Current Reading
The Axemaker's Gift
Burke, a commentator on popular science, and Ornstein, head of The Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge, offer the thesis that human toolmaking, operating in concert with natural selection, has created a powerful feedback loop that has changed the nature of human evolution. Just started it (1/99), but already lots of very interesting, and controversial, ideas...
How the Mind Works
Pinker, an MIT professor of psychology, advances the computational theory of mind in this important work. Pinker argues that Darwinian selection has operated on the structures of the mind as surely as it has operated on the structures of the body. This is no "Bell Curve" or re-warmed eugenics: it is a long, rigorous, closely reasoned hypothesis with numerous examples of experimental validation of the concepts. Mind has evolved to help the hunter-gatherer survive (humans have been hunter-gatherers for more than 99% of their history), and Pinker goes through the full human cognitive "feature set", and its implications in great detail.
Pinker avoids the emotional, shallow debate that accompanies any notion that some traits are heritable. Instead he focuses on the mind's structures, their likely selection-driven path to the present, their utility and some thoughts about their consequences. Cognition is considered at great length: Pinker posits that cognition is a new niche, and ours to do with as we will. He sharply divides the moral and the scientific, noting that the need for morality and ethics is real, but a completely separate issue from the selection pressures that shaped heredity.
Likely to be contoversial because it offers much to refute almost every pet theory of humanity, from religious to bigotted to radical, in favor of close, scientific reasoning. This work may be to the topic of the mind, as "Origin of Species" was to the topic of biology. Highly recommended.
Mind Matters
Currently reading
Hogan explores the computational theory of mind and its implications for artificial intelligence.
The Human Mind Explained
Currently reading
A very pretty and useful primer to the human mind, in the style of Scientific American.
Data Smog
Currently reading
Infinite in All Directions
Currently reading
Dyson's lecture series at a Scottish University. Recommended as one of the best primers to the future.
Linux
Based on the Caldera OpenLinux distribution, this is a massive and very useful reference work for the newcomer to Linux. This is a big and useful walk through almost everything conceivably needed to get a Linux machine up and running, written sufficiently lucidly that a relative new comer, with mainstream computer skills, can master this very powerful, free operating system.
Fermat's Enigma
This is a well-written and compelling narrative of the events leading up to mathematician Andrew Wile's proof of the 350-year-old problem known as Fermat's Last Theorem. The book delves into the lives of the quirky, driven geniuses who advanced the problem over 3 centuries - men and women who scribbled brilliant math when not being chased by mobs in revolutionary France, dying in duels or committing suicide. The book converges on the high drama of Wile's quest, tracing his 8-year solo effort, the short-lived triumph of his first, flawed proof, and the year of angst before he finally assembled the last elusive threads of a proof that is widely hailed as an important advance in the field of number theory.
Release 2.0
Most critics of this book have settled on complaining about how "nice" Esther Dyson is, as if that was a reason not to pay close attention to the words of a practicing visionary. It's always harder, and riskier, to create than to critique. Most futurists consider Dyson's work a must-read, so here we go. What is it about the Dyson family, one wonders? (see below). The Release 2.0 Web site offers exerpts, links, discussion and the Esther-Bot.
Darwin Among the Machines
This is a truly fascinating book that will rivet anyone interested in the topics of machine and human intelligence. Dyson posits that machine intelligence is not only likely, but completely outside of human control, and already in progress. The author draws on numerous close analogies to animal evolution and the words of thinkers centuries old to advance the position that machine intelligence is not only inevitable, but likely to advance with great speed and in directions unfathomable to humans. Highly recommended.
Overdrive
Picked this book up a while ago and haven't gotten around to reading it yet. Microsoft's recent DOJ problems (and allegations that Microsoft really didn't "miss" the Internet) renewed my interest. Wallace, a writer at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, did a good job on Hard Drive, his chronicle of the young Bill Gates and Microsoft's rocket ride to prominence. Overdrive picks up in 1992 and tells the story of Microsoft's rise to near-monopoly and it's sudden turn to try and co-opt the Internet.
Apache
Amusingly written, this new guide walks the UNIX webmaster through all the arcania of installing, configuring and administering Apache, the most popular Web server software on the Net today. You'll learn tha it's called Apache because the many authors of this freeware created "a patchy server" via repeated hacks and patches. The Lauries steer us surely and steadily through Apache's thicket of features, near-features, gotchas and bugs, and provide useful insights into running and securing a modern Web site. Highly recommended to newbie UNIX webmasters, too!
DNS and BIND
The quintessential document explaining DNS, Domain Name Service, and BIND, the Berkeley Internet Name Doman software. The book explains the theory and practice of the Internet's Domain Name System, and covers setting up and running a Domain Name Server using BIND. The book is very detailed, and moves in small, understandable steps through a thicket of theory and practice. There are very detailed instructions for configuring DNS, and considerations of practical administration, security, limitations, best practices and more. Essential webmaster reading if you have to run DNS.
The Linux Internet Server
A bible-like tome covering setting up a full-service Internet sight using Linux. Chapters start with installing the OS on an Intel-based clone and then jump into setting up Net services like a web server, ftp site, mail and more. Lots of good, practical how-tos covering the Apache Web server software, security and hosting issues, HTML management and much, much more. Very handy as a reference for a budding ISP. Geared to the PC, but very useful to a MkLinux user as well. Includes the Slackware 96 CD distribution of Linux.
Linux Unleashed
Also a bible-like tome covering installing, running and learning Linux, a UNIX clone for Intel-based PCs. Lots of good how-to chapters on things like shells, running X-windows, networking, running a Web site, UNIX administartion and more. Geared to the PC, but very useful to a MkLinux user as well. Includes the Slackware 96 CD distribution of Linux.
MkLinux
A collaborative manual bundled with 2 Prime Time Freeware CD's holding everything you need to turn a PowerMac into a UNIX clone monster. Ohh! That 601 or 604 RISC chip can really burn with a powerful UNIX OS running on it. The best parts of the manual cover installation (remarkably easy) and first steps in getting a MkLinux machine up and running. You'll also need a UNIX (or better) Linux manual if you're a UNIX newbie, like me and want to explore the OS.
Holy Fire
Sterling's craft mounts to its highest peak in this engrossing tale of the near future, as the first generation of people to face immortality grapple with their world, their technology and its consequences. Streling's ever-improving writing skill is well matched to an intricate story line chronicling human nature coming to grips with the notion of a post-human world.
Family
A wonderfully crafted history of Frazier's ancestors from their arrival
in America to the recent deaths of his parents. Frazier's ancestors' lives
are recreated from letters, county records, newspaper clippings and interviews
and told with Frazier's flare for quirky, illuminating juxtaposition. Their
collected tales stand as the story of young America growing up.
Net Chick - A Smart Girl Guide to the Wired World
Carla Sinclair
James Burke and Robert Ornstein
Grosset/Putnam
Steven Pinker
W.W. Norton and Co.
James P. Hogan
Del Rey/Ballantine Books
Susan A. Greenfield, Editor
Henry Holt
Surviving the Information Glut
David Shenk
Harper San Francisco
Freeman Dyson
Penguin
The Complete Reference
Richard Petersen
Osborne/McGraw Hill
The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem
Simon Singh
Walker and Company
A design for living in the digital age
Esther Dyson
Broadway Books
The Evolution of Global Intelligence
George B. Dyson
Addison-Wesley
Bill Gates and the race to control cyberspace
James Wallace
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
The definitive guide
Ben Laurie and Peter Laurie
O'Reilly and Associates
Paul Albitz and Cricket Liu
O'Reilly and Associates
Kevin Reichard
The MIS: Press
2nd Edition
Kamran Hussein, Timothy Parher, et al.
SAMS
Microkernel Linux for the Power Macintosh
Rich Morin, Editor
Prime Time Freeware
Recently read:
Bruce Sterling
Bantam Spectra
Read and enjoyed:
Ian Frazier
HarperPerennial
Henry
Holt and Co.
Card-carrying cybergrrrl Carla Sinclair goes from delivering bits to
delivering atoms, in a book that celebrates women who fearlessly explore,
investigate, shred and overwhelm the Net, and offers parallel, multi-threaded
paths down which neophytes and newbies can rush, following the footsteps
of women who have ripped digital space from the sweaty grip of boy nerds.
Back off Bill Gates!
The Nisus Way
Joe Kissell
MIS: Press
In Joe Kissell, author of The Nisus Way, one finds a person who is positively
passionate about Nisus
Writer, a word processor for the Macintosh. His tome is a complete
and detailed guide to a very large and complex program which numbers among
the best (if not best-known) of its kind. The Nisus Way is lovingly crafted
by a true expert in the program, and is packed with the kinds of labor-saving
tips, tricks and workarounds that users drool to learn.
The Trouble with Computers
Thomas K. Landauer
The MIT Press
Landauer tackles the reasons why computers have shown up everywhere but
in the list of reasons for higher productivity. This books comes well-recommended
as a must-read for people in the computer industry.
Being Digital
Nicholas Negroponte
Knopf hardcover
While it didn't wow the NY Times reviewer, Negroponte's book has become
a best seller. The author reiterates themes he's long espoused, and offers
one of the most coherent visions of what the future of our wired planet
may be. Required reading, a mon avis.
Heavy Weather
Bruce Sterling
Bantam Specter
Sterling, co-author of The Difference Engine and author of Hacker
Crackdown, offers the near-future tale of a nearly-wrecked planet.
This taut tale tracks a band of weather freaks who hack monster storms unleashed
by a ruined ecology, amidst a landscape strewn with examples of 20th century
culture extrapolated to its mad end.
Insanely Great
The life and times of Macintosh, the computer that changed everything
Steven Levy
Penguin Paperback
Levy's skilled, dispassionate reporting chronicles an incredible act of
creation. The luck, genius and near-disasters that resulted in the Mac are
clearly laid out in this book. Follows nicely onto Hackers. Catch
Levy's departing column in MacWorld, particularly if you work for Apple.
Excerpt from Insanely Great.
The Diamond Age
Neal Stephenson
Bantam hardcover
Stephenson's new novel is an epic, beautifully crafted tale that shows the
author maturing and developing the intriguing themes first raised in Snow
Crash. Of particular interest to me was the notion of biological and
genetic computing. Stephenson also shows the intriguing potential of nanotechnology,
furthers the theme of linked human and machine computing, and not incidentally,
creates a stunning, plausible near-future world.
Hackers
Steven Levy
Delta Paperback
History of the hacker culture and how "The Hacker Ethic" has shaped
the computer industry. This is an epic work, recounting hacking from its
inception in punch-card days at MIT. Good background for my new job at Apple.
Snow Crash
Neal Stephenson
Bantam paperback
The cyberpunk classic. Introduces the Metaverse - tbe virtual-reality successor
to the Internet, the apparent inspiration for Adam Curry's Metaverse.com.
Very readable sci-fi... Stephenson's protagonist compares thoughts to viruses
(religion is a human mental virus akin to a computer virus). Interesting
parrallels to Minsky (see below).
The Art Historian's Computer
Lillian Schwartz
Scientific American, April 1995 issue
How art historians are answering riddles about ancient works of art using
digital imaging and other techniques. The author offers insites into mysteries
like who was the model for the Mona Lisa (a Leonardo self-portrait, if cut
and flipped matches perfectly with her face) and gives an insight into the
tools used by modern art researchers. (Scientific American is available
on America Online).
This page was last built with Frontier on a Macintosh on Mon, Jun 26, 2000 at 10:15:39 PM.
