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I liked some more than others, but Moment Zero is worth it on its own.
I also really liked Snapshot, Dreamer, and Perfect State.
I liked some more than others, but Moment Zero is worth it on its own.
I also really liked Snapshot, Dreamer, and Perfect State.
Added to listIntelligencewith 75 books.
"The humans who first devised the Golden Rule, that we should treat others the way we want others to treat us, formulated the precept with the help of what they felt when they were treated badly or when they saw others badly treated. Logic played a role as it worked on facts, to be sure, but some of the critical facts were feelings."
This book is abstract, technical, and complicated, but if I could boil it down to one idea, this might be it. It's an argument for a more wholistic look at intelligence and consciousness that goes beyond the brain. Feeling are emphasized as the signals the brain uses to meet a "homeostatic imperative", which goes beyond the common, simple idea of homeostasis as a thermostat and defines it instead as "surviving and thriving", or extending survival into the future.
"The same applies to the topic I privilege in this book: the ways in which the cultural mind copes with human drama and exploits human possibilities, and the manner in which cultural selection completes the cultural mind’s job and complements the achievements of genetic transmission. I am not favoring affect and human drama, to the exclusion of other participants in the cultural process. I am simply focusing attention on affect—and feeling in particular—in the hope that it can be more clearly incorporated in accounts of the biology of cultures. To achieve this, I must insist on the role of homeostasis and of its conscious deputy—feeling—in the cultural process. In spite of all the historical forays of biology into the world of cultures, the notion of homeostasis, even in the conventional and narrow sense of life regulation, is absent from classical treatments of culture."
He goes past individual "surviving and thriving" to cultural, arguing again that the feelings and emotions of people are significant, and under-discussed, tools that help with the formation and propagation of culture.
I want to give it five stars because there are some really useful ideas in here. I do think that the ideas could be communicated in a way that's a bit more concrete and a bit less convoluted at points, though. It will likely take me multiple extra reads to feel like I've really pulled why I want out of this book.
"The humans who first devised the Golden Rule, that we should treat others the way we want others to treat us, formulated the precept with the help of what they felt when they were treated badly or when they saw others badly treated. Logic played a role as it worked on facts, to be sure, but some of the critical facts were feelings."
This book is abstract, technical, and complicated, but if I could boil it down to one idea, this might be it. It's an argument for a more wholistic look at intelligence and consciousness that goes beyond the brain. Feeling are emphasized as the signals the brain uses to meet a "homeostatic imperative", which goes beyond the common, simple idea of homeostasis as a thermostat and defines it instead as "surviving and thriving", or extending survival into the future.
"The same applies to the topic I privilege in this book: the ways in which the cultural mind copes with human drama and exploits human possibilities, and the manner in which cultural selection completes the cultural mind’s job and complements the achievements of genetic transmission. I am not favoring affect and human drama, to the exclusion of other participants in the cultural process. I am simply focusing attention on affect—and feeling in particular—in the hope that it can be more clearly incorporated in accounts of the biology of cultures. To achieve this, I must insist on the role of homeostasis and of its conscious deputy—feeling—in the cultural process. In spite of all the historical forays of biology into the world of cultures, the notion of homeostasis, even in the conventional and narrow sense of life regulation, is absent from classical treatments of culture."
He goes past individual "surviving and thriving" to cultural, arguing again that the feelings and emotions of people are significant, and under-discussed, tools that help with the formation and propagation of culture.
I want to give it five stars because there are some really useful ideas in here. I do think that the ideas could be communicated in a way that's a bit more concrete and a bit less convoluted at points, though. It will likely take me multiple extra reads to feel like I've really pulled why I want out of this book.
