When I was a kid, I was obsessed with science fiction. Paul Allen and I spent countless hours discussing Isaac Asimov’s original Founding trilogy. i read all the edgar rice burroughs and robert heinlein books. (the moon is a tough lover was one of my favorites). there was something so exciting to me about these stories that it pushed the boundaries of what was possible.
As I got older, I started reading a lot more non-fiction. I was still interested in books that explored the implications of innovation, but it seemed more important to me to learn something about our real world along the way. Lately, though, I’ve been drawn back to the kinds of books I would have loved as a kid.
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My holiday reading list this year includes two fabulous sci-fi stories. one takes place almost 12 light-years away from our sun, and the other is located here in the united states, but both got me thinking about how people can use technology to respond to challenges. I’ve also included a couple of non-fiction books on cutting-edge science and a novel that made me see one of history’s most famous figures in a new light.
I read a lot of great books this year, including John Doerr’s latest on climate change, but these were some of my favorites.
A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence, by Jeff Hawkins. Few topics have captured the imagination of science fiction writers like artificial intelligence. If you’re interested in learning more about what it takes to create a true AI, this book offers fascinating theory. Hawkins may be best known as the co-inventor of the PalmPilot, but he’s spent decades thinking about the connections between neuroscience and machine learning, and there’s no better introduction to his thinking than this book.
The Codebreaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race, by Walter Isaacson. the crispr gene-editing system is one of the coolest and perhaps most far-reaching scientific breakthroughs of the last decade. I’m familiar with it from my work at the Foundation, we’re funding a number of projects that use the technology, but I still learned a lot from this comprehensive and accessible book about its discovery by Nobel Prize-winning biochemist Jennifer Doudna. and her colleagues. Isaacson does a good job of highlighting the most important ethical issues surrounding gene editing.
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klara and the sun, by kazuo ishiguro. I love a good robot story, and Ishiguro’s novel about a sick girl’s “artificial friend” is no exception. although it takes place in a dystopian future, the robots are not a force for evil. instead, they serve as companions to keep people company. This book got me thinking about what life would be like with super-intelligent robots and whether we will treat these kinds of machines as pieces of technology or something more.
hamnet, by maggie o’farrell. If you’re a fan of shakespeare, you’ll love this moving novel about how his personal life might have influenced the writing of one of his most famous works. o’farrell has built his story on two facts we know to be true about “the bard”: his son hamnet died at the age of 11, and a couple of years later shakespeare wrote a tragedy called hamlet . I particularly enjoyed reading about his wife, Anne, who is portrayed here as an almost supernatural figure.
ave maria project, by andy weir. Like most people, I was first introduced to Weir’s script through the Martian. his latest novel is a wild tale about a high school science teacher who wakes up in a different star system with no memory of how he got there. the rest of the story is about how he uses science and engineering to save the day. it’s a fun read and I finished it all in one weekend.
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