What are you reading right now?

[Lucem Ferre]

@SGR IDK if you saw in the discord but I called you a sick fuck for your book rec that I finally read.

[SGR]

@SGR IDK if you saw in the discord but I called you a sick fuck for your book rec that I finally read.

  

I don't use the Discord, but what book did I recommend you? Was it 'The Story of the Eye'? 

[Lexi Darling]

 

I don't use the Discord, but what book did I recommend you? Was it 'The Story of the Eye'? 

I believe so yes.

[Shhon]

I couldn't be more excited about this book! This is exclusively how I'll be spending my 4-day weekend!

Ray Kurzweil - The Singularity is Nearer: When We Merge With AI (2024)

I pre-ordered early enough to get a bonus autographed bookplate, laptop sticker, and a high-resolution poster featuring Kurzweil's Law. I'm so thrilled to have a signed edition!

About Ray Kurzweil:

Kurzweil has been a leading developer in artificial intelligence for 61 years – longer than any other living person. He was the principal inventor of the first CCD flat-bed scanner, omni-font optical character recognition, print-to-speech reading machine for the blind, text-to-speech synthesizer, music synthesizer capable of recreating the grand piano and other orchestral instruments, and commercially marketed large-vocabulary speech recognition software. Ray received a Grammy Award for outstanding achievement in music technology; he is the recipient of the National Medal of Technology and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. He has written five best-selling books including The Singularity Is Near and How To Create A Mind, both New York Times bestsellers, and Danielle: Chronicles of a Superheroine, winner of multiple young adult fiction awards. He is a Principal Researcher and AI Visionary at Google.

Reviews:

"RAY KURZWEIL'S THE SINGULARITY IS NEARER IS TO INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY WHAT CHARLES DARWIN'S ORIGIN OF THE SPECIES WAS TO LIFE SCIENCE."
Martine Rothblatt, PhD, Creator of SiriusXM, United Therapeutics, electric helicopters and the Bina48 robot

"THIS BOOK WILL CHALLENGE EVERYTHING YOU KNOW ABOUT TECHNOLOGY, LIFE, AND DEATH. IT WILL LIGHT YOU UP WITH ANSWERS TO TODAY'S MOST PRESSING QUESTIONS ABOUT ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY."
Tony Robbins,
Global Entrepreneur, Investor, New York Times #1 Bestselling Author, Philanthropist, and the World's #1 Life and Business Strategist

"May be the single most important contribution to understanding the valuable roles of AI and nanotechnology."
Natasha Vita-More,
PhD, Author, Co-creator of the Transhumanist Movement

https://www.thesingularityisnearer.com/

This one seems interesting! Are you still reading or finish it?

[SGR]

I believe so yes.

In that case, @Lucem Ferre, I sincerely apologize. 

Speaking of, have you ever read Octave Mirbeau's The Torture Garden? Not quite as fucked up as the one I previously suggested, but still disturbing and illuminating on several seemingly inherent conditions of the human mind. It's sort of a satire without the laughs. But it's also a much better book.

[Lucem Ferre]

 

I don't use the Discord, but what book did I recommend you? Was it 'The Story of the Eye'? 

Yeah lol.

Mindfulness was like "What did SGR ever do to you, he's a good guy, why would you say that about him?"

[SGR]

Yeah lol.

Mindfulness was like "What did SGR ever do to you, he's a good guy, why would you say that about him?"

I appreciate @Shhon's defense of my good name in the Discord, but I probably deserved your admonition for that one.  In my defense, if memory serves, Frown supported and seconded my recommendation - that probably should've been your red flag. 

To be honest, I don't read fiction much at all these days. I generally read non-fiction history books, since history (paritcularly political history) is one of my main interests. Those certainly aren't much fun to recommend though, and they're usually met with dismissiveness, unless someone happens to be particularly interested in that historical event or period in history.

[Lucem Ferre]

Frown did.

Actually, I am reading the Autobiography of Malcolm X now and want more books about revolutionaries.

I have been reading a lot of theory books and stuff like Invisible Women, Caste, an essay by Engles about the development of the family unit, etc. I'm not against a history rec.

[Lucem Ferre]

I want to read Frankenstien & Dracula first, though.

[innerspaceboy]

Just landed - TIME Magazine Special Edition June 2024 - ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: A New Age of Possibilities.

Over 80 pages dedicated to AI news and developments. I'm looking forward to diving into this.

[innerspaceboy]

This one seems interesting! Are you still reading or finish it?

I read it in 3 hours. While not as groundbreaking as the original text, (but what else could be?), it reinforces all of his key arguments with contemporary data and paints a much-needed optimistic near-future for the world.

Check out my new post of the TIME Magazine Special Edition I just grabbed on the same subject.

[SGR]

Frown did.

Actually, I am reading the Autobiography of Malcolm X now and want more books about revolutionaries.

I have been reading a lot of theory books and stuff like Invisible Women, Caste, an essay by Engles about the development of the family unit, etc. I'm not against a history rec.

I've read a fair few books about revolutionaries if you're into that sort of thing - not sure if you're focused on a specific political leaning of revolutionary, but if not, here are some recommendations:

Mussolini: A Study in Power - Ivone Kirkpatrick



Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar - Simon Sebag Montefiore



Washington: A Life - Ron Chernow



Hitler's Table Talk - Hugh Trevor Roper



Hitler's Table Talk isn't a biography, but rather a set of curated transcriptions from 1941 of 1944 of all the myriad of things Hitler talked about with confidants, including religion, philosophy, politics, and war. I found it profoundly interesting, and an illuminating look into the mind of one of the world's most reviled men.

And Mussolini: A Study in Power is probably one of my all-time favorite biographies (up there with A. Scott Berg's biography of Woodrow Wilson), and I find it very underrated.

I read the Autobiography of Malcolm X back in college, but it's probably due for a revisit.

[SGR]

I want to read Frankenstien & Dracula first, though.

I've actually never read Dracula, but I have read Frankenstein, and that novel is excellent! Definitely not exactly what I expected going into it.

[Lucem Ferre]

I've read a fair few books about revolutionaries if you're into that sort of thing - not sure if you're focused on a specific political leaning of revolutionary, but if not, here are some recommendations:

Mussolini: A Study in Power - Ivone Kirkpatrick



Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar - Simon Sebag Montefiore



Washington: A Life - Ron Chernow



Hitler's Table Talk - Hugh Trevor Roper



Hitler's Table Talk isn't a biography, but rather a set of curated transcriptions from 1941 of 1944 of all the myriad of things Hitler talked about with confidants, including religion, philosophy, politics, and war. I found it profoundly interesting, and an illuminating look into the mind of one of the world's most reviled men.

And Mussolini: A Study in Power is probably one of my all-time favorite biographies (up there with A. Scott Berg's biography of Woodrow Wilson), and I find it very underrated.

I read the Autobiography of Malcolm X back in college, but it's probably due for a revisit.

I'll probably read all of them.

[SGR]

I'll probably read all of them.

Definitely let me know what you think about them!

Not a book about a revolutionary, but if you're into history, particularly WW2 or the grisly kind...

'trigger warning for S.A.'

I found this to be a gruesome and insightful account of what the Japanese did to the Chinese people in the Nanking Massacre. Put it this way, if I had to choose between the Nazis invading my country or the Japanese during this time period, I'd probably choose the fucking Nazis - that's how bad it is. It would probably make even Genghis Khan blush.

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