There’s a great quote from Carlos Castaneda in Journey to Ixtlan: “A warrior proceeds strategically. If one wants to stop our fellow men one must always be outside the circle that presses them. That way one can always direct the pressure.”
Category Archives: Book
The Problems of Philosophy, further reading
At the end of The Problems of Philosophy, Bertrand Russell says:
The student who wishes to acquire an elementary knowledge of
philosophy will find it both easier and more profitable to read some
of the works of the great philosophers than to attempt to derive an
all-round view from handbooks. The following are specially
recommended:
- Plato: Republic (especially Books VI and VII)
- René Descartes: Meditations on First Philosophy
- Baruch Spinoza: Ethics
- Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz: Monadology
- George Berkeley: Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous
- David Hume: An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
- Immanuel Kant: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
Why AI Is So Dangerous & How It Could Destroy Humanity
Ah, click bait. Sign of the times! MEGATHREAT: Why AI Is So Dangerous & How It Could Destroy Humanity | Mo Gawdat.
Mo Gawdat is an Egyptian entrepreneur and writer. He is the former chief business officer for Google X and author of the books Solve for Happy and Scary Smart.
Mo says there are some things we shouldn’t waste time talking about because they are going to happen, inevitably. These are:
- There is no shutting down or reversing AI, we can’t stop it
- AI will be significantly smarter than humans
- Bad things will happen in the process of developing AI (the specifics to be determined)
…and the fourth inevitability? Utopia..?
Reading Jacques Derrida
I’m interested in reading more Jacques Derrida and I think I might start with Margins of Philosophy.
Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors
On my list of books to buy (and read!) is Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors by Matt Parker.
Let Over Lambda
I am not yet ready for Let Over Lambda, but one day I will be.
TI MSP430
Reading about the TI MSP430 microcontroller. A pretty nifty looking device. It is referenced in Zen and the Forth Language: EFORTH for the MSP430 from Texas Instruments.
Learning Kanji
I mentioned to a friend that I thought it was a romantic idea to learn Kanji, and I would very much like to, but I just don’t have time. My friend recommended the Genki Textbook. So this note is just for the record. When it comes to learning Japanese I suppose no one will be surprised to know that there are a lot of options.
More books!
The Manual: A Philosopher’s Guide to Life
Yesterday I read The Manual: A Philosopher’s Guide to Life by Epictetus and translated by Sam Torode which I got for free courtesy of my Kindle Unlimited subscription. A very easy read (you can read it in one hour) and full of great and challenging ideas.