Books I have read with short reviews. Probably useful to no one, but I like to keep track of what I have read and found interesting.
Review:
This was, in many ways, a book without any redeeming character. The destruction of basically all of the characters in the book (not necessarily death) was unrelenting. The prose, however, was excellent. I just could not stomach the plot and it all unraveled at the end. It seemed as though the characters which most deserved destruction did not get it, those who seemed to deserve enrichment did not get it and those in between fell either side of the line with little more than randomness. In that sense it was realistic. Well written, but hard to walk away thinking of anyone to whom I should provide a glowing recommendation.
Review:
Wells had a certain breathless observational mode. This book captured that well, but, frankly it is unendurable. 150 pages into 510 and I just could not keep it up. The book wore me out.
Review:
I thought this book would be about how the brain talks to itself. It is not that. I was instantly bogged down in technical material that I could not decipher. It seems like this is a pheneticist thinking about the brain purely from the perspective of language. And, treating the brain as a machine. I just couldn't get through it.
Review:
There is very little reference to Zeno in existing works and no original works of Zeno have been found as of now. I feel that Lee goes as far as possible with the small scraps he addresses. I never thought of Zeno as the founder of the dialectic (I thought it was Socrates, but I was clearly wrong) and am glad to know more of him.
Review:
It took me a long time to read this book. That was true for two reasons: 1) I often read to escape and this book is no escape and 2) the material required thought. The basic argument is that living and consciousness are linked (the need to protect one's life is a significant part of consciousness). "Living" does not rule out computer based life, but it would have to have a threat to its existence which required maintenance and occasional careful consideration. I found the argument broadly compelling.
Review:
I wondered how far von Neumann machines as a center point for a story could go. I didn't think very far, but this book is excellent. It is amazing to me that Taylor keeps coming up with complex and believable ideas on how the future might unroll. Really enjoyed this book.
