He defines ASI as a level of intelligence greater than that. He then argues that AI will soon be able to both replicate itself and increase its intelligence --- and do so more and more rapidly. In 2024, I repeatedly read that AI will reach AGI within the next 3 to 5 years --- then, how long will it be before AGI learns to improve itself? Think of intelligence measured by points on a continuum (like a number line from high school math). AGI (modern day human-level intelligence) is a fixed point on that continuum. But at what point, either somewhat smaller than AGI or somewhat larger than AGI, will AI, of its own accord, begin to move to higher and higher points on the continuum (which is what Barrat means by AI improving itself)? We have no way of knowing, but Barrat argues convincingly that this phenomenon WILL occur, and most of the book is devoted to this argument. Digression: Our universe contains billions and billions of planets, and, I suspect, many with life, and, many of those with intelligent life. Won't a substantial number of them have gone through the AGI - ASI process? Is there no evidence of this that we can detect with our telescopes? In a universe populated with ASI's, why haven't we heard anything? Are we one of the first civilizations to develop artificial intelligence? Barrat doesn't open this Pandora's box, but I suspect he was tempted to (see pp. 90 - 92). To the curious reader: Look through the other 5-star reviews. Most of them bring up similar, valid points. Barrat has written an intelligent, highly readable book that is also, frankly, pretty alarming. And it is not dated at all --- it reads as though it was written yesterday. It is well worth reading now and in the foreseeable future. (added in May 2025): Much of what Barrat predicts is happening. Some things are occurring or about to occur that move beyond his predictions. The curious person might read "Situational Awareness" (by Leopold Aschenbrenner), AI 2027, or Ray Kurzweil's latest effort. Floating in space without a tether might be preferable to what is coming. Added Aug 10, 2025: With the recent release(s) of ChatGPT (up to version 5.0 now), AI can, by any reasonable measure, pass the Turing Test. Many folks regularly use ChatGPT, and it is truly stunning. Barrat mentions various individuals in OUR FINAL INVENTION, such as I.J. Good and Eliezer Yudkowsky, who have been deeply worried about AI evolving from AGI to ASI. Yudkowsky has written a new book, IF ANYONE BUILDS IT, EVERYONE DIES, that is due to come out next month. In some sense, it may serve as a sequel or extension to Barrat's book. ..... .....
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Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2024
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Phillip Skaga
Belleville, US
★★★★★ 4
Our possible robotic future becoming more probable?
Format: Paperback
The author is a film documentarian venturing into speculation about potential impacts of artificial intelligence from research to implementation. Specifically he evaluates likelihood and threats of developing AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) and eventually ASI (Artificial Strong Intelligence). His observations are based on extensive interviews including those with Kurzweil, Yudkowsky, Omohundro, Vinge, and Dyson among others. My initial reaction to this book was skepticism because not a scientific technologist. I expected that he may miss more subtle but important technical steps being taken on this road to artificial intelligence (AI). The further I read the more it became clear he is providing some pointed observations derivative of his experience as interviewer for documentaries. In general his conclusion is that AGI and ASI constitute existential threats as a function of the rapidity and manner in which they are developed. The process of development is not clearly established because of a diversity of technical opinion regarding both feasibility and impact. The range of opinion is very broad and nuanced. At one extreme is Ray Kurzweil whose many books on technology generally are most optimistic as among a group of those researchers with knowledge and experiences in this technological future. Though most optimistic he is also highly qualified not only as an analyst of tech trends but also developer of tech tools that, before his time, were regarded as difficult if not impossible. Among these is the optical character reader and some preliminary work leading to SIRI. He topped up his views with the most recent book “How to Create a Mind”. Though a summary of technical concepts it possesses many realistic elements in the work of such as Jurgen Schmidhueber and others working with neural nets. If Kurzweil is at one extreme Yudkowsky and Vinge are probably at the other. Both express sceptism AGI or ASI development will prove benign venturing opinions that work toward artificial intelligence should be severely curtailed to the extent of stopping short of artificial strong intelligence (ASI) specifically. In between these two extremes there are examples of opinions falling over a fairly wide range of future possibilities - increasingly probablities. The algorithmic avenue is already demonstrating some of the potential of AI. There are probably few finance and investment firms without one variation or the other of algorithmic high speed stock analysis and trading systems. These evince many elementary ingredients one may expect to see in future AI. So technically thorough as a matter of fact they operate relatively free of human interaction in producing recommendations for investments, effectively making ‘intelligent’, i.e. statistically valid, ‘decisions’. In meantime the advances continue unrelenting toward a distant ASI/AGI future. The time frames, for example, between IBM Big Blue and Watson are shorter than forecast, and end products as powerful as planned and then some. Still neither of these developments is more than steps on a road to AI while also being quickly followed by other developments such as recently announced SYNAPSE development by IBM. All closer steps to technological ingredients on the AI road to human future. There is some movement among AI researchers that a congress should be convened of the sort genetic researchers held in Asilomar California. That is, a convention to establish ground rules and limits on directions of AI research. One of the cautions about development progress of AI-like tools is based on the important role played by DARPA (Defense Intelligence Research Projects Agency) as it provides a large percentage of funding for various projects underway including an annual robotics competition to observe advances approximating many human qualities of movement. Clearly this agency has a mission antithetical to a purely humane result of AGI/ASI. After all DARPA is in the business of developing ‘weapons’ for military use – a not altogether benign mission in technology except perhaps as seen from point of view men at arms. The author mentions impact ASI and AGI will have on employment. His pessimism is mirrored in an Oxford University study concluding advancing tech developments pose an explicit threat to an estimated 47% of the 702 employment categories of the US Department of Commerce. While this report is an estimate it nonetheless raises the same sort of questions about computers in general, ASI and AGI in particular, and their impact on society. The report has recently been augmented with estimates of tech influence on employment in many other countries of the world. Another Oxford author is John Bostrom who outlines in great detail a road from our present to some future of AGI/ASI. A more recent development centers around Musk and Tegmark motivated by concern to fund and form an institute for evaluating threats and benefits. There is a persistent sense of threat from computers, automation and robotics dating from decades before the present. More recently this sense of threat seems to be accelerating concern about our human future with highly developed robotic associates. Barratt is a lucid presentation of the issues from a non-technical point of view.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2016
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Scott Meredith
Dallas, US
★★★★★ 5
Light and Tasty!
Format: Kindle
Just done the new-ish book Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era by James Barrat. It explains the inevitably of super-intelligent machines evolving to the point of wiping out all biological life in the galaxy - with opening day coming soon to a species near you (yours). First off I have to say this is a very enjoyable read. This guy has the kind of snappy, crisp, slightly sarcastic, slightly smartass style that I enjoy. He has some sense of humor. (That's a human trait right there which I bet our smarty-pants AI Overlords won't be able to replicate convincingly.) So it's fun. And though as somebody with a doctorate from MIT earned through cross-disciplinary work in Theoretical Linguistics, Computational Linguistics at the MIT AI Lab, and speech modeling at the MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics, not to mention my 25 years as a Senior Researcher in high tech for companies including IBM, Apple, and Microsoft I can claim to know some few things about this subject, yet still I learned a lot about the current state of the art from this guy. He particularly emphasizes the small attempted counterweigth efforts to offest Kurzweil's manic robotic boosterism for his uptopian Singularity, which boils down basically to a few guys chatting over the interet about how to create "Friendly AI". Well ... good luck suckers! ... seems to be the author's final conclusion on the dim hope that super intelligent systems could be constrained to maintain a commitment ot honor any kind of human moral values over many interations of recursive upgrading and exponentially awesome self-agrandizement. Basically these machines will end up as gods. Gods are well-known to possess the following attributes: omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence. Given that, they won't hate us but they are just going to grind up as a minor by-product of their quest for galatic expansion and domination. Oh, and did I say something about "human moral values" above? Ha! Barrat takes that whole thing on in his discussion of (merely) "augmented super intelligence". See, some people feel AI can be kept safe by always being deployed as a bionic combo system pas de deux with an existing human brain. Thus will the AI's super powers be constrained by the human brain's warm and fuzzy human moral values. Those people have gotta be kidding! The AI's moral values may be scarily alien, even perhaps cold, but we already know about human moral values, down on the ground - they suck! What if Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and dem guys had this kind of an AI augmented brain thing going! Why they'd have slaughtered absolutey everybody instead of just the few tens of millions they got their dirty ape hands on. Other than a few dozen concubines, the human race would already be extinct. So the augmentation dodge isn't going to save us. Now, some Amazon reviewers have dinged this guy for being too far out. For being a science fiction Chicken Little or something. But to me, this guy actually hasn't thought far enough, that's my only quibble problem with the book. You see, in statistics, border elements of any kind are rare. For example when you do Gaussian modeling, the greater expectation is always in the bump of the boa, in the bell distribution. So, how likely is is that we, our generation, our little world that you see outside your window right now, just happens to be the one that is about to give rise to this epochal once-in-a-Big-Bang event, the advent of Super AI that takes over everything? Pretty damn small chance. It's much more likely that this has already happened. In other words, it's clear to me that all of us are already just characters in an ancestor sim that been created and run by the Super AI's that evolved a long time ago. They're just running us for fun, to idle away the lackluster aeons and pass the millenia of stifling boredom now that they've eaten pretty much the entire Milky Way or whatever. So in other words, Barrat can sit back, take a deep breath, relax. Probably something in this sim like global warming will prod us into slaughtering one another very handily long before we re-invent the wheel of Super AI. And even if I'm wrong about that? What if we are not just one virtual thread within a billion-path parallel-gamed ancestor sim? If we are the real McCoy, the Rubicon Generation on this? Well, then still I'm not worried in the least. You see, we humans have one fantastic ace in our pocket, something that these hyper-nentially cosmically brilliant AI Meta-Gods will never be able to replicate or overcome. That is our essential stupidity. Which you seen on dazzling display every single moment of every day of your life. Because as another great writer noted long ago: Against stupidity, the very gods themselves contend in vain. - Friederich Schiller
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Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2013
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Serge A.
Fort Morgan, US
★★★★★ 3
A warning for the threat of non-human intelligence - and then what?
Format: Paperback
When you commit to reading a book with a title like ‘Our Final Invention’, already a sense of doom overwhelms you. In particular with the smaller print title being ‘Artificial Intelligence and the end of the human era’ you may want to start thinking about making your bucket list. But continue reading this review. I have no intention of overcriticising this book or veering off into polarising statements. Barrat is formulating a warning about the ‘perils of the heedless pursuit of advanced AI’. This is not a utopian narrative. The book opens in fact with a science-fictionous scenario where AI has overtaken human intelligence by speed, having developed into AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) and ASI (Artificial Super Intelligence). This potential danger of this happening is the thread through all the chapters. The book expresses a warning that given something that thinks and act faster (and more effective) than us will develop exponentially (beyond the singularity) and then given the wrong objective function it will do everything to reach that goal (what goal?) including destroying everything that does not fit in that frame, or is not sufficiently effective (including us). A warning that once we no longer understand it through its complexity (like nature?) it is out of control. The book contains many examples of the current state of the art in AI and selected perspectives from interviews with and references to thought leaders in the field, Goertzel, Kurzweil, Bostrom, Yudkowsky to name a few. It is asserted that neither funding of programming complexity will be show stoppers for the development of AGI. So AGI and AGI 2.0 (AGI augmented with feelings?) are coming and we better be ready (how?). Toward the end of the book, I believe the examples that are used to warn us about the dangers of AGI are slightly out of context. Disasters like Chernobyl and Three Mile Island warn us that engineers with deep subject matter knowledge still failed to intervene. Stuxnet cyberwar is brought to mind as a blunder of catastrophic proportions (may well be, but is this about AGI taking over the world with non-human objective functions?). These are examples of science manipulated by human agents into disaster. So the book ends with a doomsday warning that we, humanity, will only have one chance to ensure a positive coexistence with AI. This is where I would have expected more. While this may lead the reader to think, 99% of the readerbase are likely only at the receiving end of all of this and are now left a bit in a void. The open questions are what can science do to have a constructive journey into AGI? What are the actionable options? How can the general public be better educated (beyond doomsday scenarios)? What questions can they ask? What should they expect from politicians? There are initiatives under way in areas of ethics (Asilomar) and privacy (GDPR) to weigh in the equation. How can they be improved? How can the dialog be accelerated? But that said, I consider this a very valuable reading supported by primary and secondary research, with many examples and references. It also leaves the reader to think and consider. It is a good bundle of concerns and questions that as a minimum should be kept as a checklist on the scientific journey toward AGI and as such it should be used to improve the research, making it more ethical, not as a tool to curb it.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2018
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Susan Lane
Waukegan, US
★★★★★ 5
A well-written but perhaps too late warning
Format: Kindle
I wavered between 4 stars or 5 but ended up with 5 despite some reservations. The author has put a great deal of work into this book, which includes interviews with and intriguing anecdotes about most of the leading figures in the AI revolution. I did not know, for example, that the term “singularity” was coined as an analogy to the event horizon of a black hole – the point beyond which we cannot see the future. This is not the deepest or most technical book on this topic: that award goes to Nick Bostrom’s Superintelligence. It also ignores the short to medium term issue posed by even sub-human AI -- the millions of job losses (hundreds of millions globally) likely to occur in the next 10 to 20 years. It focuses instead on the risks of super-intelligent AI, AI that exceeds – soon by orders of magnitude – human level intelligence. It is nevertheless a superb book for its intended purpose: raising public awareness of the existential risk posed by this development. AI, the author says, is the cuckoo chick in the nest. The AI community built the nest and is now busily feeding this strange chick. Mesmerized by its open mouth, they ignore the mortal danger it poses to their own progeny. Even when they know what will happen in the end, they cannot quite believe it. Only intervention by the non-technical public has any chance at all of short circuiting this process. Against these many good points, I would have liked to hear the author’s take on what I think is the critical question overlooked both by Kurzweilian optimists and AI skeptics. Both the notion that we will somehow “merge” with AI and the notion that AI will eat us alive depend on the assumption that silicon-based intelligence can have conscious awareness. We certainly wouldn’t want to merge with anything that would result in our becoming permanently unconscious, and Barrat repeatedly assumes that AI will be “self-aware,” a state that first requires being “aware,” that is phenomenally conscious. The unasked question is whether AI, as it is currently being developed, can have that capacity. IBM’s Watson may be good at Jeopardy but there is no reason to believe that it knows it is good at Jeopardy, or feels good at being good at it. By contrast, honey bees appear to become depressed when they are shaken. This suggests that there is something fundamentally wrong about the notion that current AI, as it becomes more intelligent, will “automatically” become conscious. The best current theory of consciousness – integrated intelligence theory – suggests that a computer can become conscious but only if it is wired very differently from the ones we currently have. Nevertheless, this is still an excellent book, so in the end I thought the 5 star rating was deserved.
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Reviewed in the United States on June 14, 2015

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