SAIHST’s Recommended Reading List

The Future of the Mind

Author : Michio Kaku
Publication date :  February 25, 2014

The book discusses various possibilities of advanced technology that can alter the brain and mind. Looking into things such as telepathy, telekinesis, consciousness, artificial intelligence, and transhumanism, the book covers a wide range of topics. In it, Kaku proposes a "spacetime theory of consciousness". Similarly to Ray Kurzweil, he believes the advances in silicon computing will serve our needs as opposed to producing a generation of robot overlords.

Weapons of Math Destruction

Author :  Cathy O'Neil
Publication date :  2016

O'Neil asserts that in a variety of fields, from insurance to advertising to education and policing, big data and algorithms can lead to decisions that harm the poor, reinforcing racism and amplifying inequality. She claims that these problematic mathematical tools share three key features: they are opaque, scalable, and unfair.

THE REVENGE OF ANALOG : Real Things and Why They Matter

Author :  David Sax
Publication date : 2016

A funny thing happened on the way to the digital utopia. We've begun to fall back in love with the very analog goods and ideas the tech gurus insisted that we no longer needed. Businesses that once looked outdated, from film photography to brick-and-mortar retail, are now springing with new life. Notebooks, records, and stationery have become cool again. Behold the Revenge of Analog.

David Sax has uncovered story after story of entrepreneurs, small business owners, and even big corporations who've found a market selling not apps or virtual solutions but real, tangible things. As e-books are supposedly remaking reading, independent bookstores have sprouted up across the country. As music allegedly migrates to the cloud, vinyl record sales have grown more than ten times over the past decade. Even the offices of tech giants like Google and Facebook increasingly rely on pen and paper to drive their brightest ideas.

Sax's work reveals a deep truth about how humans shop, interact, and even think. Blending psychology and observant wit with first-rate reportage, Sax shows the limited appeal of the purely digital life-and the robust future of the real world outside it.