📚 8 Books mentioned in "Dmitri Dolgov: Waymo and the Future of Self-Driving Cars | Lex Fridman Podcast #147" of Lex Fridman Podcast

if anything 2020 has taught me and i'm a huge fan of animal farm which is a kind of friendly as a friend of 1984 by orwell it's kind of another thought experiment of how our society may go in directions that we wouldn't like it to go but if if anything that's been [Music] kind of heartbreaking to an optimist about 2020 is that that society is kind of fragile

Lex Fridman mentions Animal Farm by George Orwell as a book he is a fan of, relating it to 1984 and the fragility of society.

► Watch this excerpt

i mean i think 1984 in these books brave new world they they're helpful in thinking like stuff can go wrong in non-obvious ways and it's like it's up to us to preserve it and it's like it's a responsibility

Lex Fridman mentions Brave New World along with 1984 as books that are helpful for thinking about how society can go wrong.

► Watch this excerpt

uh hard to be a god uh uh beetle in an ant hill uh monday starts on saturday like it's it's not just science fiction it's also like has very interesting you know interpersonal and societal questions and some of the language is just completely hilarious that's the one that's right oh interesting monday starts on saturday so i need to read

Dmitri Dolgov mentions Beetle in an Anthill as a book by the Strugatsky brothers.

► Watch this excerpt

uh hard to be a god uh uh beetle in an ant hill uh monday starts on saturday like it's it's not just science fiction it's also like has very interesting you know interpersonal and societal questions and some of the language is just completely hilarious that's the one that's right oh interesting monday starts on saturday so i need to read

Dmitri Dolgov mentions Hard to Be a God as a book by the Strugatsky brothers, noting its deep ethical questions.

► Watch this excerpt

actually yeah you know they're very tempted to uh quote uh one of the stories stories by uh uh isaac asimov actually um actually titled appropriately titled the last question uh short story where you know the plot is that you know humans build this super computer you know this this this ai intelligence and you know once it's get power gets powerful enough they pose this question to it you know um how can the entropy in the universe be reduced all right so your computer replies and as of yet insufficient information to give a meaningful answer

Dmitri Dolgov mentions Isaac Asimov's short story 'The Last Question' and recounts its plot in response to the question about the meaning of life.

► Watch this excerpt

uh hard to be a god uh uh beetle in an ant hill uh monday starts on saturday like it's it's not just science fiction it's also like has very interesting you know interpersonal and societal questions and some of the language is just completely hilarious that's the one that's right oh interesting monday starts on saturday so i need to read

Dmitri Dolgov mentions Monday Starts on Saturday as a book by the Strugatsky brothers, describing it as humorous.

► Watch this excerpt

the second one i would probably pick the science fiction by the stragoski brothers uh you know it's up there with you know isaac asimov and you know ray bradbury uh and you know company uh the straguski brothers kind of appealed more to me i think more it made more of an impression on me uh growing up um can you i apologize if i'm showing my complete ignorance i'm so weak on sci-fi which what what are they right oh um uh roadside picnic

Dmitri Dolgov mentions Roadside Picnic as a science fiction book by the Strugatsky brothers that made an impression on him.

► Watch this excerpt

uh three books so i would uh you know that impacted me um i would say uh this one is you probably know it well um but and not generally well known i i think in the u.s or kind of internationally the master and margarita it's uh one of actually my favorite uh books um it is you know by a russian it's a novel by russian author uh mikhail bulgakov and it's just it's it's a great book and it's one of those books that you can like reread your entire life and it's very accessible you can read it as a kid and like it's it you know it's that the plot is interesting it's you know the the devil you know visiting the soviet union and yeah but it it like you read it reread it at different stages of your life and you yeah you enjoy it for different very different reasons and you keep finding like deeper and deeper meaning uh and you know kind of affected you know hadn't definitely had an like imprint on me mostly from the probably kind of the cultural stylistic uh aspect like it makes you one of those books that you know is good and makes you think but also has like this really you know silly quirky dark sense of you know humor

Dmitri Dolgov mentions The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov as one of his favorite books that has impacted him, noting its accessibility at different life stages and its blend of profound themes with dark humor.

► Watch this excerpt