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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.
