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Ask HN: What is the most mind blowing book you've ever read?

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Re: Ask HN: What is the most mind blowing book you've ever read?

#72

Post by kbob »

Numerous people have already recommended Hofstadter, so I'll skip to:

The Moral Animal, Robert Wright. It looks at how natural selection applies to human cultures.

Debt: The First 5,000 Years, David Graeber. History of economic systems. Everything we know about money is one of many alternatives tried somewhere at some time.

Where Mathematics Comes From, George Lakoff. Presents the radical notion that math is not a truth we've discovered, but a byproduct of the organization of our brains. It looks at the evolution of the concept of infinity as an example, and so it resembles David Foster Wallace's Infinity and More.

I think these books all have the theme that what we think of as reality is just the current point on the random path of our culture's concensus. If that's not mind blowing, I can't help you. (-:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moral_Animal

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt:_The_First_5000_Years

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_Mathematics_Comes_From

Re: Ask HN: What is the most mind blowing book you've ever read?

#76

Post by jonathansizz »

Mind-blowing for those who've read 'The Selfish Gene' and thought it explained everything about evolution:

'The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm: A Critique of the Adaptationist Programme', SJ Gould and RC Lewontin

'The Origins of Genome Architecture', M Lynch

'Mutation-Driven Evolution', M Nei

Re: Ask HN: What is the most mind blowing book you've ever read?

#77

Post by vijayr »

devgutt wrote: post #13

Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand also, not a book but very good "The last question" Isaac Asimov [1] [1] http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html

Could you explain why you find Atlas Shrugged mind blowing? I read "we the living" and "The fountainhead" and found them quite annoying. Haven't read Atlas Shrugged, just curious if I am missing something.

Re: Ask HN: What is the most mind blowing book you've ever read?

#78

Post by s_baby »

jonathansizz wrote: post #76

Mind-blowing for those who've read 'The Selfish Gene' and thought it explained everything about evolution: 'The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm: A Critique of the Adaptationist Programme', SJ Gould and RC Lewontin 'The Origins of Genome Architecture', M Lynch 'Mutation-Driven Evolution', M Nei

I've never read that particular Gould book but I have to agree his ideas on biology are pretty mind blowing and more relevant than ever.

Re: Ask HN: What is the most mind blowing book you've ever read?

#79

Post by davidy123 »

(Trouble on) Triton, by Samuel Delaney. I read a lot of sf in my early teens (in the late 70s), all the classic space-ship stuff, this was one of the first that in a very real way brushed all that aside and exposed more about individual values, by following a protagonist who really wasn't admirable. If you aren't just looking to excite yourself about the amazing possibilities of science and advantage, it's highly recommended.
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