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| [Image by Ahmad Ardity from Pixabay] |
These are some books I picked-up at the local library today - and have them checked-out until May 4th
There's no intentional order in how I have listed them - but I will tackle the one that I think I will enjoy the least - first.
- The Book That Changed My Life, 71 Remarkable Writers Celebrate the Books that Matter Most to Them
- KM: I'm fascinated by writers, the writing process, the seeds of inspiration for writers
- Completed: 2024-04-26 [see my review - pending on Amazon]
- Data and Goliath, The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World, by Bruce Schneier
- This 2015 book may be a bit dated, but Bruce Schneier is a world-renowned security expert - and I suspect there will be much that I will find interesting in this book.
- I met Bruce some years ago at a conference in San Francisco (QConSF, 2014). He gave one of the keynotes
- and at the end of his talk, I was one of the few people who stepped-up to
the microphone to ask him a question. I asked something along the lines
of "how concerned are you - or how prevalent do you think - polymorphic viruses are today?".
His answer, paraphrased, was that he didn't think it was something we
needed to worry about (yet). I disagreed then with his answer (but did
not say anything).
- The Art of Deception, by Kevin D. Mitnick & William L. Simon
- Any
competent IT person - who has any depth of understanding regarding IT
security - will know the name and story of Kevin D. Mitnick. I've read parts of this book in the past, some decades ago - and I think a refresh may give me some new insights/ideas.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Mitnick
- The Age of AI and Our Human Future, by Henry A. Kissinger, Eric Schmidt, Daniel Huttenlocher
- This 2021 book - is probably not going to be an easy read. I'm not a great fan of two of the three authors. Dry & Boring - is how I am expecting the read to go...but I am reading it to better understand their perspective - and how they view the priorities, concerns, issues, context, forces & constraints - of this very important (and potentially) emerging threat to human existence - and democracy.
- Completed: 2024-04-22 [see my review]
- I
plan on taking some university classes in the next year - so I
want to begin doing a refresh of all my math skills - so I picked-up
these books to
help me quickly do a deep & broad review of the basics:
- Teach Yourself Statistics, by Alan Graham
- CliffsQuickReview Statistics, by David H. Voelker, Phd; Peter Z Orton, PhD; and Scott V. Adams
- CliffsQuickReview Calculus , by Barnard V. Zandy, MA and Jonathan J. White, MS
- Thus Spoke Zarathustra, by Friedrich Nietzshe
- I'm familiar with Nietzhe's work - but have not read his actual writing - just summaries (2nd order derivatives).
- There are aspects of his philosophy in this book - that were subverted by the Nazis - and echo in the sentiments and ideas of many on the far-right in the U.S. GOP today. It is dangerous thinking like that - which can damage the very pillars of our democracy.
- Reading this book - may help me be more aware - when the rhetoric of today's fascists hearkens back to the Nazi perversion of his ideas that emboldened their atrocities.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Nietzsche
- "The Nazis attempted to incorporate the concept into their ideology by means of taking Nietzsche's figurative form of speech and creating a literal superiority over other ethnicities."
- "After his death, Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth became the curator and editor of his manuscripts. She edited his unpublished writings to fit her German ultranationalist ideology, often contradicting or obfuscating Nietzsche's stated opinions, which were explicitly opposed to antisemitism and nationalism. Through her published editions, Nietzsche's work became associated with fascism and Nazism. 20th-century scholars such as Walter Kaufmann, R. J. Hollingdale, and Georges Bataille defended Nietzsche against this interpretation, and corrected editions of his writings were soon made available."
- A Beginner's Guide, Wireless Network Security, by Tyler Wrightson
- This 2012 book is likely to be very dated. But, as I quickly browsed through it while standing in the library - I thought it still has some good relevant information - and would be a useful way of doing a foundation refresh on the subject. It also was the only book on this topic on the shelf today.
I also browsed through the Friends of the Library bookstore - and found a book that was an unexpected delight.
But first, let me tell you of the very first thought that came to my mind this morning when I awoke:
I had a desire to read some of Isaac Asimov's delightful stories in a series on robots [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7] (one of my favorite Sci-Fi authors, when I was growing-up) - featuring the character of Dr. Susan Calvin (chief robopsychologist at US Robots and Mechanical Men, Inc.,), and The Three Laws of Robotics:
- "First Law: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm."
- "Second Law: A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law."
- "Third Law: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law."
This dovetails nicely with concerns I have written about recently - and with corporations hellbent on continually accelerating their push toward embedding ChatGPT/GPT-4 into every aspect of our lives - and the abysmal lack of controls / checks & balance / safety protocols / guard rails, etc.
While we are not there yet - with achieving a true Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) - I am worried that the pace of experimentation, innovation, and progress - will quickly outstrip our ability to close Pandora's Box - once that moment arrives.
...
But, there were no books in the bookstore, by Asimov, nor that I could find on the library shelves.
However, I did find a hardcover book in the bookstore (for $0.25), that is part of a 3-book series (1, 2, 3), by an author that was authorized by his estate, to carry on the series:
I, Robot: to protect, by Mickey Zucker Reichert
"2035: Susan Calvin is beginning her residency at a Manhattan teaching hospital, where a select group of patients is receiving the latest in diagnostic advancements: tiny nanobots, injected into the spinal fluid, that can unlock and map the human mind.
Soon, Susan begins to notice an ominous chain of events surrounding the patients. When she tries to alert her superiors, she is ignored by those who want to keep the project far from any scrutiny for the sake of their own agenda. But what no one knows is that the very technology to which they have given life is now under the control of those who seek to spread only death..."
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