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SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS

HUMAN BRAIN AS DATA PROCESSOR

Not a light read but a fine starting point for exploring the mysteries of the brain.

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A nonfiction work that offers an in-depth look at the mechanics of the human mind.

Shoji follows the thread of his book Self-Consciousness: The Hidden Internal State of Digital Circuits (2013) with an examination of how the mind knows itself and engages with the outside world. This extensive work dissects complex topics regarding brain function, such as language processing, memory, and writing systems. The author provides diagrams to illustrate his concepts (such as a “Block-Subblock Support Circuit”), and he often breaks his explanations down into the language of mathematics: “distortion of the Cartesian ↔ polar coordinate conversion.” His conclusions include the notion that fear is ultimately “the driving force creating the human mind” and that excessive competition in modern society may lead to humanity’s downfall. One can easily infer that Shoji’s logical, unadorned prose style stems from his decades working as a semiconductor-chip designer for Bell Laboratories.Amid such technical material, the author also reveals much about himself, such as early memories of his childhood in World War II–era Japan. He notes that he believes firmly in the theory of evolution and states that he doesn’t look for answers about human advancement in a God figure. He’s also immensely fond of myths and holds particular reverence for advanced ancient cultures, such as that of the Inca people. As a result, the book creates a unique perspective by not only examining ideas about the brain, but also the man behind those ideas. Some portions, however, are undeniably dense (“the arc specification that is vector c’s reversal and rotation, is specified by the excitation of a character bus line”), and close reading, if not rereading, will be required to get a clear picture. Still, this well-organized work does manage to shed light on the endlessly complex phenomenon of the self.

Not a light read but a fine starting point for exploring the mysteries of the brain.

Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-5320-9392-0

Page Count: 576

Publisher: iUniverse

Review Posted Online: Oct. 20, 2020

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THINKING, FAST AND SLOW

Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...

A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.

The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.

Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011

ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1

Page Count: 512

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011

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ELON MUSK

Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.

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A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.

To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work. When they don’t, writes eminent biographer Isaacson, it’s because the notoriously headstrong Musk is so sure of himself that he charges ahead against the advice of others: “He does not like to share power.” In this sharp-edged biography, the author likens Musk to an earlier biographical subject, Steve Jobs. Given Musk’s recent political turn, born of the me-first libertarianism of the very rich, however, Henry Ford also comes to mind. What emerges clearly is that Musk, who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome (“Empathy did not come naturally”), has nurtured several obsessions for years, apart from a passion for the letter X as both a brand and personal name. He firmly believes that “all requirements should be treated as recommendations”; that it is his destiny to make humankind a multi-planetary civilization through innovations in space travel; that government is generally an impediment and that “the thought police are gaining power”; and that “a maniacal sense of urgency” should guide his businesses. That need for speed has led to undeniable successes in beating schedules and competitors, but it has also wrought disaster: One of the most telling anecdotes in the book concerns Musk’s “demon mode” order to relocate thousands of Twitter servers from Sacramento to Portland at breakneck speed, which trashed big parts of the system for months. To judge by Isaacson’s account, that may have been by design, for Musk’s idea of creative destruction seems to mean mostly chaos.

Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.

Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023

ISBN: 9781982181284

Page Count: 688

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023

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