October 2012 Media Thread

I've been on a bit of a Feynman binge recently. I strongly recommend "Surely you're joking Mr.Feynman" and "What do you care what other people think?" Less strongly recommend, but still recommend, "Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track". Previous review. All of them give significant insight into the mind of one of the master traditional rationalists and are quite funny. The first two, do better than the last one in both respects.

After Yvain posted about it I read the Nurture Assumption and No Two Alike in quick succession and thoroughly enjoyed both of them. They've got the all-important trait of having dozens and dozens of citations for every point that I find both useful and interesting in pop-sci books, and are written in fairly good conversational style.

Also I read "Judgement Misguided" and it is one of the best books on Metaethics I've ever read. It's about how moral judgements are particularly prone to bias and how unbiased moral judgement resembles consequentialism/utilitarianism.

Measurement by Paul Lockhart, a book on geometry for those who have little background in mathematics. I have not actually read it, but I have heard it hyped quite a bit by people who know what they're talking about, and I'm quite prepared to believe that it is excellent given that it was written by the author of A Mathematician's Lament. If you are already a math expert, you might not get much out of this, but if you want to become a math expert, I recommend it.

The Collapse of Complex Societies, it's kind of dry but a very interesting look at the mechanics of societal expansion and contraction. He dispenses with a lot of popular notions of why the Roman Empire in particular collapsed with excellent clarity, but goes further than that and proposes a general theory of collapse that applies to societies of all types, even hunter gatherers. I haven't finished it yet however, and since I'm not particularly knowledgeable about archaeology or economics I don't know how well it fares against other works in the genre.

Dave Grossman - On Killing

After reading quite a few books relating to military matters (including some which glorify the whole business a bit -- say, "No easy day" or "American sniper"), it seemed good to look a bit deeper into the minds of soldiers -- "On Killing" is all about what goes through the heads of men whose job it is to kill.

An interesting fact seems to be that at most 20% or so of American WW2 soldiers fired at the enemy; and this number seems to be consistent with other armies / history (there is no hard evidence, but some indications). Reason for this seems to be a mental barrier most people have against killing. Another interesting observation is that Skinnerian operant conditioning has raised that number to ~ 90% in the Vietnam war. Useful for the war effort, but, as the book suggests, killing comes back to haunt the killer after the war (and esp. in the Vietnam conflict it was made worse by the way the troops returned -- this explains many of the psychological problems veterans face).

Interesting read -- the last part about violent movies / video games seemed a bit redundant, and it'd be interesting to see an update on this '95 book.

Read Frans de Waal's Our inner ape

Frans de Waal looks at primates (primarily, chimpanzees and bonobos) at some of human nature -- in particular, sex, violence and morality.

The stories about ape behavior are really fascinating, and may tell us a bit about our own behavior. De Waal suggests that some of our behavior has counterparts in chimpanzees and bonobos, the latter being more aggressive (even violent, cruel) and competitive, and the second being more social.

I didn't like De Waal's extrapolations into human politics and society, or his snide remarks towards Dawkins' The Selfish Gene, apparently mostly because he did not like the title. And the circular reasoning, "Morality needs emotions, because Mr. Spocks's pure-logic morality doesn't feel right".

So, in summary -- Overall, an enjoyable read, and De Waal is best when he discusses apes.

(Note: primates such as bonobos, chimpanzees and gorilla's are apes, they get annoyed when you call them monkeys)

I would recommend most anything by Desmond Morris the Zoologist and Ethologist. Most of his books are about the human species and the insight per page ratio is very high. They are all very readable as well. He does seem to be too confident about some claims he makes, however. It would be nice if he noted that some of the claims that he makes would be controversial in his field.

I particularly enjoyed "Catwatching".

Why Evolution Is True by Jerry Coyne. Can usefully be regarded as one of a pair with Dawkins' The Greatest Show On Earth.

The Destiny of the Republic. I did not know that Alexander Graham Bell invented the metal detector specifically to find Guiteau's bullet in President Garfield's body. It's an interesting history of science/history of medicine book (this is the assassination where Guiteau's defence was that he only shot the Prez and it was the doctors who killed him).

META: I would love it if you also ran a monthly or quarterly "Anticipated Media Thread", where people could post links to media they're looking forward to being released in the next few months, broken into categories just as you do with these Media threads.

Hey, in the future can you use the comment threads? I'm just now noticing this because I never got a notification for it, but if you post in those threads, at least one person (me) is guaranteed to read it. :-)

Let me warn the Harry Potter nerds off of The Casual Vacancy. The plurality of the book is Dursleyish people having unpleasant sex.

Could someone recommend a fun romance novel? Preferably heterosexual with some dominance/submission.

Starfish by Peter Watts is an awesome novel about transhumanism and broken people and societies. It's got unlikable (as people) characters that you grow to love and a very thought out and unique setting. I can't say I enjoyed the sequel as much, though the concept of Guilt Trip is pretty awesome, and I didn't get more than a chapter or so into the third book. But I strongly recommend Starfish on its own.

Fiction on mind merging seems high on mysteriousness and hand-waving and low on plausible speculation in my experience. Anyone have any recommendations?

Rudy Rucker's Ware Tetralogy. I'm thisclose to starting Freeware. I'm about to finish book 2 (The Golden Apple) of the Illuminatus! Trilogy...in fact that's what I'm currently reading... :) I just got Rapture of the Nerds by Cory Doctorow and Charlie Stross...haven't got around to reading it yet though... And I have about 39 fiction+nonfiction books on my current reading list, so...phew....

I've started reading Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell. The first section, while plagued with Ye Olde Australian, managed to hook me, so unless it's quite awful I imagine I'll finish reading it. It comes somewhat recommended from my boyfriend, who claims there's no way they'll be able to competently turn it into a screenplay.

The Laundry Files by Charles Stross, basic premise, advanced mathematics and computing can summon lovecraftion monstrosities. Spy drama, parody of beaurocracy and an interesting take on the history of the 20th century.

There's a short story free online (no massive spoilers) and the main novel series is available on Amazon.

I enjoyed The 2nd Law by Muse, but I'm kind-of peeved by the fact that they seem to be overlooking the fact that the Earth isn't an isolated system, and so what they say about isolated systems doesn't directly apply to Earth (but see this). (OTOH, they do kind-of have a point, so I'm willing to write this off as poetic licence.)

Il Giardino Armonico has some excellent recordings of baroque music. I'm usually not a fan of period instrument performances, but this stuff really works for me. You still have to deal with the blatty horns, which I really detest, but the rest of it is great. Doesn't sound "thin" like some other period instrument recordings.

Their Brandenburgs are among the best I've heard, up there with Marriner. Here's a Youtube link to a performance of the fourth concerto, but that performance is unfortunately not nearly as good as the one on the recording.

They even bring something fresh and exciting to really tired old chestnuts. Their version of The Four Seasons is marvellous and unlike anything else out there. Check it out here, and compare with a more traditional (but still excellent) version (Itzhak Perlman with the Israel Philharmonic).

For an even more tired chestnut made fresh, see their version of Pachelbel's canon.

Listening to a lot of piano music lately and looking for suggestions.

Scott Joplin has always been a favorite of mine. I linked my favorite 3 songs of his other than the two that everyone knows.

I also love Chopin.

Alex Altair introduced me to Pegboard Nerds.

I've been listening to Sphongle a lot lately... the two albums Nothing Lasts and Are You Sphogled? have some pretty gnarfy Muzaks... Also, though this has been a constant in my life since about 4 years ago, Juno Reactor's Gods and Monsters... Beethoven's 9th (my favourite), via Gunter Wand. The Social Network's OST is also quite nice.... Question: Who loves chiptune?

I marathoned Fate/Zero overnight; it was awesome and makes up for Fate/Stay Night - I'm a big fan of shows that grind down and destroy characters, and now I understand why a lot of people like Eliezer are fans of Kiritsugu.

That said, there were some obvious writing errors (eg. Kiritsugu arranging for his lackey to kill a character within seconds of signing a magically binding contract to not intend his death! -_-), the first episodes were bad data dumps, and I still don't get the ending with the rejection of the Grail. It seems to have been some sort of straw utilitarianism. Eh.

Looper was pretty great.

"Legend of the Galactic Heroes" is the kind of show I would like people to imagine I was watching when I say I've been watching anime.

To start with the things I don't like about it, or that are in any way suboptimal: The animation is an example of a lot of what's wrong with old school anime productions; choppy movements and stock footage abound. There are plenty of strawmen who seem to exist purely to be taken down a notch by the better, more reasonable characters, the idiot ball bounces its merry way through the ranks of secondary characters like a children's sing along movie. There is a whole lot of improbable and just plain stupid pseudoscience, and little attempt is made at making it make logical sense. This is space opera, not science fiction. Occasionally the Japanese writers fanboy on German-style culture too hard, which combined with themes of military rule and strong blond and blue eyed characters receiving salutes from crowds of uniformed soldiers may make casual viewers wonder if the show promotes fascism (It doesn't. Sort of. It's complicated).

With all of that said, I highly recommend this show. It doesn't take the easy way out of having a clear good vs. evil conflict. On one side there is the Free Planet's Alliance, a corrupt and bloated democracy, and on the other is the Galactic Empire, a military aristocracy which has given in to decadence and forsaken noblesse oblige. The actions of the characters within each faction highlight the issues of authoritarian and democratic government, but neither side is explicitly right or wrong. Individual characters have different conceptions of morality, many of which conflict, and many of which are sympathetic. Oberstein, a grey-eyed spy-master and bureaucrat of the Empire, is hated by his own compatriots for his ruthlessness, but does everything out of a sense of utilitarian calculation. If a thousand civilian lives lost to an attack could save hundreds of thousands in the long term, he will push the fat man into the path of the trolley. Yang Wenli, persecuted by his own country over whims of public opinion, refuses to betray the principles of democracy even as its worst elements are brought forth by political maneuvering and populism. This is a satisfying story told on a grand scope, it's about passion and consequence, war and intrigue. I wholeheartedly recommend it on the strength of its characters and the majesty of its narrative style.

Be aware: The early episodes drag a bit, but get better drastically as things continue. This is a BIG series, with one hundred and ten episodes (OVAs), two movies, and two prequel mini-series released from 1988 to 2000. It has never been released in America and probably never will be.

The Master is the best serious drama I've seen in years.

I have mixed feelings about Casshern Sins, which I watched over the weekend. It has an excellent soundtrack, kind of neat figure-it-out plot, and a surreal dreamlike quality that reminds me (a lot!) of Squall's Dead. That said, the resolution to the puzzles don't really make any sense (it seems halfway plausible at the end that, in-universe, eating Casshern really would grant immortality -- it's certainly no stranger than the ruin being caused by nyy gur qrngu rfpncvat sebz Yhan jura fur jnf xvyyrq), and characters and perhaps the series over all are engure rkcyvpvgyl qrnguvfg, bs gur fvyyvrfg "qrngu tvirf zrnavat gb yvsr" glcr.

Frankenweenie. I'm not going to say it's Bayesian or materialist, but it's very definite that accepting death is bad. It's charmingly visually grotesque and beautifully filmed (Tim Burton), and a good bit of fun.

I find The Thick of It delightful (half hour episodes of British politicking and cursing extravagantly). It's on Hulu.

Based on the pilot episode with a very special game of chicken, the new Last Resort TV show seems promising. The initial premise is basically The Hunt for Red October meets Lost minus the supernatural elements.

It's also the sort of show that can turn into a complete mess if the writers don't have a good handle on running the larger story arc.

Been reading my way through the archives of Yvain's blog, a lot of good stuff beyond the topics on Lesswrong.

Anyone who's a fan of Star Trek, Firefly, etc, and likes (or doesn't mind) challenging games should play indie PC game FTL. It's a really fun and well-designed pseudo-Roguelike about managing a small spaceship as it races through space fighting and exploring, and is only $10 on Steam or from http://www.ftlgame.com/ . I've seen several people describe FTL as "the game I didn't know I always wanted", and I felt the same.

It's also good practice for risk and crisis management - there's a lot of literal putting out of fires :).

The Rules of the Game Called Psychological Science.

This article about envy free cake division/introductory mathematical dispute resolution is pretty cool. For that matter h2g2, as a whole is worth checking out, abliet less relevant to LW. What To Do in the Face of Certain and Imminent Death is particularly good.

Rationality and Charity:

Quine and others have recommended principles of charity which discourage judgments of irrationality. Such principles have been proposed to govern translation, psychology, and economics. After comparing principles of charity of different degrees of severity, we argue that the stronger principles are likely to block understanding of human behavior and impede progress toward improving it. We support a moderate principle of charity which leaves room for empirically justified judgments of irrationality.

Found while looking for literature on optimal philanthropy. :)

Skepticism about Philosophy.

The following youtube video: Oppa Bill-Nye Style may be relevant to the interests of many here.

Great thread.

Separate movies from TV I think. I am trying to find movies for LW/THINK meetups and all I see is anime. Lots of appealing premises end up being of too short a length to be able to share in a meetup environment.