Re: Recent Readings of List Members

christophe delriviere (darkmichet@bigfoot.com)
Wed, 30 Dec 1998 20:24:20 +0100

My reading list this year and a good part of the next one : My reading habits are quite chaotic so be prepared ;))...

Imagined Worlds by Freeman Dyson
Nano by Ed Regis
Engines of Creation
unbounding the future (some parts)
nanosystems (some little parts)
shadows of the mind by Roger Penrose (only the first part ;) ) The spike by Damien Broderick
The Physics of Immortality : Modern Cosmology,God and the Resurrection of the Dead by Tipler (some chapters)
The Anthropic Cosmological principle by Barrow and Tipler (some chapters, very few)
The Fabric of Reality by David Deutsch (60%) Godel Escher Bach; An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter (some chapters)
The society of mind by Marvin Minsky (60%) BEYOND HUMANITY: CYBEREVOLUTION and FUTURE MINDS by Gregory S. Paul / Earl Cox I've seen some negative feelings expressed about this book, but don't asked why at the moment ...I would like to understand what is wrong with this book...i found it somewhat hold hat but an excellent introduction.. Darwin Among the Machines : The Evolution of Global Intelligence by George B. Dyson
(just the start, current reading)

*The Physics of Star Trek (Star Trek Series) by Lawrence M. Krauss, Stephen Hawking
*Beyond Star Trek : Physics from Alien Invasions to the End of Time by Lawrence M. Krauss
The Metaphysics of Star Trek by Richard Hanley. (60%) Robot: mere machine to transcendent mind By Hans Moravec (current reading) The Last Three Minutes : Conjectures About the Ultimate Fate of the Universe by P. C. W. Davies
Behavior-Based Robotics by Ronald C. Arkin
(current reading)

An Introduction to Genetic Algorithms by Melanie Mitchell
(current reading)

Neverness, The broken god, The wild, by David Zindell.... the last is almost finished... after i will probably read War in heaven by the same guy Little Wowen by L M Alcott ;)))
The Particle garden by Gordon Kane
Star Trek Science Logs by Andre Bormanis The Star Trek encyclopedia by Michael and Denise Okuda (20%) Yes ;)... I like ST... but it's certainly not an obsession.... Reading By Starlight by Damien Broderick (current reading but with huge difficulties ;)) )
tremendously difficult for me but I try ;)... For myself i would have paid the price of the book only for the bibliography... Damien... you are unbelievable ;))

French books... well yes i'm from Belgium and my primary language is french...
(this is why I write in english like a pig ;) )
Perhaps it could help some peoples even if they are in french, nothing very astonishing in my choices anyway...

La révolution biolithique, humains artificiels et machines animées de Hervé Kempf
L'homme symbiotique - regards sur le troisième millénaire de Rosnay J. (30 pages so far.... book in wait state ;) ) Le rêve d'une theorie ultime de Steven Weinberg
(exist of course in english ;) )

Trous noirs et bébés univers de Stephen Hawking
(exist of course in english ;) )
(1/3... so not too much of the substance..)
L'évolution au bord du chaos de JC Heudin Les réseaux de neurones artificiels de Francois Blayo et Michel Verleysen (PUF, que sais-je)

I was in a library today and i've just bought : *
*Enquete d'immortalité de MARTINO B.
Voyages dans le futur de Nicolas Pantzo, au Seuil L'Homme Neuronal de JP Changeux

During my trip in the library i've noticed the existence of a spanish book called "El Aleph" but I can't remember the name of the author and i understand nothing in spanish anyway... Anders ;)?
I've never understood where the Word "Aleph" comes from... But if it is needed i can easily go back to the library (a few hundred meters of my flat) and can even buy the book (should not be expensive at all)...

I've just looked at the comments about Zen and the Brain on Amazon.com to know what is it about...
And well...I'm rather tempted ;)
Do you think it's worth to buy for somebody with absolutely no background in neuroscience ?
I should add that my brain is more trained at things like mathematics and I feel that neuroscience could be a very difficult subject to grasp for me, having a *very* poor memory (I think)
Stardrive9 ;) ? Anders ?

Delriviere
Christophe