Episode · Lex Fridman Podcast · 2020-11-30
Books mentioned on #142 – Manolis Kellis: Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything
Manolis Kellis is a computational biologist at MIT. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: – Grammarly: https://grammarly.
Manolis Kellis discussed The Fellowship of the Ring by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien and others and Contact by Carl Sagan. Lex Fridman discussed The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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The Fellowship of the Ring
The Fellowship of the Ring by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien is a foundational high fantasy novel that follows a young hobbit named Frodo Baggins as he embarks on a perilous quest to destroy a corrupting ring of power and save Middle-earth from darkness.
Discussed“I mean if you look at the lord of the rings the enemies are these monsters they're not human”
Where to get it
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Contact
Contact by Carl Sagan is a classic science fiction novel that chronicles humanity's first detected radio signal from an extraterrestrial civilization and the subsequent efforts to build a machine to meet them.
Discussed“and you know again i mean the movie contact and the book is just so beautiful this whole concept of we don't need to travel physically we can travel as light we can send instructions for people to create machines that will allow us to beam down light and recreate ourselves”
Where to get it
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The Better Angels of Our Nature
The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker is a sweeping historical and data-driven book arguing that violence has steadily declined over the course of human history.
Discussed“so you again i want to go back to pinker yeah and the better angels of our nature the whole concept that civilization and the act of civilizing has dramatically reduced violence dramatically”
Where to get it
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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams is a celebrated comedic science fiction series that follows the absurd interstellar adventures of the sole surviving human, Arthur Dent.
Discussed“and now let me leave you with some words from douglas adams in his book hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy on the planet earth man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much the wheel new york wars and so on whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (1) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“since this is episode number 142 and 42 as we all know is the answer to the ultimate question of life the universe and everything according to the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy”