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How the Mind Works,
Steven Pinker
- A tour de force overview of the current
state of the art in cognitive science, this book lives up to
its title. Weaving insights from information theory and evolutionary
psychology, Pinker demonstrates just how far we've come in the
last 25 years in understanding how the human mind as a collection
of naturally evolved information processing organs gives rise
to the mental life of humanity and its rich repertoire of behavior.
Very Highly recommended.
The Future and Its Enemies: The Growing Conflict
Over Creativity, Enterprise and Progress,
Virginia Postrel
- This book expresses my own political and
social ideas and values in the context of current events and
issues better than the work of any other writer I've encountered.
Postrel has done a very good job in this book of expressing exactly
why I find the terms "left" and "right" and
"conservative" and "liberal" to be worthless,
empty icons. Instead, she finds the labels "stasist"
and "dynamist" better descriptions of the real divisions
in culture and politics in the current era. If you read only
one book about current events and politics this year, make it
this one. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
- Two Signposts on the Road to a New Enlightenment: My extended review of Consilience by
Edward O. Wilson and The
Future and Its Enemies by Virginia Postrel
- dynamist.com: Virginia Postrel's web site devoted to the ideas
developed in this book
A General Theory of Love,
Thomas Lewis, Fari Amini and Richard Lannon
- A very well-written survey of the "state
of the art" in cognitive science on the subject of love.
References to literature and the arts and an easy writing style
make this a real treasure. Highly Reccomended.
Life : A Natural History of the First Four Billion
Years of Life on Earth, Richard
Fortey
- Fortey, curator of paleontology at the
British Museum of Natural Science, tells the tale of life on
Earth with highlights from the lives of the scientists who have
uncovered the truth through the hard field work and exploration
of the richness of evolutionary theory. Very well written and
VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
The Five Ages of the Universe : Inside the Physics
of Eternity, Fred Adams, Greg
Laughlin
- A brief layman's overview of the state
of knowledge in the field of cosmology, circa 2000. The book
puts forward the notion of a "cosmological decade"
or consideration of the expanse of cosmological time in order-of-magnitude
terms. RECOMMENDED
The Race for Consciousness, John Gerald Taylor
- Written for the interested layman, but
delving into considerable detail, this book describes the current
state of the art in linking specific neurological structures
and functions in the brain to the specific elements of consciousness
such as qualia, continuity and the like. Starting with the basic
theory of neural networks and fundamental neuoranatomy, Taylor
explains his theory of "relational consciousness" as
an over-arching structure for unifying the growing breadth and
depth of knowledge in this vast arena. I can't endorse Taylor's
writing style, because in attempting to "dumb down"
his material for lay readers, he in fact overemphasizes his metaphor
of a race among researchers and engages in a bit too much repetition.
But I do nevertheless recommend the book for the serious lay
student of cognitive science.
Countdown: A History of Space Flight, T. A. Heppenheimer
- A good overview history of space flight,
from the early pioneers of rocketry through the International
Space Station and Beyond. Primarily a history of engineers, programs
and institutions, this book is not a detailed history of specific
space flights. Recommended.
Exploring the Moon: The Apollo Expeditions, D. M. Harland
- Very detailed minute-by-minute narrative
of the Apollo lunar surface activities, with a special emphasis
on the real geological scientific work that was done. Once again
brings home the incredible achievement that Apollo represented,
given the technology of the time (and the heartbreaking lost
opportunities to continue the work, especially with the utterly
foolish cancellation of Apollo 18 and 19, the incremental cost
of which would have been truly negligible). Recommended to the
serious student of selenology and the history of the space program.
Society of Mind,
Marvin Minsky.
- Minsky's updated Piagetean epistemology
and schema for the development of AI; a must read for would-be
transhumanists. HIGHLY
RECOMMENDED
The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed
Human Intelligence, Ray Kurzweil
- A pioneer of optical character recognition,
computerized speech and many other human-interface tools reviews
the history of computation in a cosmic perspective and projects
the radical impact of vastly increased processing power on the
development of artificial intelligence and, ultimately, human
individuals and society. Written in a casual style for the well-informed
layman, Kurzweil synthesizes insights from many fields to portray
a positive and challenging path for humanity in the first half
of the 21st century. Recommended.
Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind, Hans P. Moravec
- Moravec recounts his own personal involvement
in the birth of modern robotics in the 1960s, through the state
of current research , to the informed speculation on the development
of real, independent artificial intelligence of super-human capability
in the first quarter of the 21st century for which he is well
known. Recommended.
When Things Start to Think,
Neil A. Gershenfeld
- Gershenfeld is one of the leading creative
thinkers at MIT's Media Lab. This quick read is a good overview
of the techniques and directions of the Media Lab and provides
some insight into the direction of current technological development.
Recommended.
The Evolution of Desire : Strategies of Human Mating, David M. Buss
- Extremely well written and researched
exploration of the evolutionary psychology of human sexuality.
This book casts light on some of the deepest recesses of the
human psyche with examples from the ethology of many nonhuman
species and very broad research into human sexual behavior. Very
Highly Recommended.
The Origins of Virtue,
Matt Ridley
- Richard Dawkins blurbed this book like
this: "If my The Selfish Gene were to have a Volume
Two devoted to humans, The Origins of Virtue is pretty
much what I think it ought to look like." This book melds
Dawkins' basic thesis with the insights derived in the last two
decades from thinking about the iterated prisoners' dilemma
to sketch a "natural history" of human morals. Recommended.
Climbing Mount Improbable,
Richard Dawkins
- Dawkins at his entertaining best in a
series of loosely-connected essays on the intricate machinery
of evolution, with the underlying theme of various "evolutionary
strategies" for exploring "fitness landscapes".
Highly Recommended.
No Turning Back,Wallace
Kaufman -- HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
--
- I highly recommend this book for anyone
in environmental issues, the "environmentalist movement"
and generally our relationship to nature. Kaufman is a self-confessed
"recovering environmentalist", conservationist and
science journalist. A listing of chapter titles reveals the scope
and subject matter of the book:
- Confessions of an Environmentalist
- The Search for Authority
- An Opposition Movement is Born
- The Roots of Environmental Thinking in
America
- Searching for a New Sense of the Sacred
- Winning the Public Away from Science
- Nature as We Want It: Can the Environmental
Movement Adapt to the New Ecology?
- Who Owns Nature?
- Technology to the Rescue
- This is Not the End, But the Beginning
- Kaufman, who has been an "insider"
in leading environmentalist groups, traces the anti-scientific
development of the American environmental movement from its roots
in late 18th century romanticism through it's modern anti-capitalist
political activism. He makes a compelling case for privatist
approaches to conservation and the employment of advanced, intelligent
technology to natural resource management issues. Kaufman explores
scientifically reasonable definitions of "nature" in
light of the special place of humans and current insight into
the chaotic nature of complex systems. His scientifically critical,
but ultimately optimistic, approach to environmental questions
such as global warming, deforestation, wetlands and wilderness
preservation, species extinction, land and other resource use
and human population growth are clear and encouraging expressions
of extropian values.
Consilience, Edward
O. Wilson
- Wilson undertakes the laudable task of
restating and revitalizing the ideals of the Enlightenment. In
this project he takes on the failed subjectivist "deconstruction"
program of the so-called post-modernists and seeks new bridges
between "the two cultures" of science on the one hand
and the fine and liberal arts on the other. His critique of post-modernism
is a well-crafted rallying point for those devoted to the ideals
of reason and notions of cultural progress informed by the scientific
method, but he ultimately undermines the power of his prescriptive
solution by succumbing to a static conception of human nature.
Recommended.
- Two
Signposts on the Road to a New Enlightenment: My extended review of Consilience by
Edward O. Wilson and The
Future and Its Enemies by Virginia Postrel
The Last Mortal Generation,
Damien Broderick
- I have an entertaining correspondence
with Damien, who I met for the first time in "real life"
this last May. This book is a good example of his extreme breadth
and depth of interest and understanding of the technologies that
are transforming the world in the beginning of the 21st century,
focusing on the revolution in biotechnology that promise to make
ours the last mortal generation. The lengthy detour into physics
was a mystery to me, though: I felt like Damien had done interesting
research in this area and included it in this book because it
was fresh on his mind. Nevertheless, this is a good introduction
to the real subject of the book -- the coming extension of the
human life span. Very well written in Damien's erudite, but witty
and engaging style. RECOMMENDED
The Spike,
Damien Broderick
- Perhaps the first book-length treatment
of the transhumanist idea of the Singularity. A good overview
of the technological and social issues raised by the possible
coming superacceleration of progress. Discusses the ideas of
Vernor Vinge, Hans Moravec, Frank Tipler, Max More and others
who have been seminal in the formation of transhumanist thinking.
Even though I don't agree with Broderick's political economics,
I think the book does a good job of introducing the key ideas
of transhumanism, especially to a public not yet familar with
them.
Great Mambo Chicken and the Transhuman Condition
and Nano,
Ed
Regis.
- The first book was my introduction to
transhumanism as a discrete collection of ideas; In Nano,
Regis does another good job of chronicling the transhumanist
movement, here in a scientific biography of Eric Drexler. Both
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
The Physics of Immortality, Frank Tipler
- Tipler's "big book" on life,
the universe and everything; this is the book about the "Omega
Point". Recommended
Nanodreams, Edited
by Elton Elliott
- An anthology of essays and short stories
about molecular nanotechnology
("MNT"). Contains the visionary story Blood Music
by Greg Bear, which was written in 1983 before Engines of
Creation and therefore (in my opinion) earns Bear credit
as an independent "inventor" of MNT. Marc Stiegler's
story, The Gentle Seduction, is worthwhile as a step-by-step
depiction of transhumanist technology. Good book; recommended
for those wishing to explore the concept of MNT through fiction
and easily-digested essays.
Brainchildren: Essays on Designing Minds, Daniel Dennet
- As the subtitle suggests, this book is
a collection of essays by Dennet. All have been published elsewhere
and some (the first half of the book) are not specifically related
to AI (artificial intelligence) as such, but rather generally
describe Dennett's developing epistemology, in some cases from
the late 1970s. Recommended for the serious student of epistemology
and AI.
At Home in the Universe: The Search for the Laws
of Self-Organization and Complexity,
Stuart Kauffman
- Kauffman, one of the leaders of "Complexity
Theory" uses a minimum of mathematics to walk the reader
through the theoretical bases and practical implications of the
idea that complex systems spontaneously generate their own new
"laws" of organization, an important new contribution
to evolutionary theory with implications in fields as diverse
as biology, economics and social policy toward technology. Recommended.
The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in
the Dark, Carl Sagan
- Sagan's last work, this book is a collection
of more or less connected musings on the virtues of skepticism
and critical thinking and the alarming prevalance of pseudoscience
and general ignorance and hogwash in the world. Although this
book could have been better edited (some of it is repetitious
and some parts don't hang together well), I recommend it for
the many gems of good prose it contains. Sagan clearly left this
as his testament, and anyone committed to the cause of science
and critical thinking should read it.
Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience,
Superstition and Other Confusions of Our Time, Michael Shermer
- Shermer, one of the founders of Skeptic
magazine, collects here a number of articles originally published
there. Unfortunately not well edited as a complete book, this
work nevertheless belongs on the shelf of every good skeptic.
Sleeping With Extra-Terrestrials : The Rise of Irrationalism
and Perils of Piety, Wendy Kaminer
- Following up on themes found in her 1992
book I'm
Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional, Kaminer examines
the causes and effects of irrationalism in American public life
and pop culture. Very entertaining and well-written, this book
is a valuable guide to the loony and pious turn so much of our
public discourse has taken recently. Recommended
The Transparent Society,
David
Brin
- A book about the values of openness and
secrecy in a world that will be transformed by new information
technologies such as the net and micro-surveillance technologies.
Brin stakes out a position in distinction to the advocates of
thoroughgoing privacy who have been perhaps the most vocal element
of the cyberspace community. I found much with which to agree
in Brin's identification of openness as a key secondary value
in support of a free society and agree that his position is not
as radical as it has been characterized to be by some who have
criticized the book. I disagree with any position Brin might
be taking (it's actually had to tell, in the end) in opposition
to such cryptographic tools as pubic key encryption. The book
is a necessary counterpoint in an on-going dialogue. Highly recommended.
- Wired Magazine's interview with Brin about the
book
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Oliver
Sacks
- More literature than science; a collection
of clinical "cases" from Sacks' practice as a neuropsychiatrist;
interesting exploration of the workings of the mind in anecdotal
form.
Intoxication,
Ronald K. Siegel.
- Natural history of drug use in humans
and other animals; very interesting. RECOMMENDED
Improving Nature,
Michael J. Reiss and Roger Straughan
- An overview of the moral and ethical dimensions
of genetic engineering. Reiss is a biologist and Anglican priest
and Straughan is an academic moral philosopher. The book presents
a surprisingly (to me) positive view of human control of biological
destiny via genetic engineering. Unfortunately, neither author
is likely to receive a Pulitzer prize for their writing style...
The Hot Zone,
Richard
Preston.
- Entertaining semi-gonzo account of the
Reston Ebola incident, its antecedents and aftermath; great airplane
book.
Why Gods Persist : A Scientific Approach to Religion, Robert A. Hinde
- A dense and poorly-written book that attempts
to catalogue all the various reasons that religious belief and
practice persist despite the Enlightenment. The subject deserves
much better. Not recommended.
The New Renaissance: Computers and the Next Level
of Civilization, Douglas S.
Robertson
- Disappointing musings on the impact of
computer technology on changes in society. The book begins well
with discussion of the idea that each true revolutionary change
in civilization has come with advances in information tehnology
(i.e. spoken language, writing, printing . . .) But Robertson
then takes a detour into a detailed discussion of the impact
of computers on the development of mathematics, following up
with brief, unimaginative essays on other areas of culture. No
new ideas here: this book would have been interesting in, say,
1960, but Robertson really misses the boat on the true impact
that computer technology will have.
