BLR 02-08-10 100+ Must-Read Books A. Biographies 1. ET Bell
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Technology & Computer Science
The Latticework: Technology & Computer Science The Latticework: Technology & Computer Science 1 The Latticework: Technology & Computer Science What I noted since the really big ideas carry 95% of the freight, it wasn’t at all hard for me to pick up all the big ideas from all the big disciplines and make them a standard part of my mental routines. Once you have the ideas, of course, they are no good if you don’t practice – if you don’t practice you lose it. So, I went through life constantly practicing this model of the multidisciplinary approach. Well, I can’t tell you what that’s done for me. It’s made life more fun, it’s made me more constructive, it’s made me more helpful to others, it’s made me enormously rich, you name it, that attitude really helps… …It doesn’t help you just to know them enough just so you can give them back on an exam and get an A. You have to learn these things in such a way that they’re in a mental latticework in your head and you automatically use them for the rest of your life. – Charlie Munger, 2007 USC Gould School of Law Commencement Speech 2 The Latticework: Technology & Computer Science Technology & Computer Science Technology has been the overriding tidal wave in the last several centuries (maybe millennia, if tools like plows and horse bridles are considered) and understanding the fundamentals in this field can be helpful in seeing the patterns behind these innovations, how they were arrived at, and their potential impacts. -
Reading List
EECS 101 Introduction to Computer Science Dinda, Spring, 2009 An Introduction to Computer Science For Everyone Reading List Note: You do not need to read or buy all of these. The syllabus and/or class web page describes the required readings and what books to buy. For readings that are not in the required books, I will either provide pointers to web documents or hand out copies in class. Books David Harel, Computers Ltd: What They Really Can’t Do, Oxford University Press, 2003. Fred Brooks, The Mythical Man-month: Essays on Software Engineering, 20th Anniversary Edition, Addison-Wesley, 1995. Joel Spolsky, Joel on Software: And on Diverse and Occasionally Related Matters That Will Prove of Interest to Software Developers, Designers, and Managers, and to Those Who, Whether by Good Fortune or Ill Luck, Work with Them in Some Capacity, APress, 2004. Most content is available for free from Spolsky’s Blog (see http://www.joelonsoftware.com) Paul Graham, Hackers and Painters, O’Reilly, 2004. See also Graham’s site: http://www.paulgraham.com/ Martin Davis, The Universal Computer: The Road from Leibniz to Turing, W.W. Norton and Company, 2000. Ted Nelson, Computer Lib/Dream Machines, 1974. This book is now very rare and very expensive, which is sad given how visionary it was. Simon Singh, The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography, Anchor, 2000. Douglas Hofstadter, Goedel, Escher, Bach: The Eternal Golden Braid, 20th Anniversary Edition, Basic Books, 1999. Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig, Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, 2nd Edition, Prentice Hall, 2003. -
The Life and Science of Richard Feynman, by James Gleick
16. Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman, by James Gleick From the author of the national bestseller Chaos comes an outstanding biography of one of the most dazzling and flamboyant scientists of the 20th century that "not only paints a highly attractive portrait of Feynman but also . makes for a stimulating adventure in the annals of science" 15. “Surely You’re Joking, Mr Feynman!” by Richard Feynman and Ralph Leighton Richard Feynman, winner of the Nobel Prize in physics, thrived on outrageous adventures. Here he recounts in his inimitable voice his experience trading ideas on atomic physics with Einstein and Bohr and ideas on gambling with Nick the Greek; cracking the uncrackable safes guarding the most deeply held nuclear secrets; accompanying a ballet on his bongo drums; painting a naked female toreador. In short, here is Feynman's life in all its eccentric―a combustible mixture of high intelligence, unlimited curiosity, and raging chutzpah. 14. D Day – Through German Eyes, The Hidden Story of June 6th 1944, by Holger Eckhertz Almost all accounts of D Day are told from the Allied perspective, with the emphasis on how German resistance was overcome on June 6th 1944. But what was it like to be a German soldier in the bunkers and gun emplacements of the Normandy coast, facing the onslaught of the mightiest seaborne invasion in history? What motivated the German defenders, what were their thought processes - and how did they fight from one strong point to another, among the dunes and fields, on that first cataclysmic day? What were their experiences on facing the tanks, the flamethrowers and the devastating air superiority of the Allies? This book sheds fascinating light on these questions, bringing together statements made by German survivors after the war, when time had allowed them to reflect on their state of mind, their actions and their choices of June 6th. -
Review of Le Ton Beau De Marot
Journal of Translation, Volume 4, Number 1 (2008) 7 Book Review Le Ton Beau de Marot: In Praise of the Music of Language. By Douglas R. Hofstadter New York: Basic Books, 1997. Pp. 632. Paper $29.95. ISBN 0465086454. Reviewed by Milton Watt SIM International Introduction Busy translators may not have much time to read in the area of literary translation, but there are some valuable books in that field that can help us in the task of Bible translation. One such book is Le Ton Beau de Marot by Douglas Hofstadter. This book will allow you to look at translation from a fresh perspective by way of various models, using terms or categories you may not have thought of, or realized. Some specific translation techniques will challenge you to think through how you translate, such as intentionally creating a non-natural sounding text at times to give it the flavor of the original text. This book is particularly pertinent for those who are translating poetry and wrestling with the occasional tension between form and meaning. The author of Le Ton Beau de Marot, Douglas Hofstadter, is most known for his 1979 Pulitzer prize- winning book Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (1979) that propelled him to legendary status in the mathematical/computer intellectual community. Hofstadter is a professor of Cognitive Science and Computer Science at Indiana University in Bloomington and is the director of the Center for Research on Concepts and Cognition, where he studies the mechanisms of analogy and creativity. Hofstadter was drawn to write Le Ton Beau de Marot because of his knowledge of many languages, his fascination with the complexities of translation, and his experiences of having had his book Gödel, Escher, Bach translated. -
A Reading List for Undergraduate Mathematics Majors: a Personal View Paul Froeschl University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal Issue 8 Article 12 7-1-1993 A Reading List for Undergraduate Mathematics Majors: A Personal View Paul Froeschl University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.claremont.edu/hmnj Part of the Mathematics Commons Recommended Citation Froeschl, Paul (1993) "A Reading List for Undergraduate Mathematics Majors: A Personal View," Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal: Iss. 8, Article 12. Available at: http://scholarship.claremont.edu/hmnj/vol1/iss8/12 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Claremont at Scholarship @ Claremont. It has been accepted for inclusion in Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal by an authorized administrator of Scholarship @ Claremont. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A Reading List for Undergraduate Mathematics Majors A Personal View PaulFroeschJ University ofMinnesota Minneapolis, MN This has been a reflective year. Early in 4. Science and Hypothesis, Henri Poincare. September I realized that Jwas starting my twenty- fifth year of college teaching. Those days and 5. A Mathematician 's Apol0D'.GR. Hardy. years of teaching were ever present in my mind One day in class I mentioned a book (I forget 6. HistOO' of Mathematics. Carl Boyer. which one now) that I thought my students There are perhaps more thorough histories, (mathematics majors) should read before but for ease of reference and early graduating. One of them asked for a list of such accessibility for nascent mathematics books-awonderfully reflective idea! majors this histoty is best, One list was impossible, but three lists 7. HistorY of Calculus, Carl Boyer. -
A Brief History of Stephen Hawking's Blockbuster
COMMENT BOOKS & ARTS IAN BERRY/MAGNUM PHOTOS IAN BERRY/MAGNUM Stephen Hawking and colleagues at the University of Cambridge in the 1980s, before the publication of A Brief History of Time. PUBLISHING A brief history of Stephen Hawking’s blockbuster Elizabeth Leane surveys the extraordinary influence of the physicist’s first foray into popular-science publishing. owards the end of The Theory of rarely reach the million mark, and are usu- History of Time is not, as is sometimes Everything, the 2014 film about ally much lower. So this is an astounding claimed, unprecedented. There were Stephen Hawking, scenes depict the achievement for a science book aimed at nineteenth-century science blockbusters Treception of his popular science classic, A the non-scientist, and especially for one such as mathematician Mary Somerville’s Brief History of Time (1988). The camera that grapples with the some of the biggest 1834 On the Connexion of the Physical zooms in on a large display of the book in questions in physics — the Big Bang, black Sciences (see R. Holmes Nature 514, 432– a shop window; fans crowd the physicist- holes, a ‘theory of everything’ and the nature 433; 2014). And in 1930, physicist James author, hoping that he will autograph their of time. As Hawking entertainingly related Jeans’ The Mysterious Universe achieved a copies. Future events are outlined in the in a 2013 essay in The Wall Street Journal, comparable reception to Hawking’s book film’s closing titles: the first relates not to he rewrote A Brief History repeatedly at (in Britain, at least); the jacket of the 1937 the ongoing impact of Hawking’s scientific the behest of his editor, Peter Guzzardi at Pelican edition promotes it as “the famous achievements or the challenges of living Bantam, to make it more understandable to book which upset tradition by making with motor neuron disease, but to the sales a lay readership. -
Douglas R. Hofstadter: Extras
Presidential Lectures: Douglas R. Hofstadter: Extras Once upon a time, I was invited to speak at an analogy workshop in the legendary city of Sofia in the far-off land of Bulgaria. Having accepted but wavering as to what to say, I finally chose to eschew technicalities and instead to convey a personal perspective on the importance and centrality of analogy-making in cognition. One way I could suggest this perspective is to rechant a refrain that I’ve chanted quite oft in the past, to wit: One should not think of analogy-making as a special variety of reasoning (as in the dull and uninspiring phrase “analogical reasoning and problem-solving,” a long-standing cliché in the cognitive-science world), for that is to do analogy a terrible disservice. After all, reasoning and problem-solving have (at least I dearly hope!) been at long last recognized as lying far indeed from the core of human thought. If analogy were merely a special variety of something that in itself lies way out on the peripheries, then it would be but an itty-bitty blip in the broad blue sky of cognition. To me, however, analogy is anything but a bitty blip — rather, it’s the very blue that fills the whole sky of cognition — analogy is everything, or very nearly so, in my view. End of oft-chanted refrain. If you don’t like it, you won’t like what follows. The thrust of my chapter is to persuade readers of this unorthodox viewpoint, or failing that, at least to give them a strong whiff of it. -
The Ubiquity of Analogy in Mathematical Thought Douglas R
THE FIELDS INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH IN MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES The Nathan and Beatrice Keyfitz Lectures in Mathematics and the Social Sciences The Ubiquity of Analogy in Mathematical Thought Douglas R. Hofstadter, Indiana University March 21, 2013 — 6:00 p.m. Room 610, Health Sciences Building, University of Toronto Mathematicians generally like to present their work in the wraps of extreme rigor and pure logic. This professional posture is in some ways very admirable. However, where do their ideas really come from? Do they strictly follow the straight-and-narrow pathways of pure, rigorous, logical axiomatic deduction in order to reach their often astonishing conclusions? No. This talk will be about how deeply and universally mathematical thought, at all levels of sophistication, is riddled with impure, nonrigorous, illogical intuitions originating in analogies, often highly unconscious ones. Some of these analogies are good and some of them are bad, but good or bad, it is they that lurk behind the scenes of all mathematical thought. What is curious, to my mind, is that so few mathematicians seem to take pleasure in examining and exploring this crucial and wonderful aspect of their minds, their thoughts, and their deep discoveries. Perhaps, however, they can be stimulated to examine their own hidden thinking processes if the ubiquity of analogies can be made sufficiently vivid as to grab their interest. About Douglas Hofstadter Douglas R. Hofstadter is an American professor of cognitive science whose research focuses on the sense of “I”, consciousness, analogy-making, artistic creation, literary translation, and discovery in mathematics and physics. He is best known for his book Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid, first published in 1979. -
The Histories and Origins of Memetics
Betwixt the Popular and Academic: The Histories and Origins of Memetics Brent K. Jesiek Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Science in Science and Technology Studies Gary L. Downey (Chair) Megan Boler Barbara Reeves May 20, 2003 Blacksburg, Virginia Keywords: discipline formation, history, meme, memetics, origin stories, popularization Copyright 2003, Brent K. Jesiek Betwixt the Popular and Academic: The Histories and Origins of Memetics Brent K. Jesiek Abstract In this thesis I develop a contemporary history of memetics, or the field dedicated to the study of memes. Those working in the realm of meme theory have been generally concerned with developing either evolutionary or epidemiological approaches to the study of human culture, with memes viewed as discrete units of cultural transmission. At the center of my account is the argument that memetics has been characterized by an atypical pattern of growth, with the meme concept only moving toward greater academic legitimacy after significant development and diffusion in the popular realm. As revealed by my analysis, the history of memetics upends conventional understandings of discipline formation and the popularization of scientific ideas, making it a novel and informative case study in the realm of science and technology studies. Furthermore, this project underscores how the development of fields and disciplines is thoroughly intertwined with a larger social, cultural, and historical milieu. Acknowledgments I would like to take this opportunity to thank my family, friends, and colleagues for their invaluable encouragement and assistance as I worked on this project. -
Books Recommended by Williams Faculty
Books Students Should Read In the summer of 2009, Williams faculty members were asked to list three books they felt that students should read. This request was deliberately a bit ambiguous. Some interpreted the request as listing "the three best books", some as "books that inspired them when young" and still others as "books recently read that are really good". There is little doubt that many of the following faculty would list different books if asked on a different day. But there is also little doubt that this is a list of a lot of great books for everyone. American Studies Dorothy Wang 1. James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son 2. Giacomo Leopardi, Thoughts 3. Henry David Thoreau, Walden Anthropology and Sociology Michael Brown 1. Evan S. Connell, Son of the Morning Star: Custer and the Little Bighorn 2. Mario Vargas Llosa, Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter 3. Claude Lévi-Strauss, Tristes Tropiques Antonia Foias 1. Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel 2. Linda Schele and David Freidel, Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya Robert Jackall, 1. Homer, The Illiad and The Odyssey (translated by Robert Fizgerald) 2. Thucydides (Robert B. Strassler, editor) , The Peloponnesian War. The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War. 2. John Edward Williams, Augustus: A Novel Peter Just 1. The Bible 2. Bhagavad-Gita 3. Frederick Engels and Karl Marx, Communist Manifesto Olga Shevchenko 1. Joseph Brodsky, Less than One 2. Anne Fadiman, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down 3. William Strunk and E. B. White, Elements of Style Art and Art History Ed Epping 1. -
The New York Times Book of Mathematics Reviewed by Ian Stewart
Book Review The New York Times Book of Mathematics Reviewed by Ian Stewart an order that helps to The New York Times Book of Mathematics tell a story—which is, Edited by Gina Kolata after all, what journal- Sterling, 2013 ism is about. US$24.95, 496 pages This choice makes ISBN-13: 978-1402793226 the book far more ac- cessible to the general Mathematicians often complain that their subject reader, though I’m is neglected in the mass media, although when it tempted to photocopy does get reported there always seem to be a few the contents list and of us who find it impossible to resist the urge to shuffle the articles complain bitterly about inaccuracies and “hype”, back into the order which usually seems to mean the promotion of the of publication. Read- area concerned instead of their own. As this sump- ing them in that order tuous volume demonstrates, neither complaint would give a dramatic can sensibly be directed at the New York Times perception of how our subject has changed over [NYT ]. For more than a century this high-quality the last 120 years; however, this comes over any- newspaper has done sterling work in the service way. Paul Hoffman’s foreword and Gina Kolata’s in- of our profession, the public, and the cause of sci- troduction provide concise and helpful overviews ence journalism. of such questions, and the first group of topics This collection contains more than a hundred addresses general issues of what mathematics is NYT articles on mathematics and its applications and what it’s for. -
![Arxiv:1802.06888V1 [Cs.AI] 5 Jan 2018 Superrational Types](https://docslib.b-cdn.net/cover/5089/arxiv-1802-06888v1-cs-ai-5-jan-2018-superrational-types-2545089.webp)
Arxiv:1802.06888V1 [Cs.AI] 5 Jan 2018 Superrational Types
Superrational types Fernando A. Tohm´e 1,2 and Ignacio D. Viglizzo2,3 1Departmento de Econom´ıa, Universidad Nacional del Sur (UNS), Bah´ıa Blanca, Argentina 2Instituto de Matem´atica de Bah´ıa Blanca (INMABB), Universidad Nacional del Sur-CONICET, Bah´ıa Blanca, Argentina 3Departmento de Matem´atica, Universidad Nacional del Sur (UNS), Bah´ıa Blanca, Argentina July 2, 2018 Abstract We present a formal analysis of Douglas Hofstadter’s concept of superrationality. We start by defining superrationally justifiable ac- tions, and study them in symmetric games. We then model the beliefs of the players, in a way that leads them to different choices than the usual assumption of rationality by restricting the range of conceivable choices. These beliefs are captured in the formal notion of type drawn from epistemic game theory. The theory of coalgebras is used to frame type spaces and to account for the existence of some of them. We find conditions that guarantee superrational outcomes. arXiv:1802.06888v1 [cs.AI] 5 Jan 2018 1 Introduction Game Theory has, traditionally assumed that agents make decisions accord- ing to the criterion of full rationality [7]. In contrast to the case of bounded rationality ([24], [21]), agents choose the best actions to achieve their goals without limitations to their ability to do so. The research on behavioral fac- tors in decision-making, initiated by Kahneman and Tversky ([13]) lead to a dearth of results under weaker rationality assumptions. On the other hand, 1 the interest in overcoming “undesirable” results such as inefficient equilibria in social dilemmas lead to alternative concepts, diverging from the rationality assumption [12], [19].