This book links a couple of my favourite subjects – Darwin’s theory of evolution, and determinism. But that’s not the only reason it’s a favourite. In sixteen different domains, the author uses the lens of evolution to show how progress has happened (or not), and the momentum of incremental and emergent change. Read it for perspective, and lesser known facts.
I associated Michael Crichton only with Jurassic Park. It was only thanks to Westworld that I even realised that he was really prolific. It then took a “science fiction must-read” list for me to finally get to this book. It’s one of his earlier works, and I found the premise very interesting. Though there is an extra terrestrial “invasion” involved, it’s not the run-of-the-mill advanced spaceship kind. That does not mean that humans don’t get killed off though. This interesting plot, reasonably well fleshed-out characters and a gripping pace makes it a must-read.
Ken Liu believes that all fiction is about prizing the logic of metaphors over reality. This really is the underlying theme of this book, and therefore, figuring out the metaphors in some of the stories is what I considered the most exciting part of reading this book. It is speculative fiction at its best and cuts across sub genres – science fiction, fantasy, steampunk, historical fiction and so on. Excels in imagination and narration, and is highly recommended!
Everybody lies, as the title suggests, to their colleagues, friends, spouse and most importantly, to themselves. What they search for, and what they click, are better indicators of their true nature. This is the premise of the book, and a major portion of it is dedicated to reasoning out how the troves of data we generate can lead to fundamental insights. But it also provides a counter balance towards the end – the limits of data, intangible measures and the ethics of mining data. The potential of data to create new understanding in social sciences and human behaviour – reason enough to read this!
For a book that talks about the laws that hold together the cosmos, it is astoundingly small – 79 pages! But it provides a great summary of everything from Einstein’s laws to the still hazy domain of quantum mechanics. The books makes a tough subject accessible without being condescending, and made me wonder at how much we have figured out, and how much we haven’t!