Introducing Icon Books

Last night I was raving about a book I had just read, Introducing Artificial Intelligence by Henry Brighton, 2004. This book is illustrated with cartoons on each page depicting caricatures of the scientists and philosophers in the field. It covers the entire history of the field from "classic" A.I. to the "New A.I." including the terminology, debates, and the connection to philosophy of mind. It reminded me just how much this topic interests me.

It turns out that Icon Books (a.k.a. Totem Books) was also the publisher of another of my recent favorites, Dawkins and the Selfish Gene by Ed Sexton, 2001. They have a whole collection of science titles. The four that are going on my wish list right now are Introducing Mind and Brain, Introducing Consciousness, Introducing Learning and Memory, and Introducing Genetics.

Roundaboutness

I uploaded my sermon Evolutionary Humanism and Roundaboutness. In this sermon, I proposed, among other things, that the progress of evolution toward ever greater complexity and the inevitable increase in intelligence, as described in the 1953 essay “Evolutionary Humanism” by Julian Huxley, is related to the economic theory of roundabout methods of production.

I first learned of "roundaboutness" from the book Economics for Real People: An Introduction to the Austrian School.

Replicator Unit

I enjoyed reading Dawkins and the Selfish Gene by Ed Sexton (2001). It provides a concise summary of the selfish gene theory and the related debates. At just 80 pages, it is perfect for those who have already read The Selfish Gene some time ago and are looking for a quick review with a bit of historical perspective.

One the debates is on what is the fundamental unit of replication. Is it the gene, the phenotype, the individual human, or the community? It reminded me of my recent sermon The Virtue of Selfish Genes in which I asked whether the individual unit of survival was the gene, the person, or all DNA-based life on Earth. I think that in my next update to the Optihumanist Principles, I might add a paragraph that states something to the effect that "Survival is the absolute good. Persistence persists. We survive through the legacy of our children and our culture."

I think that in the future, we will not need to rely exclusively on genetic or memetic means of reproduction for survival. In looking for a word describing a third alternative, I found this definition of Patternism.

Animal Intelligence

I just finished reading The Octopus and the Orangutan: More True Tales of Animal Intrigue, Intelligence, and Ingenuity. People who enjoy thinking about evolution, artificial and natural intelligence, and consciousness will want to read this book. It is a quick read worth the price.

It reminded me of my own anecdote about animal intelligence. My Siamese cat Dodo (a.k.a. Scratch) used to try to get out by repeatedly jumping up and pawing at the front door handle. We had become accustomed to hearing the repeated twack and thump in the middle of the night as the cat tried over and over again. One night the twack-thump sequence was interrupted by the creak of the door. This aroused our curiosity. Sure enough, the door was open and the cat was gone.

The cat got in the habit of doing this on following nights. This posed a security problem for us as he consistently failed to close and lock the door behind him. We described the problem to our landlord and asked him to replace the lever handle with a twist handle or add a lock. Our landlord was incredulous and asked for a demonstration. We all turned and stared at the cat but it failed to perform.

Half Price Books

Last year I started dropping by a Half Price Books store during my lunch hour near where I worked. You never know what treasures you will find there. This year I am working from home so I was overjoyed today to discover a store near where I live.

This particular store sold paperbacks at half the cover price. I bought a copy of Who is Ayn Rand? by Nathaniel Branden for 30 cents -- half of the 1967 cover price of 60 cents. It would have cost me $22+ to purchase it through Amazon.com as an out of print book. A successful hunt.

Cryonics

I just caught this video on the ABC News website, Couple Opt for Cryogenics for Themselves and Their Dogs. I have signed up for cryonic suspension through Alcor as well. If you love life as much as I do, you should too.

The Singularity is Near

I am just on Chapter 4 "Achieving the Software of Human Intelligence: How to Reverse Engineer the Human Brain" and already I feel that I can give the book The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology my full recommendation. I recently read in Discover magazine that it was in a Top Ten list for science books.

Also, check out this humorous MP3,
I am the very model of a Singularitarian.

DANG Blog

In an earlier post, I talked about switching some of the websites that I maintain for local volunteer organizations over to weblogs. I just created a weblog for the Dallas Area Neuroscience Group. In this case, I am splitting the content between the weblog and the website. Frequently changing content such as updates will go on the weblog and the rest will remain on the website.

North Texas Atheists

Today I discovered Upcoming.org. It appears to be a free version of Meetup.com. It was recently purchased by Yahoo so I suspect it will take off in a big way.

I created an Upcoming.org activism group, North Texas Atheists, which will address local state-church separation issues. At our first meeting, we will adopt bylaws and hold elections.

CroftSoft Update

I switched the CroftSoft Update from a Yahoo Group mailing list to a blog. The CroftSoft Update blog is where I will post my less personal, more technical announcements: http://www.CroftSoft.blogspot.com/

Optihumanist Principles 2005

I have updated the Optihumanist Principles for 2005. Optihumanism is an expression of my own personal religion. I intend to update the Principles on an annual basis as my beliefs evolve over time.

Neural Net Mathematics

In my previous post, I stated that I had some unpublished work that I needed to take care of. Over half a year ago, I laboriously hand-coded my "Neural Net Mathematics" course midterm and final in the MathML language so that I could eventually publish them on my website for future reference. This was a major effort so I was quite concerned recently when I thought I had lost the files. I was able to find copies in a personal online archive and publish them today as part of the CroftSoft Tutorials.

If it were not for the online copies, I am not sure I could have recovered these files. I used to download my personal e-mail but now I leave it in an online archive maintained by a third-party service independent of my Internet Service Provider (ISP). More and more these days I am finding that any files on my hard disk are eventually lost when the drive crashes or I switch computers. Any paper copies tend to get buried and forgotten in the folders and stacks. Those notes that I publish online on my website, however, are preserved and accessible forever.