“Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow” by Yuval Noah Harari

This is the sequel to HomoSapiens by the same author. This is also a continuation of Harari’s train of thought from what is happening in the present, to what will happen in the future. He opens the book saying that in the past, man’s goal has been to eradicate famine, disease, and poverty. Well most of the world is free from this now. So man’s goals are changing, and instead we are focusing on achieving immortality and becoming godlike. Not in the sense that we are omniscient, but in the sense that we have immense power and control over everything surrounding us.

Of course this all builds directly off of his previous work. As a result, to me it felt like there was a lot of recapping in the first half of the book. He went through some concepts that he already covered, but that continue to be relevant, for those that needed a refresher of his previous book or those that didn’t read it. Which is good, but my mind was less blown the second time around.

The really interesting part is when he gets to his discussion of humanism. That is, the idea that humans are individuals with a unique inner voice, and that there is no God, only us and what we choose to do with ourselves. That there is something special about humans and consciousness that nothing else has. However, this view is brought into conflict by the expansion of science and technology. Increasingly, we are not organisms but rather algorithms that take in sensory information and put out specific reactions to them. Consciousness is also proven to be accessory as more and more intelligent machines do everything that we can, just without consciousness.

Harari being himself, he takes this idea and pushes it to the limit. The world he describes is one ruled by data and numbers, where we are not making any decisions for ourselves, but instead letting machines who know all of our feelings make choices for us. It sounds far-fetched, but Harari constantly uses examples from the present day to demonstrate that we are indeed already on the path to this. Facebook records our likes, machines can write beautiful symphonies, armbands track our heart rate and blood pressure already, it is not such a big leap to imagine this happening.

Throughout this whole book Harari refrains from discussing whether these changes are good or bad. He ignores that question entirely and leaves that up to the reader. However at the end, he leaves us with three questions regarding the future of society. Are all organisms merely algorithms, and as a result is life data? Is intelligence or consciousness more valuable? Finally, what will happen when algorithms know us better than we know ourselves? At the very end of the novel, Harari leaves it up to us to decide how we feel about this as a future.

One interesting aspect that he does not discuss though is determinism. Sure he discusses free will and how as algorithms we have a distinct lack of it, but he does not go into manifestations of a society based on determinism. To be fair, there are limited practical aspects of determinism, but it would have been interesting to see it mentioned.

Like Homo Sapiens this is a mind-blowing mammoth of a novel. Harari masterfully explains just where life is headed, and then leaves it up to us to determine how we feel about it. Part philosophy, psychology, anthropology, and biology it combines several disciplines to portray his ideas about the world and life. As a result, nearly anyone can pick it up and follow what he is discussing, and see just how data proposes to overtake our lives.

“Blind Spot: Hidden Biases of Good People” by Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald

The focus of this book is on the unconscious biases, called “mindbugs” by the authors, that we all possess and affect our activities. The authors describe how they developed the Implicit Association Test (IAT) to test for these associations, and also the implications that their results have for how to look at our lives. (You can take the test for yourself at implicit.harvard.edu)

While they discuss discrimination on the basis of gender, age, weight, among others, the vast majority of their efforts go towards discussing race (hence the two appendices discussing it). This is largely because most scientific research has gone into race discrimination. But it is also important to note that this book was published after the US elected Obama as president, when there was a wave of thought claiming that we now lived in a post-racial society. Their evidence shows that we have a long way to go before we reach that point, and claiming anything else is truly unproductive.

One of the more interesting findings that they had (in my opinion) was that we are more likely to forgive members of the in-group. This was demonstrated using shock responses on people, and causing them to associate the shock with a face. Individuals were more likely to lose the shock response when the face was a member of their own race. Applied more broadly, this demonstrates that we are more likely to disregard terrorist acts when they come from a member of our own race. And when you think about society as it currently stands, this is all too real. The white racists of Charleston, or the white shooter at Las Vegas, have all been forgiven by the masses a little too easily for my liking. Contrast that with the prejudice we have against black men, and it’s easy to see how this leads to issues.

Combating our unconscious biases is more important now than ever before, and this book presents a good start for doing just that. I would highly recommend taking their test, and reading this for background information. We like to think that we know what is going on in our heads, but recent scientific studies have demonstrated that, in fact, we may not know the first thing about ourselves. It is essential to know the research being done in order to try and correct this, and make the world a better place in the process.

“Gastrophysics: The New Science of Eating” by Charles Spence

As both a foodie and a scientist, I knew that I had to read this book. And I was not disappointed; this book is a wonderful blend of science and food. Spence is a psychologist who studies taste and what influences how we perceive food. Some are quite surprising, like the fact that touch sensation is actually very important to our dining experience, and others less so, like the effects of smell on food.

This book is clearly a labor of love, Spence has done plenty of research with his experiments, with his experiences, and with the history of food. Many chapters reference each other, but the overall flow consists of going through the senses individually, and then discussing the experience of dining more generally. He gives particular attention to food as theater, and how all this attention to our different senses manifests as a sort of performance in some places.

If you’re like me and cannot afford the vast majority of the places that he goes to, Spence also makes a point to discuss how all of his research is applicable to someone throwing a dinner party. There are tips for how to create a memorable experience for your guests, and how to eat healthily. The result is that the book is very accessible and relatable to the average person, whether they are into food or just curious.

A really well done book on quite a fascinating branch of science! I would love to be a volunteer for his studies, sign me up!

“Far From the Tree” by Andrew Solomon

It’s hard to distill this vast book into a few paragraphs, but I’ll do my best. Essentially, this is a book about the differences between parents and their children, and how that affects their relationships with other people and within their family. Identity politics and discussions of what constitutes an identity versus a disability are very much central to the stories that Solomon puts together, making it an interesting read about ourselves and different communities that we had no idea existed.

Each chapter is a discussion about families that share a specific characteristic. This may or may not connect them, and it may or may not be seen as detrimental by the larger society. Solomon starts with a discussion about Deafness and the Deaf community, which I did not realize was so robust, and from there goes into dwarfism, down syndrome, autism, prodigies, crime, transgender, and others. All of the different sections are primarily made up of stories about individual families rather than statistics and generalizations. The reader learns that there are a multitude of experiences within these communities, but that they all fall under these umbrellas.

Honestly the chapters could all be separated out into their own individual pieces and still stand strong, but instead Solomon decides to link them together with the insights that he gained along the way about identity, parenting, and difference. The first chapter discusses his relationship with his parents, and what it was like for him to grow up as a homosexual. The final chapter then discusses how he in turn became a parent, and his hopes and fears regarding that change. The effect is that the reader goes on a journey with Solomon, as opposed to seeing his results presented to us.

There is so much within this volume that to even begin to parse out some key points is to do it an injustice, it really demands that you just read the book in its entirety and learn what it has to say. I feel as though I have certainly learned more about the different people around me, but also about myself and how I cope with difference and how I view my own identity. I have never wanted to become a parent (and still don’t) but if I was ever going to change my mind I think I would be more prepared to accept my child as an individual and not simply as a product of myself after this book. And that is the greatest gift you can probably give your offspring: the ability to see them as themselves and not as who you want them to be.

Variations on a Theme: Video Games

Game music tends to be very overlooked, but it affects how you feel as you play the game, adds to the atmosphere of the game, and the best games add fun bonuses like jukeboxes where you can listen to any song of your choice from the game. This is a playlist of the songs from (or about) video games that I like the best, put together into a playlist roughly 30 minutes long. Hopefully you find some new music here, and possibly a new game to play!

1. "Game Over" by Falling in Reverse 

Not from a video game, but comparing life to one. This is a great opener because it reminds us that it’s all “just a game” and even has some sound effects like classic Mario games. Don’t worry, we’ll get into actual gaming music next, but what I like about this song is that it is almost a commentary on both life and games. Listen to the lyrics and you’ll see what I mean. This is also the only pop punk song on here, so enjoy it!

2. "Twister" The World Ends With You 

This is the opening song to one of my favorite video games of all time, “The World Ends With You,” made by Square Enix back in 2007. The soundtrack in general is one of my favorite, but this is definitely the best song on there. It perfectly captures the mood of the game, which centers around a bunch of teens fighting for their lives through Shibuya, a Japanese city. There are several remixes available online since we keep getting teased with a sequel but never getting it (sigh) so check those out if you’re into this! (Speaking of being teased by a sequel, this game is coming out for the switch sometime this year, with a new epilogue attached to the end so we’ll see what that’s like.)

3. "City Escape" Sonic 

Yeah it’s a meme, no I don’t care. This song’s just fun to listen to, and it goes really well with “Twister” since they have the same vibe of running away from things, although Sonic is much more carefree about it.

4. “Rainbow Road” Mario 

A classic tune from a classic game, somehow the music always kept me from getting too stressed on this course. It just so upbeat and good to jam along to, even if you’re falling to your death off of the course.

5. “Cider Time” Dustforce 

Dustforce is a game with great 8-bit music in it, and this is my favorite from it. It makes great background music with its simple, but catchy, melody, and is a great segue from Rainbow Road into some more somber music coming up.

6. “Hopes and Dreams” Undertale 

If you haven’t heard about Undertale, you should probably change that. This indie game has been amazing people, and I would recommend it to anyone. The structure of the story makes you think about gaming itself, as well as how we treat others, both real and in the game. The soundtrack has quite a few gems in it, this one included. It’s got a great beat (yes I have heard it at parties) but also a simple these that keeps continually going through several permutations over the course of the song.

7. “Objection” Ace Attorney 

Ace Attorney is a video game series that I’ve played since middle school, and honestly I’ve loved every second of it. The music is a huge factor in this game, it determines how you feel about each of the characters you’re interacting with, and ups the ante when the defendant is on the line. This is a more triumphant tune, for when you have found a critical flaw in someone’s argument, and it captures that mood perfectly.

8. “Violet Sky” Hotel Dusk 

Hotel Dusk is a really unique game. It’s made for the DS, but you have to rotate the console ninety degrees so that the characters faces are displayed in portrait rather than landscape mode, if that makes sense. It’s also similar to Ace Attorney in that the music is a big factor in the mood and personality of the characters. However there’s also a jukebox in the bar area where you can play whatever song you want, and I usually pick this one. It sounds vaguely mysterious, fitting for a detective game, but also sounds like something you could jam to. More than just atmosphere, it’s a really cool piece of music.

9. “Great Fairy’s Fountain Theme” The Legend of Zelda 

It just would not be fitting if I didn’t talk about The Legend of Zelda at some point. Now the original fairy theme is rather simple and super repetitive, which can get annoying, but themes and variations are the basis of most classical works. So here the fairy theme is turned into a symphonic work, and very nicely at that. The theme sways through the different sections, never totally being lost but not becoming repetitious. The entire series of symphonic LoZ music is great, check it out if you are interested!

10. “I was born for this” Journey 

And finally we have music from the game “Journey.” I tried to have the music go from more upbeat tunes to slower and relaxing music, and this is the epitome of relaxing. The game involves the main character going on a journey (wow no one could have guessed that) and gaining help from anonymous players along the way. The music fosters a sense of independence throughout the solo quest, but also connection as you gain strength from others. The soundtrack in general is great for background music, but this is my favorite track. It’s so melodic and soothing, wonderful for studying or anything that needs a little noise.

Bonus: Toad Screaming 

You get a bonus track this month! My friend has a theory that any song is improved if you are also simultaneously playing a video of Toad (from Mario) screaming in the background. Try it for yourself and see what happens!

Stay tuned for next month when I’ll be discussing swing music! I love this genre, hopefully I can convince you to love it as well!