The sequences for me were like “yeah, but everyone smart already knows this stuff” and then I was more interested in the community and commenters from the golden era who were often slightly “crazy smart”. However, when I try to imagine the effect the sequences had on people who had read less, and seek similar things in my own life, the first things that stands out is GEB.
Part of the value was in dissolving a bunch of youthful philosophical confusions about the relationship between meaningful artifacts (like word or programs or whatever) and the formal or semi-formal contexts that interpret and reveal their meaning within limits imposed by the Incompleteness Theorem.
Another chunk of the value was that GEB pointed to and paired with related books like Metamagical Themas (also by Hofstadter), The Night Is Large (by Gardner, who Hofstadter replaced at Scientific American), and Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies (about Hofstadter’s grad student’s projects).
In the same general vein, but probably more fun to read, Diaspora, Permutation City, and Kiln People seem like touchstones of novelistically concrete philosophy of mind to me. My understanding is that Diaspora and to a lesser extent Permutation City were highly influential for Eliezer as well.
Also, James Gleick has had a remarkable run of non-fiction books, better than the normal pop science stuff, at least for me. If I see a book of his on a shelf that I haven’t read yet I’ll buy it just based on his name.
Another book that stands out for me as highly influential, but separate from the LW/extropian memeplex, is Milton Friedman’s Law’s Order. Admittedly it isn’t that far from the memeplex around here, given that it was written by Patri’s grandfather.
In the same vein, Nick Szabo’s blog archives are dense reading, but worth it. He is not exactly local, but was friends with Hal Finney and was widely suspected of being Satoshi.
Small correction: Law’s Order is by David Friedman, the middle generation. It’s an excellent book.
I had a similar reaction to the sequences. Some books that influenced me the most as a teen in the 80s: the Feynman Lectures and Drexler’s Engines of Creation. Feynman modeled scientific rationality, thinking for yourself, clarity about what you don’t know or aren’t explaining, being willing to tackle problems, … it resists a summary. Drexler had many of the same virtues, plus thinking carefully and boldly about future technology and what we might need to do in advance to steer to an acceptable outcome. (I guess it’s worth adding that seemingly a lot of people misread it as gung-ho promotion of the wonders of Tomorrowland that we could all look forward to by now, more like Kurzweil. For one sad consequence, Drexler seems to have become a much more guarded writer.)
Also, James Gleick has had a remarkable run of non-fiction books, better than the normal pop science stuff, at least for me. If I see a book of his on a shelf that I haven’t read yet I’ll buy it just based on his name.
I can second this. I’ve been reading through his The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood, and even though it does not go into too many technical details about the mathematics, I have enjoyed it and learned a lot about the history of computing and communication theory. Obviously, if you’re looking to learn the math, you would do better with something like David McKay’s book, or Thomas & Cover.
Quantifying the impact of a book on my life is hard, but I listed the books that have had the biggest impact on my life/thinking and said a bit about why, here.
Is there any book that had a bigger inpact on your life than the sequences ? What is it and why ?
The sequences for me were like “yeah, but everyone smart already knows this stuff” and then I was more interested in the community and commenters from the golden era who were often slightly “crazy smart”. However, when I try to imagine the effect the sequences had on people who had read less, and seek similar things in my own life, the first things that stands out is GEB.
Part of the value was in dissolving a bunch of youthful philosophical confusions about the relationship between meaningful artifacts (like word or programs or whatever) and the formal or semi-formal contexts that interpret and reveal their meaning within limits imposed by the Incompleteness Theorem.
Another chunk of the value was that GEB pointed to and paired with related books like Metamagical Themas (also by Hofstadter), The Night Is Large (by Gardner, who Hofstadter replaced at Scientific American), and Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies (about Hofstadter’s grad student’s projects).
In the same general vein, but probably more fun to read, Diaspora, Permutation City, and Kiln People seem like touchstones of novelistically concrete philosophy of mind to me. My understanding is that Diaspora and to a lesser extent Permutation City were highly influential for Eliezer as well.
Also, James Gleick has had a remarkable run of non-fiction books, better than the normal pop science stuff, at least for me. If I see a book of his on a shelf that I haven’t read yet I’ll buy it just based on his name.
Another book that stands out for me as highly influential, but separate from the LW/extropian memeplex, is Milton Friedman’s Law’s Order. Admittedly it isn’t that far from the memeplex around here, given that it was written by Patri’s grandfather.
In the same vein, Nick Szabo’s blog archives are dense reading, but worth it. He is not exactly local, but was friends with Hal Finney and was widely suspected of being Satoshi.
Small correction: Law’s Order is by David Friedman, the middle generation. It’s an excellent book.
I had a similar reaction to the sequences. Some books that influenced me the most as a teen in the 80s: the Feynman Lectures and Drexler’s Engines of Creation. Feynman modeled scientific rationality, thinking for yourself, clarity about what you don’t know or aren’t explaining, being willing to tackle problems, … it resists a summary. Drexler had many of the same virtues, plus thinking carefully and boldly about future technology and what we might need to do in advance to steer to an acceptable outcome. (I guess it’s worth adding that seemingly a lot of people misread it as gung-ho promotion of the wonders of Tomorrowland that we could all look forward to by now, more like Kurzweil. For one sad consequence, Drexler seems to have become a much more guarded writer.)
Hofstadter influenced me too, and Egan and Szabo.
Thanks for the correction! I’ll leave the Milton/David error in, so your correction reads naturally :-)
I can second this. I’ve been reading through his The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood, and even though it does not go into too many technical details about the mathematics, I have enjoyed it and learned a lot about the history of computing and communication theory. Obviously, if you’re looking to learn the math, you would do better with something like David McKay’s book, or Thomas & Cover.
Quantifying the impact of a book on my life is hard, but I listed the books that have had the biggest impact on my life/thinking and said a bit about why, here.
I read The Demolished Man as 12 years old, and it left a life-long desire to understand how human mind works.