Reading List

A few books on my newest reading list.

Small Pieces Loosely Joined, by David Weinberger. A text on the web (A unified theory of the Web) which explains why and how the Web works…”

The Web is showing us who we are – and is undoing some of our deepest misunderstandings about what it means to be human in the real world.

David is also the co-author of The Cluetrain Manifesto, a book on “The End of Business as Usual”.

Last book for the timeBeing: The Emotion Machine, in which Marvin Minsky  argues in favor of a mechanical view of emotions and thought. He means emotions are a kind of thought, not feeling. In Minsky’s words (from an interview in Wired 12|2006 with Daniel Dennett):

A well-designed program that wouldn’t be so hierarchical but more like a network of resources that make requests to other resources.

When a some resource fails, our brain switches to another. When none is available (or has been removed), zap! an emotions is born.

I just wonder, what happens with emotions that we cannot define as a failure of resources? For instance, love?

Some chapters (in draft form) are available from Minsky’s site: http://web.media.mit.edu/~minsky/.

In the Wired interview, Dennet says he has a good slogan for Minsky’s book: “My body has a mind of its own, so what does it need me for?” And Minsky replies with a label he found on a London bus:

Mind Your Head.

About Antonio Vantaggiato

Professor, web2.0 enthusiast, and didactic chef.
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One Response to Reading List

  1. Rosa Ojeda says:

    Gracias por la lista. Me interesa leer el de Minsky, para ver si podemos continuar nuestra conversación del Foro de discusión en el TOL. Me parece que todavía podemos continuar en la línea de aquellos cuestionamientos.

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