The J Curve

Sunday, December 11, 2005

Books I am Enjoying Now

and the library they came from. Each image links to comments
. .
Symbolic Immortality Bookshelf@work

15 Comments:

  • Looks almost exactly like my bookshelf. Too bad half of mine is still unread! But such is life for an IB analyst I guess. I'm reading "The Age of Spirtual Machines" right now - how does "The Singularity is Near" compare?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:40 AM  

  • Hi Steve,

    Please would it be possible to know your email address? I'm working on a project I'd very much like you to be involved in.

    You may post the address here or otherwise contact me at champeau |at| agoravox.com

    Talk to you soon,
    G.C.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:59 AM  

  • Here's some fiction I recommend:

    - Charles Stross "Accelerando". A pretty good guess at how the near-term future will happen, including an run-away ecology of autonomous corporations. Will appeal to your skillset. ;)

    - Greg Egan "Axiomatic". Greg may be the best contemporary sci-fi thinker. Short stories collection. Permutation City is also very good.

    - Karl Schroeder "Ventus". Very advanced distributed system indistinguishable from prevasive magic. Somewhat flawed.

    - Rheingold "Smart Mobs" you are probably already aware of this one. non-fiction.

    - Wright "the Golden Age" mid future, very thoughtful.

    - Nylund "Signal to Noise" - making deals with an advanced intelligence is risky.

    --
    Miron

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:33 AM  

  • Thanks for the pointers! Most of these are new to me.

    Rob: Kurzweil's latest book is an update. I have not finished it yet, but I generally recommend the latest version of evolving thought (with a nod to Popper). Age of Spiritual Machines was a very influential book for me, especially the first chapter, so it will be hard to beat. His futurism is like a refreshing brain spa.

    By Blogger Steve Jurvetson, at 11:05 AM  

  • I am reading The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene. It's pretty intense. I guess people in power don't read these kinds of books, but I thought I'd tell you anyways. Pledged by Alexandra Robbins is pretty good, too.

    By Blogger Matt Gray, at 1:13 PM  

  • The Web: Fifteen years of browsing
    CHICAGO, Dec. 28 (UPI) -- Fifteen years ago this Christmas week, Tim Berners-Lee, an obscure scientist working in a European laboratory, invented the Internet browser, now a fixture of the digital economy, experts tell United Press International's The Web.

    Sir Berners-Lee today still lives a simple professor's lifestyle, bicycling around town, as his browser was supplanted by the Mosaic browser developed by a college student, Marc Andreessen at the University of Illinois, a few years later. Andreessen's invention led to the creation of Netscape, the Netscape Navigator and other technologies that enervated to the go-go 1990s run in investment in technology on Wall Street and the creation of millions of jobs and hundreds of Internet companies here and abroad, including now household-names eBay.com and Amazon.com. By Gene Koprowski

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:41 PM  

  • Wireless World: Carriers losing focus?
    Wireless carriers have lost their focus and are concentrating on the wrong priorities, like trying to recruit as many new subscribers as possible, rather than properly serving those customers they have already contracted with, experts tell United Press International's Wireless World.
    Mobile-phone-network operators are under competing pressures this year. New technologies are coming to market, like 3G cellular networks, next-generation network Internet Protocol multimedia subsystems -- so called NGN/IMS technologies. By Gene Koprowski

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:20 AM  

  • Hi,

    Interesting books, I have started an idea about creating a school focusing on the future.

    Here is the structure of the school:

    http://future.wikicities.com/wiki/School_of_futurology

    If you have some money to fund this project let me know! It`s a good cause!

    By Blogger http://future.wikia.com/wiki/User:Jonano, at 9:29 PM  

  • [nodding]
    Oh, no, no... this list is not complete. There are several sheeps missing! Remember I still wait for your review in Amazon. It will make all the difference. Please.
    [/nodding]

    "Sheep Slide! Sheep Collide!" :D

    I´d really like to read Ray´s book. If I ever get it. Not just for translation purposes, but for I want like to work -seriously- on a connection between his ideas and the ancient mayans´. I have the concept in mind, ready to be deployed, even without his book in hands. But I can´t go any further without it (neither with this little time of mine lately, but that´s another story).

    Who knows? Maybe you´ll end up reading my book and recommending it (with the sheeps too)!!! ;-)

    By Blogger Gisela Giardino, at 8:24 PM  

  • Looks like everyon is in line for an email, who reads the same books. I love it here.
    Steve, I think you might like this:
    http://www.theflockingparty.com
    Let me know what you think.
    Cheers,
    Chris

    By Blogger chrislandau, at 10:20 PM  

  • Two of my favorites are Marc Reisner's Cadillac Dessert--with it's comment of just how involved government is in economic development, and Wondercillin.

    lilienfeld@comcast.net

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:16 PM  

  • Tuesday, 18 April 2006

    You might consider using LibraryThing (http://www.librarything.com/) to catalog your books and track your reading.

    By Blogger Jay Dugger, at 6:41 AM  

  • Hello,

    out of curiosity, in what sense, or how, do you imply Popper as part of "latest version of evolving thought" in relation to Kurzweil?

    "but I generally recommend the latest version of evolving thought (with a nod to Popper).

    Kindest Regards

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:28 AM  

  • Oh, it was a reference to the philosophy of Karl Popper. I would summarize him as saying: there is no truth, just a perpetual evolutionary process in the scientific method for approaching truth and making progress in understanding.

    So, with that in mind, I was simply recommending Kurzweil's latest book as it will reflect his latest thinking as the ideas continue to evolve.

    By Blogger Steve Jurvetson, at 12:06 PM  

  • I havent had the time to read a book ok - a novel in a very looonng time!!!

    By Blogger Unknown, at 5:00 PM  

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