The Aptly Named, Sam's Blog » Reading http://blog.samgrover.com Mon, 02 Aug 2010 00:08:27 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Stranger in a Strange Land [Book] http://blog.samgrover.com/2009/10/29/stranger-in-a-strange-land-book/ http://blog.samgrover.com/2009/10/29/stranger-in-a-strange-land-book/#comments Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:21:11 +0000 samgrover http://blog.samgrover.com/2009/10/29/stranger-in-a-strange-land-book/

This book is a treatise on human culture, with an emphasis on faith and spirituality. It is sci-fi as set in contemporary 21st century. The book can feel a bit dated, and it helps to imagine the US in the 60s to get some perspective. I particularly enjoyed the early experiences of Mike Smith (the “Man from Mars”) as he encounters human civilization for the first time and tries his best to “grok” it. His discoveries present interesting quirks of humanity that make one chuckle and laugh. Laughter itself makes a revealing impression on Mike.

Thanks to the Multnomah County Library!

Book page on Amazon.com
Book page on Wikipedia

]]> http://blog.samgrover.com/2009/10/29/stranger-in-a-strange-land-book/feed/ 2 Short stories http://blog.samgrover.com/2006/05/20/short-stories/ http://blog.samgrover.com/2006/05/20/short-stories/#comments Sat, 20 May 2006 08:28:32 +0000 samgrover http://blog.samgrover.com/2006/05/20/short-stories/ I like reading, but unfortunately, I don't get much time to read for pleasure these days. Adding to that sorry state of affairs is the fact that I'm a slow reader. When I do read nowadays, it is more of non-fiction. On those rare occasions that I do read fiction, I love a good short story.

Apart from being concise, short stories stay focused and leave a lot to the imagination. They appeal to the minimalist in me. They build around a key idea or theme and my favorite kind have a twist or climax at the very end. An extreme and wonderful example is Ernest Hemmingway's six word story: "For sale: Baby shoes. Never used".

Here are some short stories that I came across on the internet in recent times. I think they are marvelous and recommend them to you, my imaginary readers. One for each of you three :-D

If you have a short story recommendation, leave a comment! :-)

]]> http://blog.samgrover.com/2006/05/20/short-stories/feed/ 9 The Search http://blog.samgrover.com/2006/01/02/the-search/ http://blog.samgrover.com/2006/01/02/the-search/#comments Mon, 02 Jan 2006 23:55:54 +0000 samgrover http://blog.samgrover.com/2006/01/02/the-search/ The Search“The Search” by John Battelle is about the impact that search technology is having and will have on our culture. “Search” is defined quite broadly and includes the coming realm of ubiquitous computing. Google is a major focus of the book, and its influence and growth surely warrant that focus.

What motivated me to read this book was the concept of the “Database of Intentions”. It refers to the ability of an ubiquitous search technology to extract the intention of one or more of its users by analyzing their interactions with a plethora of devices. That is absolutely fascinating and will be quite something when it is realized. Needless to say, it will be the Oracle of the information age. It is an update on the idea of the Memex described by Vannevar Bush in “As We May Think”, which is cited in the book. A meta-Memex.

A good portion of the book, however, is devoted to the history of search technology and industry. That is quite interesting in and of itself as I like to read about such things. There are several anecdotes about the people and companies that played a part in these nascent times. I found it to be too detailed in some places, but the book is written such that one could easily skip those parts if one finds them too dull. I didn’t.

The epilogue highlights that we remember people from history because they became immortal through records. In the future, everyone will be immortal because everything will be recorded. This blog is being recorded. All of it will add to the noise and one will have to shout or be referenced a lot to be seen clearly. Will you shout? What will you say? I think you should write a book while they are still in vogue ;-)

]]> http://blog.samgrover.com/2006/01/02/the-search/feed/ 0 On Intelligence http://blog.samgrover.com/2005/12/29/on-intelligence/ http://blog.samgrover.com/2005/12/29/on-intelligence/#comments Fri, 30 Dec 2005 03:14:38 +0000 samgrover http://blog.samgrover.com/2005/12/29/on-intelligence/ On IntelligenceI recently read “On Intelligence” by Jeff Hawkins. The book is about the author’s efforts to understand the human brain’s mechanism for intelligence and to apply it to machines. He presents a model of intelligence called the memory-prediction framework.

This was perhaps the first time I had read a somewhat detailed analysis of the possible mechanism that drives human intelligence. Some concepts that I found especially interesting were that of invariant and hierarchical memory. Also, the idea that the brain predicts all actions before they are executed was fascinating. If the subject interests you, I highly recommend it. It is quite readable.

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