The Future of Machine Intelligence: Perspectives from Leading Practitioners, ed Beyer 2016 (short 80pg ebook of interviews with ML experts; some are notable, like Ilya Sutskever, some much less so (an evolutionary computation guy? what has that field done in years?) but all interviews are so short, ~5 pages, that they hardly get into any depth, and it’s a waste of time.)
How to Live a Life with More Positive Than Negative Feelings? A Review of Menelaos Apostolou, Feeling Good: An Evolutionary Perspective on Life Choices
“After focusing on reproductive success (chapters 5 to 8), the book turns to discussions of success in survival (chapters 9 to 12). In the ninth chapter, Apostolou clarifies the definition of competition and who could be the potential competitors in a social context. Thus, he argues that each person should increase the comparative advantage over others and instead of wasting limited resources in doing things that we are not good at, it would be better to direct the resources to things that we are good at doing.”
“Most of the book is on the history and philosophy of science as well as the nature and evolution of religious thought. In fact, the book’s main theme is how scientific thinking was liberated from mythic-religious thinking. This is centered on Anaximander since it is believed that he played a key role in this revolution, having lived in the appropriate period.”
One of his more amusing papers on Loop Quantum Gravity, is about building a framework of the universe without time.
“Following a line of research that I have developed for several years, I argue that the best strategy for understanding quantum gravity is to build a picture of the physical world where the notion of time plays no role. I summarize here this point of view, explaining why I think that in a fundamental description of nature we must “forget time”, and how this can be done in the classical and in the quantum theory. The idea is to develop a formalism that treats dependent and independent variables on the same footing. In short, I propose to interpret mechanics as a theory of relations between variables, rather than the theory of the evolution of variables in time. ”
Nonfiction Books Thread
Fortune’s Formula, Poundstone 2005 (review)
The Future of Machine Intelligence: Perspectives from Leading Practitioners, ed Beyer 2016 (short 80pg ebook of interviews with ML experts; some are notable, like Ilya Sutskever, some much less so (an evolutionary computation guy? what has that field done in years?) but all interviews are so short, ~5 pages, that they hardly get into any depth, and it’s a waste of time.)
How to Live a Life with More Positive Than Negative Feelings? A Review of Menelaos Apostolou, Feeling Good: An Evolutionary Perspective on Life Choices
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40806-016-0069-1/fulltext.html?view=classic
“After focusing on reproductive success (chapters 5 to 8), the book turns to discussions of success in survival (chapters 9 to 12). In the ninth chapter, Apostolou clarifies the definition of competition and who could be the potential competitors in a social context. Thus, he argues that each person should increase the comparative advantage over others and instead of wasting limited resources in doing things that we are not good at, it would be better to direct the resources to things that we are good at doing.”
Just adding this to my booklist, by Carlo Rovelli, the LQG guy.
The First Scientist: Anaximander and His Legacy
https://www.amazon.com/Anaximander-Carlo-Rovelli/dp/159416262X/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
A history of philosophy and science.
“Most of the book is on the history and philosophy of science as well as the nature and evolution of religious thought. In fact, the book’s main theme is how scientific thinking was liberated from mythic-religious thinking. This is centered on Anaximander since it is believed that he played a key role in this revolution, having lived in the appropriate period.”
And an interview
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/the-philosophy-of-guessing-has-harmed-physics-expert-says/
One of his more amusing papers on Loop Quantum Gravity, is about building a framework of the universe without time.
“Following a line of research that I have developed for several years, I argue that the best strategy for understanding quantum gravity is to build a picture of the physical world where the notion of time plays no role. I summarize here this point of view, explaining why I think that in a fundamental description of nature we must “forget time”, and how this can be done in the classical and in the quantum theory. The idea is to develop a formalism that treats dependent and independent variables on the same footing. In short, I propose to interpret mechanics as a theory of relations between variables, rather than the theory of the evolution of variables in time. ”
http://arxiv.org/abs/0903.3832