For Honors Students: Life, Universe, and Everything This section contains links to textbooks, books, and articles in digital libraries of several publishers (Springer, Elsevier, Wiley, etc.). Most links will work without login on any campus (or remotely using the institution’s VPN) where the institution (company) subscribes to those digital libraries. For De Gruyter and the associated university presses (Chicago, Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, etc.) you may have to go through your institution’s library portal first. A red title indicates an excellent item, and a blue title indicates a very good (often introductory) item. A purple year of publication is a warning sign. Titles of Open Access (free access) items are colored green. The library is being converted to conform to the university virtual library model that I developed. This section of the library was updated on 06 September 2021. Professor Joseph Vaisman Computer Science and Engineering Department NYU Tandon School of Engineering This section (and the library as a whole) is a free resource published under Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license: You can share – copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format under the following terms: Attribution, NonCommercial, and NoDerivatives. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Copyright 2021 Joseph Vaisman Table of Contents Food for Thought Books Articles Web Biographies Novels, Essays, and Quotations On writing What is life? Emergence The Anthropic Principle Universe Lies, damned lies What is truth? The Two Cultures A little bit of maths It’s about time Information everywhere A little bit of computing What is computation? A little bit of artificial intelligence Turing: Can computers think? Searle: Can computers understand? Is the brain a computer? Perception Cognition Embodied cognition Books Articles Metaphors The Whorfian Hypothesis Consciousness Computers in Arts and Humanities A little bit of philosophy A little bit of psychology A little bit of history A little bit of physics Nature A little bit of economics, business, and management About design A little bit of engineering A little bit of technology Technology and society A little bit of cybernetics Culture & Cultural and Social Norms About semiotics Books Articles Human sexuality in culture and society Books Articles Web Human Trafficking & Sex Work Age of Consent Havelock Ellis What is this thing called love? Human-Robot Intimate Relationships Books Articles Web Ironies of Automation Ideas, Opinions, and Surveys Law Sustainability Odds & Ends Food for Thought ========================================== Books ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Adventure Diffusion: From Meandering Molecules to the Spreading of Plants, Humans, and Ideas Gero Vogl Springer, 2019, ISBN 978-0-030-04681-1 https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04681-1 The Aeneid; Revised and Expanded Edition Vergil Translated by Sarah Ruden Yale University Press, 2021, eISBN 978-0-300-14829-9 https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5vkqqq https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.12987/9780300258752/html Ancestral DNA, Human Origins, and Migrations Rene J. Herrera and Ralph Garcia-Bertrand Elsevier, 2018, ISBN 978-0-12-804124-6 https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/C2015-0-01157-1 The Ape that Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve Steve Stewart-Williams Cambridge University Press, 2018, ISBN 9781108348140 https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/9781108348140 The Architect's Brain: Neuroscience, Creativity, and Architecture Harry Francis Mallgrave Wiley, 2010, ISBN 9781444317275 https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781444317275 Argumentation: The Art of Persuasion Raymond S. Nickerson Cambridge University Press, 2021, ISBN 9781108892032 https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/9781108892032 The Beauty and Fascination of Science Anatoly L. Buchachenko Springer, 2020, ISBN 978-981-15-2592-6 https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2592-6 Bedeviled: A Shadow History of Demons in Science Jimena Canales Princeton University Press, 2020, ISBN 978-0-691-18607-8 https://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9780691186078 Before the Collapse: A Guide to the Other Side of Growth Ugo Bardi Springer, 2020, ISBN 978-3-030-29038-2 https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29038-2 The Beginning of Heaven and Earth Has No Name: Seven Days with Second-Order Cybernetics Heinz von Foerster Fordham University Press, 2014, eISBN 978-0-8232-5563-4 https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt13wzw8d https://muse.jhu.edu/book/27195 https://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9780823255634 Beyond the Brain: How Body and Environment Shape Animal and Human Minds Louise Barrett Princeton University Press, 2011, ISBN 978-1-4008-3834-9 https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7rvqf https://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9781400838349 Big (Wo)men, Tyrants, Chiefs, Dictators, Emperors and Presidents: Towards the Mathematical Understanding of Social Groups Francesco dell'Isola Springer, 2019, ISBN 978-981-13-9479-9 https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9479-9 Cells to Civilizations: The Principles of Change That Shape Life Enrico Coen Princeton University Press, 2012, eISBN 978-1-4008-4165-3 https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7tcdc https://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9781400841653 The Challenge of Chance: A Multidisciplinary Approach from Science and the Humanities Klaas Landsman and Ellen van Wolde (Editors) Springer, 2016, ISBN 978-3-319-26300-7 https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26300-7 Cognitive Superiority: Information to Power Dean S. Hartley III and Kenneth O. Jobson Springer, 2021, ISBN 978-3-030-60184-3 https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60184-3 Common Sense (1776) Thomas Paine https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_e0oqAAAAYAAJ/page/n3/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/commonsense50pain/page/n1/mode/2up Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Paine The Computability of the World: How Far Can Science Take Us? Bend-Olaf Kuppers Springer, 2018, ISBN 978-3-319-67369-1 https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67369-1 Confessions of the Pricing Man: How Price Affects Everything Hermann Simon Springer, 2015, ISBN 978-3-319-20400-0 https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20400-0 Confucius: THE ANALECTS Adapted and illustrated by C. C. Tsai Translated by Brian Bruya Princeton University Press, 2018, ISBN 978-1-4008-9040-8 https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvc77m8h https://dx.doi.org/10.1525/9780520974715 The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms; Second Edition Margaret A. Boden Taylor & Francis, 2004, ISBN 9780203508527 https://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203508527 Criminal Genius: A Portrait of High-IQ Offenders James C. Oleson University of California Press, 2016, ISBN 978-0-520-95809-8 https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1df4gj1 https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1525/9780520958098/html Critical Transitions in Nature and Society Marten Scheffer Princeton University Press, 2009, eISBN 978-1-4008-3327-6 https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv173f1g1 https://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9781400833276 Crooked Thinking or Straight Talk? Modernizing Epicurean Scientific Philosophy Ken Binmore Springer, 2020, ISBN 978-3-030-39547-6 https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39547-6 Data Loam: Sometimes Hard, Usually Soft. The Future of Knowledge Systems Johnny Golding, Martin Reinhart, and Mattia Paganelli (Editors) De Gruyter, 2021, ISBN 9783110697841 https://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9783110697841 The Dawn of Science: Glimpses from History for the Curious Mind Thanu Padmanabhan and Vasanthi Padmanabhan Springer, 2019, ISBN 978-3-030-17509-2 https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17509-2 Imaginary Philosophical Dialogues between Sages down the Ages Kenneth Binmore Springer, 2021, ISBN 978-3-030-65387-3 https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65387-3 Cube Farm Bill Blunden Springer, 2004, ISBN 978-1-4302-0755-9 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4302-0755-9 Cybernics: Fusion of human, machine and information systems Yosiyuki Sankai, Kenji Suzuki, and Yasuhisa Hasegawa (Editors) Springer, 2014, ISBN 978-4-431-54159-2 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-54159-2 Darwin's Unfinished Symphony: How Culture Made the Human Mind Kevin N. Laland Princeton University Press, 2017, eISBN 978-0-691-18447-0 https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv39x6r5 https://dx.doi.org/10.23943/9780691184470 Darwinizing Culture: The Status of Memetics as a Science Robert Aunger (Editor) Oxford University Press, 2001, ISBN 9780192632449 https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780192632449.001.0001 Data Democracy: At the nexus of artificial intelligence, software development, and knowledge engineering Feras A. Batarseh and Ruixin Yang (Editors) Elsevier, 2020, ISBN 978-0-12-818366-3 https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/C2018-0-04003-7 Digital Decision Making: Back to the Future Ray Corrigan Springer, 2007, ISBN 978-1-84628-673-5 https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84628-673-5 The Discrete Charm of the Machine: Why the World Became Digital Kenneth Steiglitz and Ken Steiglitz Princeton University Press, 2019, ISBN 9780691184173 https://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9780691184173 Emotions and the Body Beatrice de Gelder Oxford University Press, 2016, ISBN 9780195374346 https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195374346.001.0001 Energy, Complexity and Wealth Maximization Robert Ayres Springer, 2016, ISBN 978-3-319-30545-5 https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30545-5 Book Review by Daniel Nachtigall Journal of Economics, Volume 121, Issue 2 (June 2017) https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00712-017-0539-3 The Engine of Complexity: Evolution as Computation John E. Mayfield Columbia University Press, 2013, eISBN 978-0-231-53528-1 https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/mayf16304 Review by Chris Adami https://dx.doi.org/10.1086/679929 Review by David Krakauer https://www.jstor.org/stable/90006670 Engineering Happiness: A New Approach for Building a Joyful Life Manel Baucells and Rakesh Sarin University of California Press, 2012, eISBN 978-0-520-95142-6 https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1pnj1c https://dx.doi.org/10.1525/9780520951426 The Escape of the Mind Howard Rachlin Oxford University Press, 2014, ISBN 9780199322350 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199322350.001.0001 The Evolution of Imagination Stephen T.