Books

• Berezow & Campbell, Science Left Behind: Meh.
• Biederman & Bennis, Organizing Genius: Some interesting stories, not sure how reliable they are, authors make no attempt to get data on the question.

Music

Spotify playlist for all of 2017 is here.

Music I most enjoyed discovering this month:

• Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith: The Kid (2017)
• James Holden: The Animal Spirits (2017)
• Daniele Luppi & Parquet Courts: MILANO (2017)
• Kristofer Maddigan: Cuphead (2017)
• Tale of Us: Endless (2017)
• The Great Harry Hillman: Tilt (2017)
• Schnellertollermeier: Rights (2017)
• Bent Knee: Say So (2016)
• The Kandinsky Effect: Somnambulist (2015), Pax 6 (2017)

Movies/TV

Ones I “really liked” (no star), or “loved” (star):

• Denis Villenueve: Blade Runner 2049 (2017) ★
• Mike Mills: 20th Century Women (2016)
• Various: Top of the Lake, season 1 (2013) ★
• Various: Bojack Horseman, season 3 (2017)
• Noah Baumbach: The Meyerowitz Stories (2017) ★
• Mike Leigh: Life is Sweet (1990)
• Dee Rees: Mudbound (2017)
• Various: Broad City, season 4 (2017)
• Various: Better Things, season 2 (2017)
• Johnson: Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)
• Aronofsky: Mother! (2017) ★

Games

Ones I “really liked” (no star), or “loved” (star):

• Breath of the Wild (2017) ★
• Super Mario Odyssey (2017) ★
• Steamworld Dig 2 (2017)

Added this month:

• Reich, Who We Are and How We Got Here (Mar 2018)
• Kurzban, A Different Kind of Animal (Nov 2018)
• Scharre, Army of None (Apr 2018)
• Damasio, The Strange Order of Things (Feb 2018)
• Levitsky & Ziblatt, How Democracies Die (Jan 2018)
• Burns & Shulgan, Autonomy (Aug 2018)
• Lukianoff & Haidt, The Coddling of the American Mind (Jul 2018)
• Payne, Strategy, Evolution, and War (May 2018)
• Duke, Thinking in Bets (Feb 2018)
• Gaddis, On Grand Strategy (Apr 2018)
• Clark et al., The Origins of Happiness (Jan 2018)
• Ord, book about existential risk (TBD)
• MacAskill et al., book on moral uncertainty (TBD)
• Sandberg, Grand Futures (TBD)
• Valeriano et al., Cyber Strategy (TBD)
• several movies & TV seasons

Books

bold = especially excited

[Read more…]

Ever since I wrapped up my animal consciousness report, I’ve been working to become a better reducetarian. As such, I’ve been hunting for storeable, convenient veg*n meal options. (Getting restaurants to carry tastier veg*n food is harder, but I’ve been enjoying my Impossible Burgers!)

A spreadsheet of my findings thus far is here. In my area, they’re available locally via Instacart. So far, my tastiest solution is “buy Vegetarian Plus meals.”

Most of these meals don’t satisfy me on their own, so I usually supplement with a banana or whatever.

Books

* = added this round
bold = especially excited

Added this month:

• lots of movies and TV
• Blattman, some book (TBD)
• Gioia, a history of subversive music (TBD)
• Oppy, Blackwell Companion to Atheism and Philosophy (TBD)

Full list:

[Read more…]

Books

• Tegmark, Life 3.0

Music

Music I most enjoyed discovering this month:

• Deerhoof: Mountain Moves (2017)
• Godspeed You! Black Emperor: Luciferian Towers (2017)
• Kamasi Washington: Harmony of Difference (2017)
• L’Rain: L’Rain (2017)

Movies/TV

Ones I “really liked” (no star), or “loved” (star):

• Spicer: Ingrid Goes West (2017) ★
• Ross: Captain Fantastic (2016)
• Shults: It Comes at Night (2017)
• Young: Hounds of Love (2016)
• Alvarez: Don’t Breathe (2016)

Books

• [none]

Music

Music I most enjoyed discovering this month:

• The Moonlandingz: Interplanetary Class Classics (2017)
• The Arcade Fire: Everything Now (2017)

Movies/TV

Ones I “really liked” (no star), or “loved” (star):

• Nichols: Loving (2016)
• Gray: The Lost City of Z (2016)
• Various: Transparent, season 3 (2016)
• Mangold: Logan (2017)
• Showalter: The Big Sick (2017)
• Peele: Get Out (2017) ★
• Nolan: Dunkirk (2017) ★
• Arnold: American Honey (2016)

Books

* = added this round
bold = especially excited

Added this month:

• Woodruff, Philanthropy and Philosophy (TBD)
• Pummer & Greaves, Effective Altruism: Philosophical Issues (TBD)

Full list:

[Read more…]

Books

• Allison: Destined for War (2017). Decent, but very one-sided in its arguments. Scary.

Music

Music I most enjoyed discovering this month:

• [none]

Movies/TV

Ones I “really liked” (no star), or “loved” (star):

• Various: Stranger Things, season 1 (2016)
• Campos: Christine (2016)
• Various: Fargo, season 3 (2017) ★
• Various: Better Call Saul, season 3 (2017) ★
• Various: The Handmaid’s Tale, season 1 (2017) ★

Books

* = added this round
bold = especially excited

• Andrews & Beck, Routledge Companion to the Philosophy of Animal Minds (Jul 2017)
• Gat, The Causes of War and the Spread of Peace (Jul 2017)
• Brown, Routledge Companion to Thought Experiments (Jul 2017)
• Shapiro & Todorovic, The Oxford Compendium of Visual Illusions (Jul 2017)
• *Johnson & Rommelfanger (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Neuroethics (Jul 2017)
• Gelman & Nolan, Teaching Statistics 2e (Jul 2017)
• Corns, The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Pain (Jul 2017)
• Peterson, The Ethics of Technology (Jul 2017)
• *Eisinger, The Chickenshit Club: Why the Justice Department Fails to Prosecute Executives (Jul 2017)

[Read more…]

Books

• [none]

Music

Music I most enjoyed discovering this month:

• Saagara: 2 (2017)
• Perfume Genius: No Shape (2017)

Movies/TV

Ones I “really liked” (no star), or “loved” (star):

• Birbiglia: Don’t Think Twice (2016)
• Various: Master of None, season 2 (2017)

Books

* = added this round
bold = especially excited

• McAfee & Brynjolfsson, Machine, Platform, Crowd (Jun 2017)
• Mcpherson & Plunkett, Routledge Handbook of Metaethics (Jun 2017)
• Callaghan et al., The Technological Singularity: Managing the Journey (Jun 2017)
• *Bernecker & Michaelian, The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Memory (Jun 2017)
• Doudna & Sternberg, A Crack in Creation (Jun 2017)
• Owen, Into the Gray Zone (Jun 2017)
• Brannen, The Ends of the World (Jun 2017)

[Read more…]

Books

• Callahan, The Givers. An interesting quick portrait of contemporary mega-philanthropy. I haven’t bothered to form opinions about the recommendations in the final chapter.
• Walters, Feminism: A Very Short Introduction. Meh.

Music

Music I most enjoyed discovering this month:

• Adam Rudolph: Glare of the Tiger (2017)

Movies/TV

Ones I “really liked” (no star), or “loved” (star):

• Ade: Toni Erdmann (2016)
• Guadagnino: A Bigger Splash (2016)
• Yeon: Train to Busan (2016)

Books

* = added this round
bold = especially excited

• Schultz, The Happiness Philosophers (May 2017)
• Sapolsky, Behave (May 2017)
• Mcpherson & Plunkett, Routledge Handbook of Metaethics (May 2017)
• Kasparov, Deep Thinking (May 2017)
• *Smil, Energy and Civilization: A History (May 2017)
• Phillips, Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Temporal Experience (May 2017)
• *Lo, Adaptive Markets (May 2017)
• *Ball, The Water Kingdom (May 2017)
• *Stephens-Davidowitz, Everybody Lies (May 2017)

[Read more…]

Books

• Dormehl, Thinking Machines. This “history” of AI is mostly a quick survey of news stories about AI progress from the past three years.
• Wood, The Way of the Strangers. Quite good, afaict.
• Barrett, How Emotions Are Made. The book is a mixed bag, but fwiw I find this general approach more promising than Ekman/Panksepp/etc. Best Cliffs Notes is maybe this interview.

Music

Music I most enjoyed discovering this month:

• Joel Harrison: Urban Myths (2009)
• Larry Young: Lawrence of Newark (1973)
• Richard Landry: “Fifteen Saxophones” (1977)
• Virna Lindt: Shiver (1984)
• The Lounge Lizards: No Pain for Cakes (1987), Queen of All Ears (1998)
• Power Trip: Nightmare Logic (2017)
• Cameron Graves: Planetary Prince (2017)
• Tigran Hamasyan: Shadow Theater (2013), Mockroot (2015)
• Agnes Obel: Aventine (2013)
• Blanck Mass: World Eater (2017)
• Kneebody: Anti-Hero (2017)
• Marius Neset: Neck of the Woods (2012), Birds (2013)

Movies/TV

Ones I “really liked” (no star), or “loved” (star):

• Birbiglia & Barrish, Sleepwalk with Me (2012)
• Carloni & Nelson, Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016)
• Blair, I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore (2017)
• Fukunaga, Beasts of No Nation (2015) ★
• Audiard, Dheepan (2015)
• Ferreras, Wrinkles (2011)

Books

* = added this round
bold = especially excited

• Offit, Pandora’s Lab (Apr 2017)
• Mercier & Sperber, The Enigma of Reason (Apr 2017)
• Harris, Rigor Mortis (Apr 2017)

[Read more…]

Books

• Dennett, From Bacteria to Bach and Back. Generally good, though it’s mostly a “tools for thinking” book like Dennett (2013) or Yudkowsky (2015), not a detailed argument for a specific theory of consciousness like Prinz (2012), Dehaene (2014), or even Dennett (1991).
• Kranish & Fisher, Trump Revealed. Meh, you know most of it already if you followed the campaign.
• Harari, Homo Deus. Fun to read, not much else. Surprisingly little of it is about the future.

Music

Music I most enjoyed discovering this month:

• Michael Formanek: Nature of the Beast (1997)
• Fly: Fly (2010)

Movies/TV

Ones I “really liked” (no star), or “loved” (star):

• Larraín, Jackie (2016)
• Craig, The Edge of Seventeen (2016) ★
• Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea (2016) ★
• Davis, Lion (2016)
• Jenkins, Moonlight (2016)
• Washington, Fences (2016)
• Scorsese, Silence (2016)
• Ford, Nocturnal Animals (2016) ★
• Cresciman, Sun Choke (2016)
• Bujalski, Results (2015) ★
• Ergüven, Mustang (2015) ★

Books

* = added this round
bold = especially excited

• Quirk, Seasteading (Mar 2017)
• Parfit, On What Matters: Volume III (Mar 2017)
• Barrett, How Emotions are Made (Mar 2017)
• Sahakian & Gottwald, Sex, Lies and fMRI (Mar 2017)
• *Dormehl, Thinking Machines (Mar 2017)
• *Cox & Forshaw, Universal (Mar 2017)
• *Weinberger, The Imagineers War (Mar 2017)
• *Sloman & Fernbach, The Knowledge Illusion (Mar 2017)
• LeGrandeur & Hughes, Surviving the Machine Age (Mar 2017)
• Sinnott-Armstrong & Miller, Moral Psychology: Virtue and Character (Mar 2017)

[Read more…]

Books

• Lewis, The Undoing Project. Fine, I guess. Knowing the studies already, I found the late-chapter parts about Kahneman & Tversky’s “breakup” most interesting.
• Gazzaniga, Tales from Both Sides of the Brain. Mostly interesting.
• Mayer, Dark Money. The American poor are doomed.

Music

Music I most enjoyed discovering this month:

• Polar Bear: Dim Lit (2003) Held on the Tips of Fingers (2005), Polar Bear (2008)
• Too Many Zooz: Subway Gawdz (2016)
• Anouar Brahem: Souvenance (2014)
• George Russell: Vertical Form VI (1981)
• The Algorithm: Polymorphic Code (2012) [wow!], Octopus4 (2014), Brute Force (2016)
• Between the Buried and Me: Colors (2007)
• Cardiacs: A Little Man and a House and the Whole World Window (1988), On Land and in the Sea (1989), Heaven Born and Ever Bright (1992), Sing to God (1996) [wow!]
• Present: No. 6 (1999), Barbaro (ma non troppos) (2009)
• Heldon: Stand By (1979)

Movies/TV

Ones I really liked, or loved:

• Soderbergh, Behind the Candelabra (2013)
• Gibson, Hacksaw Ridge (2016)
• Egoyan, Remember (2015)

Books

* = added this round
bold = especially excited

• Harari, Homo Deus (Feb 2017)
• Cowen, The Complacent Class (Feb 2017)
• Dennett, From Bacteria to Bach and Back (Feb 2017)
• Revonsuo, Foundations of Consciousness (Feb 2017)
• *O’Connel, To Be a Machine (Feb 2017)
• *Rochman, The Gene Machine (Feb 2017)
• *Kirk, Robots, Zombies, and Us (Feb 2017)
• Butz & Kutter, How the Mind Comes into Being (Feb 2017)
• Callaghan et al. (eds.), The Technological Singularity: Managing the Journey (2017)
• Singer, Does Anything Really Matter? (2017)
• Arndt & Tarp, Measuring Poverty and Wellbeing in Developing Countries (Feb 2017)
• Guyenet, The Hungry Brain (Feb 2017)
• Hughes & LeGrandeur, Surviving the Machine Age (Feb 2017)

[Read more…]

Books

• Goodale & Milner, Sight Unseen, 2e. Pretty thrilling if you’re unfamiliar with the subject matter (as I was). Unfortunately, its presentation of the evidence is very one-sided.
• Bloom, Against Empathy. Probably one of the best not-explicitly-EA books to give someone if you want to nudge them toward EA.

Music

Spotify playlist for all of 2016 here.

Music I most enjoyed discovering this month:

• Virgil Donati, In This Life (2013)
• James Farm, James Farm (2011)
• Jonathan Finlayson, Moving Still (2016)
• serpentwithfeet, blisters (2016)
• Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, EARS (2016)
• Arca, Entrañas (2016)
• deadmau5, “Whelk Then” (2016)
• Angles 9, Injuries (2014)
• Ital Tek, Hollowed (2016)

Movies/TV

Ones I really liked, or loved:

• Mackenzie, Hell or High Water (2016)
• Stanton & MacLane, Finding Dory (2016)
• Yates, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)
• Chazelle, La La Land (2016)