Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece – Michael Benson
A much more focused and specific biographical work.
Non-Fiction
Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction – Alec Nevala-Lee
Ever wanted to read something gossip-columny about sci-fi authors? Yea, me neither…
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
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
The Myth of Artificial Intelligence: Why Computers Can’t Think the Way We Do – Erik J. Larson
AI isn’t going to reach the Kurzweilian dream any time soon
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.
Failures in Polymathy 