Books of the month — June 2023
Five books, briefly reviewed: Philip K. Dick's Ubik, Feynman's Lectures on Computation, Jeff Hawkins, Ian Hacking, and Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary.
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Ubik. Philip K. Dick. A classic I had been meaning to read. I enjoyed it, though it never quite thrilled me. To my taste it can feel monotonous.
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Lectures on Computation. Richard Feynman. I liked a couple of the talks on the physics side of computers, even though they are decades old. Feynman's teaching makes clearer and more interesting the kind of material that is usually delivered robotically.
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A Thousand Brains. Jeff Hawkins. It struck me as very ambitious relative to the arguments and evidence it brings. It comes with an enthusiastic foreword by Dawkins, in keeping with the book's claim to offer "a new theory of intelligence". I did not finish as enthusiastic as they are.
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The Emergence of Probability. Ian Hacking. I reread this classic as a tribute after his death. I enjoyed it again, as on every other return, adding underlinings and notes for new ideas.
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Project Hail Mary. Andy Weir. A terrific novel. The best science fiction I have read in a long time. It has the rare virtue of being good as a novel, as science and as fiction. I am waiting for the film to see whether the drawings I made of the protagonist's "friend" look anything like it. ;)