Aaron's Book List: What I've been reading lately.

Cuz y'all care so much.
And don't forget to check out the Internet Book List.

2004

On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins Thanks to this book I now understand how we understand. Jeff Hawkins has synthesized a very clear, high-level theory of how human intelligence works, what the general information flow is, and how and where to look for it in the human cortex structures. With this framework (and with my background being in Artificial Intelligence, I have seen many) I am finally able to see how all the puzzle pieces fit together. I think Hawkin's theory is extremely good and while neither complete nor without flaws, it is on the right track. Beyond understanding how the brain's cortex algorithm gives us our intelligence, the often debated and fuzzy notion of understanding itself gets a clear definition. Hawkins describes what is called the cortical Memory/Prediction framework. All of the cortex implements this simple, hierarchical memory prediciton system. Each layer of cortex receives input stimulus, either directly from senses, or from cortex lower in the hierarchy. Any patterns in the input are learned and when a partial or full pattern is observed, the cortex feeds back down to lower levels what it expects to come next. When the feedback matches what comes next, this is to understand something correctly. A pattern was matched with memory, and a successful prediction was made. If the prediction fails (a new or unforseen pattern is observed) the cortex "throws an exception" (to borrow a computer programming term) and passes the pattern on up the hierarchy for higher level analysis. If a higher level knows what to make of the pattern, it can send feedback down to the lower levels giving them assistance in predicting what comes next. If a pattern propagates all the way to the top, it gathers more attention, and ultimately ends up in short term memory. I could go on and on about this, but you should just read the book.

The Wild by David Zindell The third book in the Requiem for Homo sapiens series. It's science fiction that just drips with zen and other deep philosophies.

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card A classic sci-fi book that I finally got around to reading. It was good, but I don't understand why it is so highly regarded in sci-fi circles. I gather many would develop a very strong attatchment to this book if read in adolesence.

The System of the World by Neil Stephenson The third book in the baroque cycle.

Poker Wisdom of a Champion by Doyle Brunson A light read of collected anecdotes from poker legend Doyle Brunson. The anecdotes range from the humorous to the profound. I especially liked reading the stories about the old days of poker, where it was a dangerous profession where one drove from town to town in texas, circulating through all the big games, occasionally getting robbed, and so forth.

Singularity Sky by Charles Stross I really didn't like this book at all. I read it all the way through hoping it would get good, but it didn't. Skip it.

The Confusion by Neil Stephenson The second book in the baroque cycle, following Quicksilver. I really enjoyed this book a lot more than the first one. Things finally got going, with a brilliant around-the-world swashbuckling adventure. A plot finally formed out of the nebulous aether of Quicksilver,

Culture Jam: The Uncooling of America by Kalle Lasn Everyone needs to read this book. It succinctly lays out the downward slide of american consumer culture, and how we the people can fight it. The war has already begun and the battelfield is in our minds.

Deception Point by Dan Brown Another fast paced Dan Brown thriller. Extremely similar to The Da Vinci Code in structure, but still a fun read. I read this as an e-book on my PDA. I'm really liking the whole e-book thing. So easy to read, no paper waste, and I don't even need to use a light when I'm reading before bed. It will even scroll for me :)

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown A very fast paced hard to put down thriller by Dan Brown. Jam packed with historical goodies and symbology lessons. A very enjoyable read.

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis An inside look at the reworking of the Oakland Athletics into a high performance league, on a shoestring budget. The magic trick? Science, math, and statistics in favor of the the old guard of baseball scouts and old schools of thought.

Deception Point by Dan Brown A quick pulp thriller centered around political deception and NASA.

Eastern Standard Tribe by Cory Doctorow A small novel (novella?) that I read for free on my PDA. Nice modern and crisp prose, and very cool cyberpunk characters.

The Broken God by David Zindell Sequel to Neverness. The first half of this book is fantastic. Heavy duty philosophical content. The later half of the book kind of dragged on and was in dire need of heavy editing. Overall, I didn't enjoy it as much as Neverness.

2003

Quicksilver by Neil Stephenson Another huge tome from Neil Stephenson. It wasn't as much fun or as geeky as Cryptonomicon, but it was still a good read. Very detailed analysis of the socio-religio-politico-philosiphico-malogical atmosphere during the Newtonian revolution.

"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character by Richard Feynman, Ralph Leighton, and Edward Hutchings (editor) Feynman was a truly bizzare character and this book is a collection of his narrated anecdotes spanning his entire life and academic career. It flows strangly, as the train of thought jumps from place to place in time and space. The text is dictated, so it is a little strange to read regular dialogue rather than prose, but you get used to it. Most of the anecdotes are funny, so more than anything, it is pure entertainment.

Neverness by David Zindell This is one of the best novels I've read in a while. It's great prose, set in a rich future world will well-drawn characters, and it is threaded with deeply philosophical undertones. Through the entire reading, the book felt surreal and dream-like, and in a good way. It was a trip. I highly recommend this one. It's hard to find though (out of print).

A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge A huge epic novel set in the far future. It takes a long time to get rolling, but steadily builds up suspense as the novel progresses. It has some depressing opinions of humanity, and paints a somewhat bleak outlook on the long term. It wasn't a super-great novel in my opinion, but it wasn't bad either -- just plain good.

A New Kind of Science by Steven Wolfram Woah. This book is a monster. This 1200+ page book was a pain to read. And I mean that literally. I usually read in bed, before I fall asleep and resting this book on my chest to read was a good substitute for an incubus. Wolfram spent over 10 years working on this opus and it shows. The work lays some fundamental groundwork into understanding complexity and the behavior of small computations. He has been very thorough and I am glad that someone finally just went and did all this basic research. If anything, his greatest contribution was simply recognize that there was basic research there that needed to be done. Of course, the writing is very immodest (for reasons of 'clarity'), and he intersperses the research with lots of personal opinion and conjecture. Undoubtedly, some of his conjecture will turn out to be true, and some, I suspect is hogwash. Time will tell. This book shall certainly have a large impact on the collective unconscious, and I think it is an important read for any computer scientist or mathematician. Right or wrong, the book will force us to think about some very important issues to do with the very nature of complexity and computation. I like using the term 'complexity complete' to describe his principle of computational equivalence. Once a system reaches an easily obtainable level of complexity, it becomes universal (i.e., it could theoretically emulate a turing machine, or any other complex system). Overall, the book does an excellent job at presenting some very deep and abstract concepts in a very easy to digest manner, such that even a determined layperson will grok it. Of course, a layperson might not give a damn about the ideas. Really, it's the kind of thing only nerds like me enjoy.

Positively Fifth Street by James McManus This book was wonderful to read -- a page turning joy-ride through the seedy underbelly of Las Vegas and the Poker world. The author is sent to Las Vegas to report on the increased number of women competing in the Binion's World Series Of Poker (WSOP), as well as the ongoing murder trial of Ted Binion. He spends his publisher's advance to enter the WSOP himself. Through amazing luck and solid play, he ends up at the final table of the prestigious event. The readers get to come along for the rollercoaster ride. The book also mentions our Poker Research for 2 or 3 pages, which was nice to see.

Otherland: City of Golden Shadow by Tad Williams A Virtual Reality cyberpunk style novel set primarily in various online virtual environments. There are a lot of creative and imaginative ideas and environments in this book and decent character and plot development. My only major complaint is that IT IS TOO BLOODY LONG. The book is about five gajillion pages, and it is only the first of four equally proportioned books. It is very long-winded. The prose is extremely loose -- I would have preferred to have seen it tightened up substantially. It has the feel of a modern day Tolkein style epic -- but the prose is not in the same league. The book just ends without any real resolution -- it appears that it will just flow right into the next one, and from what I hear it does that through to the last book.

One Jump Ahead: Challenging Human Supremacy in Checkers by Jonathan Schaeffer I hate to admit that I only just read this book now. The author was my supervisor for 3 years...But i just never got around to it. At first glance you may roll your eyes. A book about checkers and programming computers? How horribly unexciting. Then you start reading it and are immediately surprised by how exciting it really is. This is largely because Jonathan's excitement is contagious. His storytelling reads like a thriller and is painfully truthfull. I must commend Jonathan for the fact that he doesn't edit out all of the things most authors would omit -- namely the things that make him look bad. Most of the other reviews seem to have the same opinion: It's a surprisingly riveting account of the race to win the man-machine world championship in the game of Checkers.

Schismatrix Plus by Bruce Sterling A big picture of the future of man in space, as we become posthuman. Multiple feuding actions, frontier lawlessness, swashbuckling pirates and more. Lots of ideas, lots of twisted cultures and ideologies. It's a strange, uneven book, but it still stands out amongst a lot of the other science fiction from 1985, as very forward thinking and original.

Hiking With Ghosts: The Chilkoot Trail, Then and Now by Frances Backhouse & Adrian Dorst A photographic journey of the chilkoot trail accompanied by an excellent description of the hike, and the backstory of the klondike gold rush's rich history. I've had a bit of an unusual fascination with the klondike gold rush ever since I was a kid. I read a lot of Jack London books when and got to visit Dawson City a few times, while I lived in Inuvik. I'm very interested in hiking this trail.

2002

3001: The Final Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke A fun and light read. This book can be devoured in one sitting. It moves quickly, and brings us back revisit the 2001 saga.

Tournament Poker for Advanced Players by David Sklansky This is exactly what you'd expect from a Slansky poker book. It's well written and full of good examples to illustrate his points. The writing is extremely clear and subtle. If you're an experienced tournament poker player, most of the concepts should be familiar to you. Even if you know the concepts already, Slansky's explanations are still worthwhile as he has the ability to make the ideas completely lucid. What may have been a fuzzy concept is made clear and concrete. Don't bother with this book, howerver, if you havn't read his more fundamental books such as The Theory of Poker.

Schild's Ladder by Greg Egan This is classic mind bending Egan, with a far future story set in a astonishing world based on hard science and speculative cosmology. I didn't like this one as much as some of his older stuff. In both this and his previous book, Teranesia, Egan has tried to produce more realistic character development. Critics constantly blast his older work for having characters that are little more than philisophical puppets that preach Egan's viewpoints. I have to say, I like the older stuff better, despite this 'flaw'.

The Cerebral Code by William H. Calvin Note: see the above link for the full text, online. This book presents an exciting hypothesis for the way association cortex may work. Inspired by some of the observed neurologial structure seen in association cortext, Calvin gives a tantalizing view of how ideas can be encoded into triangular arrays of neurons. Various cerebral codes can then compete and reproduce, spreading to more regions of cortex. The various mechanisms for evolution are presented in the triangular cortex array. Codes can reproduce, compete for limited space (mindshare), and can mutate, mix, and evolve. It appears Calvin tried to write the book in an easy, intuitive way, but it seems to me that he failed. I found it hard to follow his ideas later in the book, and his analogies did not always make sense. I also found a lack of low level details. Everything was very high level and speculative. As a programmer who likes to dabble in AI, I really was interested in implementing some 'Calvin Networks' to experiment with. However, I wasn't able to glean enough from the book to make it happen.

Holy Fire by Bruce Sterling Thought provoking sci-fi about aging, anti-aging, agism, and culture. Some of the science is a little on the flaky side, but not so bad as to detract from the book. It was a page turner, and had some interesting points to make.

The Planiverse by A. K. Dewdney I first read this book when I was 12 or 13 years old, and it really warped me. It's a modernized flatland-esqe tale written by a gifted computing scientist. I highly recommend it. It is like nothing you have read before, I guarantee it.