Mind

A Brief Introduction

Oxford University Press
326 pages
2005
ISBN 0-195-15733-8

Unless you are already an expert, read it. The grassroots approach used by Searle -state the facts, then philosophize- is very valuable. Obviously at some points he gets lost into the philosophical forest or becomes excessively self assertive. We can forgive that for the value of reading his very clear analisys and, more specifically, text.

Value for time: 9

Main value: Field roadmap

Second Nature

Brain Science and Human knowledge

Yale University Press
203 pages
2006
ISBN 0-300-12039-7

This is a small, very readable account of an approach to epistemology as grounded in the structure of neural tissue. Edelman calls it a brain-based epistemology.

Edelman argues for taking new perspectives on how we acquire knowledge based on the improved understanding of brain operation coming from recent neuroscience. At the end, the book focuses on the possibility of exploring the weird phenomenon of consciousness - the very second nature of humans.

He also addresses the issue raised by Snow and others of the divorce between science and the humanities and their respective views of the mental world. Edelman previews differences getting dissolved -much in the line of Wilson's consilience- by considering their grounding in brain operation.

He also summarily describes their research on brain-based devices that may -somehow- become conscious if properly based on the right, non-computational, organisation.

Value for time: 9

Main value: Personal point of view

Control of Complex Systems

Springer
494 pages
2000
ISBN 1852333243

The world of artificial systems is reaching hitherto undreamed-of levels of complexity. Surface traffic, electricity distribution, mobile communications, etc., demonstrate that problems are arising that are beyond classical scientific or engineering knowledge. In order that our ability to control such systems should not be hindered by lack of comprehension, there is an on-going effort to understand them.This book is an example of the types of approach that European researchers are using to tackle problems derived from systems' complexity. It has grown out of activities in the Control of Complex Systems (COSY) research program the goals of which are to promote multi-disciplinary activity leading to a deeper understanding and further development of control technologies for complex systems and if possible, to develop the theory underlying such systems. The material in this book represents a selection of the results of the COSY program and is organised as a collection of essays of varying nature: surveys of essential areas, discussion of specific problems, case studies, and benchmark problems.Topics covered include:Modelling complex physical systems;Passivity-based control of non-linea Complex systems appear in many different fields and for this reason this book should be of interest to scientists, researchers and industrial engineers with a broad spectrum of experience.

Value for time: 8

Main value: Perspective

Technomanifestos:
Visions From the Information Revolutionaries

TEXERE Publishing Ltd
377 pages
March 20, 2002
ISBN 1587991039

Technomanifestos is half story and half analysis of the evolution of information technology in the second half of the twentieth century as envisioned in the writings of several human icons of this quite heterogeneous field: Vannevar Bush, Alan Turing, Norbert Wiener, John von Neumann, J.C.R. Licklider, Doug Englebart, Seymour Papert, Marvin Minsky, Alan Kay, Marshall McLuhan, Abbie Hoffman, Richard Stallman, Ted Nelson, Tim Berners-Lee, Larry Wall, Eric S. Raymond, Lawerence Lessig, K. Eric Drexler, Bill Joy and Jaron Lanier.

Brate classifies these visionaries as "techno-humanitarians" - engineers, programmers, computer scientists, and activists dealing with the intersection of technology and society. Their writings are motivated by other movements of their times.

The main value of this text comes from the limited but very interesting cataloging of key documents that any well-informed information technologist should know about. Brate does not enter very deep into the analysis of the visions themselves, limiting himself to the study of the sociological interaction of visionaries with society at large and among themselves.

Value for time: 7.5

Main value: Pointer