On Intelligence

Fiction: Victory City- new Salman Rushdie book. Great retelling of the history of one of the great medieval South Indian kingdoms. Not his best, but his writing is still top notch. Sea of Tranquility- speculative fiction from Emily St. John Mandel (of Station Eleven fame). It's a series of interconnected stories spanning centuries from the near past to the near future. Beautifully written. Read when I was down with COVID earlier this year and it invaded my dreams (in a good way). Short and easy read. Giovanni's Room- story of an American expat in Paris caught between his love for a man and his duty to his girlfriend. This is the first James Baldwin book I have read but will definitely check out more of his work in 2024. Theory of Bastards- speculative fiction by Audrey Schulmann. Literary sci-fi similar to Station Eleven. It's about a woman researching primate behavior set in the near future where the earth is ravaged by the effects of climate change. Very well researched, beautifully written and nothing like I have ever read before. This won the 2019 Philip K Dick Award.…

On Intelligence, Jeff Hawkins

1. Thinking fast and slow - Kahneman 2. Godel, Escher and Bach - Hofstadter 3. On Intelligence - Jeff Hawkins

Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins The Process of Education by Jerome Bruner

Here's my usual list of recommendations, the best books I've read in the past 5 years. Fiction: - Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality If you know nothing about this book you might naturally hesitate to read "Harry Potter fanfiction" and assume that it's dumb/horrbile, but it's not. Just suspend your disbelief and read the first 5-10 chapters. Trust me, it's brilliant, hilarious, and life-changing. - Atlas Shrugged Controversial, I know, a lot of people here hate it for some reason, but it was incredibly influential on me, inspired my passion for entrepreneurship and science and philosophy. Still is one of the best books I am aware of. Nonfiction: - Hackers and Painters by Paul Graham Also a collection of his essays that you can find on github. He is one of the most clever writers I am aware of, but I assume you know that, since you're on HN. - "On Intelligence" by Jeff Hawkins This book explains in simple terms a very awesome and elegant theory on how mind works. Incredibly fascinating, I've learned a lot from it and it explains a lot of things, and will change the way you think about thinking process. - The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins…

On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins

I absolutely 2nd this suggestion! It was really fascinating. There were some dry parts, but mostly I couldn't stop reading (actually, I did the audiobook).

On Intelligence By Jeff Hawkins. http://www.amazon.com/Intelligence-Jeff-Hawkins/dp/080507853... (http://www.amazon.com/Intelligence-Jeff-Hawkins/dp/0805078533/) Hawkins was the founder of both Palm and Handspring, but comes from an academic background where he studied neuropsychology (how the brain works). The book is a thorough look at how the brain experiences the world, with the goal being the creation of artificially intelligent machines. It'll change the way you perceive perception (if that makes any sense).

A third of the way in. While I find it definitely entertaining, and like both the military adventures and geeky bits, I do not—so far—feel actually engaged with it. However this could be because it's hard to read while in bed: tiny type and bulky (at 900+ pages). Recently read "On Intelligence" by Jeff Hawkins. The middle part was quite dense for me, but in the end I gained new appreciation for the AI field, which before really seemed like much pie in the sky nonsense, and after reading this book I am a believer. Gearing up for something completely different now as the 12th installment of the WoT series is coming out in a few weeks.