Читать книгу In AI We Trust - Helga Nowotny - Страница 5

This book has been in the making for a long time, the strands of thought interrupted by travel and other obligations. There were several unsatisfactory starts and abandonments before what I was looking for came into focus. The actual process of writing benefited, perhaps paradoxically, from several COVID-19 lockdown periods, with the obligatory and, in my case, productive solitude they imposed. As an unprecedented event for everyone living in the twenty-first century, the pandemic also led me to reflect on its many unintended consequences, including some that have a direct bearing on the themes of this book.

My thanks go to all those who supported me in different ways on this long journey. Jean-Luc Lory offered me again a brief stay of hospitality at the Maison Suger in Paris, a wonderful place of calm in the centre of a buzzing metropolis. Another brief stay that I looked forward to, at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, had to be cancelled due to abruptly imposed travel restrictions. Despite the missed occasion I was able to remain in fruitful exchange with Elena Esposito. I also want to thank Vittorio Loreto, of the Sony Lab Paris, for an especially inspiring conversation over dinner in Vienna. While the meal was frugal due to constraining circumstances, the discussion was rich. Stefan Thurner, who heads the Complexity Science Hub in Vienna, has been a continued source of inspiration and productive criticism. I received valuable feedback from him on parts of the manuscript, for which I am very grateful. Special thanks go to Michele Lamont at Harvard University for intellectual and moral support throughout the long stretch of the gestation period. Ever since we first talked about the book over a delicious lunch in New York City, Michele has responded to all my queries and provided me with continued encouragement.

When I approached John Thompson of Polity Press at the beginning of summer 2020 with an outline of the book, he responded without hesitation. Ever since, the process of getting the book published has unfolded in an ideal spirit of cooperation. I also want to thank the anonymous reviewers organized by Polity. One of them especially provided me with precious and concise feedback. I am also extremely lucky to have a splendid grand-daughter, Isabel Frey, who volunteered to be my personal editorial assistant. Isabel is not only a wonderful singer of Yiddish protest songs, but an engaged activist and researcher who represents the younger generation acting to change the world. Barbara Blatterer, my long-term personal assistant, took meticulous and efficient care in getting the manuscript through several versions to the final and decisive cuts, advising me also on the book’s cover. To all of you, my heartfelt thanks.

Carlo Rizzuto acted again as my very special personal advisor, reading, commenting and encouraging me when I was doubtful whether I would ever finish. His unfailing humour provided me with the necessary distance from what I was doing. My thanks to him are as much for the ways in which he interrupted my writing as for everything else he gave me during this period.

Vienna and Bonassola, January 2021