I found GEB:EGB in a bookstore one holiday after my math teacher recommended it. It was amazing! But you get math, and information theory, and art, and music, and the nature of thought... I gave the book to my best friend 6 months ago. I miss it.
It is made of win, and imho so are you, for liking it.
If you're in the mood for neuroscience and philosophy (of artificial intelligence and natural consciousness (and the possibilities that lie in the space between)) you might check out the works of Peter Watts, specially Blindsight. (Made the Hugo shortlist this year)
From Maelstrom: "They didn't have the parts. Forget about the neocortex or the cerebellum—these things had nothing. No hypothalamus, no pineal gland, no sheathing of mammal over reptile over fish. No instincts. No desires. Just a porridge of cultured neurons, really: four-digit IQs that didn't give a rat's ass whether they even lived or died. Somehow they learned through operant conditioning, although they lacked the capacity either to enjoy reward or suffer punishment. Their pathways formed and dissolved with all the colorless indifference of water shaping a river delta. ... Gels rewired themselves with each passing thought; what good is a map when the landscape won't stop moving?"
no subject
I found GEB:EGB in a bookstore one holiday after my math teacher recommended it. It was amazing! But you get math, and information theory, and art, and music, and the nature of thought... I gave the book to my best friend 6 months ago. I miss it.
It is made of win, and imho so are you, for liking it.
If you're in the mood for neuroscience and philosophy (of artificial intelligence and natural consciousness (and the possibilities that lie in the space between)) you might check out the works of Peter Watts, specially Blindsight. (Made the Hugo shortlist this year)
From Maelstrom:
"They didn't have the parts. Forget about the neocortex or the cerebellum—these things had nothing. No hypothalamus, no pineal gland, no sheathing of mammal over reptile over fish. No instincts. No desires. Just a porridge of cultured neurons, really: four-digit IQs that didn't give a rat's ass whether they even lived or died. Somehow they learned through operant conditioning, although they lacked the capacity either to enjoy reward or suffer punishment. Their pathways formed and dissolved with all the colorless indifference of water shaping a river delta. ... Gels rewired themselves with each passing thought; what good is a map when the landscape won't stop moving?"