Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI – Yuval Noah Harari
Kind of another book on AI, but Harari has interesting things to say
Non-Fiction
Nonsense: The Power of Not Knowing – Jamie Holmes
Whether it likes it or not, this is a self-help book.
The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires – Tim Wu
Companies that manage information will always try to be monopolies.
read more The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires – Tim Wu
The Dark Side of the Enlightenment: Wizards, Alchemists, and Spiritual Seekers in the Age of Reason – John V. Fleming
The enlightenment produced a lot of good ideas, but it also had a whole lot of really terrible ones.
If Anyone Builds it Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All – Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares
One can think that AI isn’t going to come alive anytime soon and still think that it is a very bad idea to build an AI
Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It – Cory Doctorow
Cory Doctorow should be required reading for anyone living through the tragedy that is modern times.
The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is: A History, a Philosophy, a Warning – Justin E. H. Smith
An argument that we should look at the internet in a slightly different way.
The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good? – Michael J. Sandel
Despite the title, the book really highlights a massive and widespread problem in our modern society.
read more The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good? – Michael J. Sandel
Word Perfect – Susie Dent
A less coffee table-ish book from Susie Dent
Failures in Polymathy 