Books
- Hickok, The Myth of Mirror Neurons
- Tett, The Silo Effect
- Domingos, The Master Algorithm
- Bova, How the World Works, 2e
I thoroughly enjoyed MacFarquhar’s Strangers Drowning. It does contain at least one error:
[Stephanie] didn’t know what [“bigger” thing she should be doing]… [maybe] preventing malevolent computers from attacking mankind, like the people at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute?
Music
Music I most enjoyed discovering this month:
- Blanck Mass, Dumb Flesh (2015)
- Labrinth, “Jealous” (2014)
- Mingus Big Band, Essential Mingus Big Band (2001)
- Herbie Hancock, Crossings (1972)
- Miracles of Modern Science, “Secret Track” (2011)
- Buck Tardley, Unavailable (2010) [a cover of The Residents’ Not Available]
- Lots of albums by Henry Threadgill, whom I’ve just learned is one of my favorite composers. Maybe start with Rag, Bush and All (1988).
- Odesza, In Return (2014)
- Robert Ashley, Perfect Lives (composed 1978-1980, rec. 1991)
Movies/TV
Ones I really liked, or loved:
- Peter Strickland, The Duke of Burgundy (2014)
- David Robert Mitchell, It Follows (2014)
What did you think of “The Myth of Mirror Neurons”?
I don’t know much about the subject matter so it’d be hard for me to tell if he was bullshitting me. I was already skeptical of most claims about mirror neurons I saw in the press, so that part wasn’t hard for me to believe. He also has a section which does I good job, I thought, of explaining what’s wrong about some versions of “embodied cognition” approaches. Certainly the book was readable and interesting.
o.O
This is not the first time that I have been given a good mention of It Follows. I suppose that I should actually put it on my list.