Book Recommendations
WorldChanging.com asks their readers to answer a few excellent questions about books, and I'd like to submit them to you, too.
- What books have you found most powerful in shaping your view of the world?
- What books do you most often recommend to those interested in the future?
- Are there any books, in particular, that you think deserve a broader audience than they've gotten thus far?
- What do you think is the best book along these lines published this year?
Here are the answers I would give...
Most influential on me:
To Have or to Be - Erich Fromm
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Pirsig
Future Shock - Alvin Toffler
Engines of Creation - Eric Drexler
Most recommended for today:
America as Empire * - Jim Garrison
The Transparent Society - David Brin
Systems of Survival - Jane Jacobs
The Singularity is Near ** - Ray Kurzweil
* Deserves more exposure
** Best this year
How about you?
Mike Treder
Tags: nanotechnology nanotech nano science technology ethics weblog blog
Nonzero by Robert Wright
http://www.nonzero.org/ (reviews and excerpts)
That's my pick for all of the categories except "this year"--and I don't have one for that.
Posted by: Karl Gallagher | October 26, 2005 at 11:22 AM
Thus Spake Zarathustra, Nietzsche.
A People's History of US, Zinn.
Fabric of Reality, Deutsch.
Age of Spiritual Machines, Kurzweil.
Posted by: Phillip Huggan | October 26, 2005 at 01:50 PM
Computer Lib / Dream Machines - Ted Nelson : for portraying a vision of what computers could be, still only partly fulfilled.
Engines of Creation, Eric Drexler : For showing that there is an alternative to stagnating in a "sustainable civilization".
I'm still debating on "The Transparent Society". It falls in the category of "Utopian thought" - unlikely to be practical - it doesn't take into account the interaction of human nature and power.
On the other hand, if enough buy into its ideas, that will create some pressure to counter the tendency of governments to exempt itself from visibility, which will be helpful.
Posted by: Tom Craver | October 27, 2005 at 04:33 PM
The most powerful books in shaping my worldview are "Blind Watchmaker" by Richard Dawkins; "Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity" by Richard Rorty; "Darwin's Dangerous Idea" by Daniel Dennett; "Hero With a Thousand Faces" by Joseph Campbell; and "Information" by Hans Christian von Baeyer.
Posted by: Jonathan | October 29, 2005 at 02:00 AM