Episode · Lex Fridman Podcast · 2021-11-11
Books mentioned on #240 – Neal Stephenson: Sci-Fi, Space, Aliens, AI, VR & the Future of Humanity
Neal Stephenson is a sci-fi writer (Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, and new book Termination Shock), former Chief Futurist at Magic Leap and first employee of Blue Origin. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: – Mizzen+Main: https://mizzenandmain.
Neal Stephenson recommended The Emperor's New Mind by Roger Penrose, The Road to Reality by Roger Penrose, and The Fabric of Reality by David Deutsch, and discussed Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Isaevich Solzhenit︠s︡yn, Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl, Moby Dick by Herman Melville, The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, Selected Essays of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson, The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle, Gravitation by Charles W. Misner, and The beginning of infinity. Lex Fridman discussed Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Cryptonomicon
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson is a sweeping, multi-layered novel that weaves together themes of cryptography, World War II codebreaking, and the modern digital age of cryptocurrency.
Discussed“so one in crypto nomicon is more like the alan turing side of things”
Where to get it
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The Gulag Archipelago
The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is a monumental historical exposé documenting the brutal realities of the Soviet forced labor camp system through personal testimony and archival research.
Discussed“i read a good chunk of the gulag archipelago when i was a teenager um because my my grandfather had it in his house because he was one of these americans who was obsessed with the soviet union”
Where to get it
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Man's Search for Meaning
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E.
Discussed“but it's also a story of of bravery of of love of brother brotherhood and sisterhood and basically survival you have like a man search for meaning which is the stories of uh the story of a man in a concentration camp basically finding beauty in life even under uh most extreme conditions”
Where to get it
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Termination Shock
Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson is a near-future science fiction novel that explores the dramatic consequences of unilateral geoengineering and climate change.
Discussed“so in your new book termination shock it's set here in texas part of it is”
Where to get it
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Moby Dick
Moby Dick by Herman Melville is a classic 19th-century novel exploring the obsessions of Captain Ahab and the dramatic whaling voyage of the Pequod.
Discussed“so there's definitely that there's you know i circle back to moby dick a lot um because we read it in a uh a really great english class i had in high school and i came in with an oppositional stance because i thought that the teacher was going to try to talk me into having all kinds of highfalutin”
Where to get it
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The Count of Monte Cristo
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas is an epic classic adventure novel centering on betrayal, wrongful imprisonment, and a meticulously planned revenge.
Discussed“and but it was like they would do the count of money christo you know moby dick you know robert louis stevenson robinson crusoe you know all the sort of classic books”
Where to get it
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Selected Essays of Robert Louis Stevenson
Discussed“and but it was like they would do the count of money christo you know moby dick you know robert louis stevenson robinson crusoe you know all the sort of classic books”
Where to get it
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The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes
Arthur Conan Doyle's classic detective fiction, presented with extensive commentary in editions like The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, continues to captivate readers and influence modern storytellers.
Discussed“so i read a lot of that stuff uh for sure the annotated sherlock holmes um you you mentioned david deutsche as an inspiration for some of your work”
Where to get it
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Gravitation
Gravitation by Charles W.
Discussed“where you could just spend your whole life with a single textbook there's enough in that textbook yeah to really really stay measner thorne and wheeler gravitation you know is one of those or another one is”
Where to get it
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The Emperor's New Mind
Roger Penrose's influential work explores the intersections of physics, consciousness, and the philosophy of mind, famously challenging the notion that human brains operate merely like computers.
Recommended“gravitation you know is one of those or another one is um the road to reality by roger penrose which is just incredibly deep it starts with like two plus two equals four”
Where to get it
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The Road to Reality
The Road to Reality by Roger Penrose is a comprehensive and deeply ambitious guide that attempts to explain the entire physical universe, starting from basic mathematics and moving outward to the most complex boundaries of modern physics.
Recommended“the road to reality by roger penrose which is just incredibly deep it starts with like two plus two equals four and it at the end you're at the boundaries of of physics”
Where to get it
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The Fabric of Reality
The Fabric of Reality by David Deutsch is a seminal work of popular science and philosophy that explores four foundational strands of thought: quantum physics, epistemology, computation, and evolution.
Recommended“and one of the reasons i like david deutsch in particular his book the beginning of infinity um is that he talks about the power of explanations and the fact that um most civilizations are static that they've got a set of dogmas that they arrive at somehow and they just pass those on from one uh generation to the”
Where to get it
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The beginning of infinity
The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch is a wide-ranging work of non-fiction that explores scientific progress, human knowledge, and the concept that problems are inherently solvable without limit.
Discussed“david deutsch in particular his book the beginning of infinity um is that he talks about the power of explanations and the fact that”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (9) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“exploring ideas in mathematics science cryptography money linguistics philosophy and virtual reality from his early book snow crash to his new one called termination shock”
“exploring ideas in mathematics science cryptography money linguistics philosophy and virtual reality from his early book snow crash to his new one called termination shock”
“you write both historical fiction like world war ii in kryptonomicon and science fiction looking both into the past and the future so let me ask does history repeat itself”
“mean this is the theme of a book i wrote called the diamond age which you know talks about a book that essentially does that”
“the um i i did a lot of not a lot but i did some some reading of husserole when i was writing anathem um and he's a you know 20th century phenomenologist and he's writing in the he's writing at the same time as as scientists are starting to understand atoms and and becoming aware that that when we”
“anathem um and he's a you know 20th century phenomenologist and he's writing in the”
“then uh reem d um is one of those and termination shock um is is definitely one of those um so it just depends on on uh what people like”
“it's a it's a hard one to answer maybe seven eaves because it's got big themes um it's you know it's about heavy heavy things happening to the human race”
“and now let me leave you with some words from neil stevenson himself in his novel snow crash the world is full of things more powerful than us”