Mind-expanding literature or media

[Lone Wolf]

My favorite books are ones that leave me with a completely new perspective on some aspect of the world.  These are the books whose concepts I find coming back to me as I take in new information and try to understand the world around me.

What are some of yours?

How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World - Big mind-expander.  From an individual's perspective, what does it really mean to "change the world" or "change hearts and minds"?  Filled with lots of interesting (and some very strange!) ideas about how to move past this notion that we have to change other people or demand things from them in order to get what we want.  Also contains one of the most powerful arguments for telling the truth that I've read -- that personal freedom and honesty are linked.

Ancient Inventions - It's humbling to see just how brilliant humans have been throughout the ages.  Centuries and centuries ago, humans had created things like steam-powered doors, flame throwers, cataract surgeries, and automatons that could enact entire plays.  Our ancestors were performing successful brain surgeries with stone tools long before we have any written records.  Interestingly, this all bolsters Medium Tex's thesis that much of what makes us special now (versus then) is the adoption of fossil fuels.

Fail-Safe Investing - 'Nuff said.

Basic Economics - Great book on how the pieces of a free market economy come together in order to create wealth.  Trading goods with strangers is something we are innately skeptical of as humans (and this skepticism reverberates today.)  This book was originally very helpful for me in understanding just why market economies are such powerful wealth generators.

Trinity - This one is actually an "interactive fiction" all-text game from the 1980s.  An awesome, well-written study of the atomic age that takes you backward from the paranoia of the cold war (and the implied outbreak of World War III) all the way to the Trinity test site itself.  Filled with surreal, trippy allegory, humor, and lots of interesting historical detail.  Even though the cold war is long past, I think that the atomic age defines so much of the danger and opportunity we've got ahead of us.

War Before Civilization: The Myth of the Peaceful Savage - Dismantled the somewhat idyllic ancient past that I'd imagined since I was young.  A nuanced look at just how deep violence runs throughout ancient human history.  What's interesting is that the book does not argue that humans are "natural born killers" but attempts to explore how, why, and to what horrifying degree the innate human desire for peace was overridden.

[stone]

Lone Wolf, just reading the wikipedia entry for "War Before Civilization: The Myth of the Peaceful Savage" when you last mentioned it was a massive revelation to me.

I'm dreadful about not reading books.

[6 Iron]

I have recently started reading David Foster Wallace, a man that had a knack for looking at things ranging from truth to lobsters from a different perspective. I highly recommend this short essay/ commencement address, "This is Water", to see if he appeals to you:

http://moreintelligentlife.com/story/da ... -own-words

If that is a grabber, you might like this collection of essays:

http://www.amazon.com/Consider-Lobster- ... 095&sr=1-4

[Lone Wolf]

I have recently started reading David Foster Wallace, a man that had a knack for looking at things ranging from truth to lobsters from a different perspective. I highly recommend this short essay/ commencement address, "This is Water", to see if he appeals to you:

http://moreintelligentlife.com/story/da ... -own-words

Nice essay!  It's sad to think that Wallace committed suicide not terribly long after giving this speech.

[rickb]

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn - odd, intriguing little book

Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond - how it is that Europe (and America) ended up on top

Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb - there's a big difference between unlikely and impossible

God Delusion by Richard Dawkins - belief in God considered harmful

Planet Earth (on blu-ray) - if this footage doesn't amaze you, nothing will

[Lone Wolf]

Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond

Ah yes, this is a great one!  He does an excellent job of laying out the human story.

The one caveat I have for this book is that Diamond is really weak on military history.  His description of the Inca military is way off (he describes them as using "slingshots"!)  Weirdly, he also implies that there were no existing methods for countering heavy cavalry by the time Pizarro conquered the Inca (the 1500s) even though pikes had been used for centuries in Europe to break cavalry charges.

Doesn't detract too much from the rest of the book which is by and large quite well-researched.  Just throw out most of the military content you read in it and you're fine.

Planet Earth

Strongly seconded.  We live on an amazing planet.  To me, this was the Blu-Ray "killer app" for which DVD just couldn't cut it.

This was actually the first TV that we allowed my oldest son to watch.  Apart from some uncomfortable moments when we had to explain why beautiful animal "A" would kill and eat beautiful animal "B", we had an awesome time with it.

[bigamish]

My personal general readership faves are:

Coming of Age in the Milky Way by Timothy Ferris - From the book jacket, "Winner of the 1988 American Institute of Physics Prize and named one of 1988's best books by the New York Times Book Review, this brilliant, lively and informative book seeks to comprehend the enormities of cosmic space and time and how this quest has shaped religion, politics and philosophy."  I was assigned this book as part of a college course I took in the early 1990s, have read it many times, and it still sticks with me today.  Great reading for anyone interested in space, time, and humanity's attempts to understand its place in the universe.  To my mind, even better than Carl Sagan's book "Cosmos".

Parasite Rex by Carl Zimmer - Most folks don't realize that at least 80% of all living things are parasites, and how profoundly they affect ecosystem structure, population dynamics, human health & societal structure, not to mention physiology & behavior.  They have been shown to be a major force driving evolutionary processes and may have triggered the development of sexual reproduction.  Really mind-bending stuff.  An amusing read, and makes many of the popular sci-fi movies dealing with the subject seem tame by comparison.  In my parasitology course, I assign this book as required reading and the students love it.

[Storm]

Trinity - This one is actually an "interactive fiction" all-text game from the 1980s.  An awesome, well-written study of the atomic age that takes you backward from the paranoia of the cold war (and the implied outbreak of World War III) all the way to the Trinity test site itself.  Filled with surreal, trippy allegory, humor, and lots of interesting historical detail.  Even though the cold war is long past, I think that the atomic age defines so much of the danger and opportunity we've got ahead of us.

Wow, I used to play a lot of those Infocom interactive text adventures when I was younger.  This was a good one, although I don't remember the details of it now.  I'll have to go back and replay some of them, as there are emulators available for PC/iPhone/iPad/Android/etc.

Those games were great because it was really like playing an interactive novel.  The writing was exceptional, and the text processing engine was so intelligent that you could really type commands in plain english and get good results.

Here is more info on Trinity:

http://www.csd.uwo.ca/Infocom/trinity.html

I actually had a really fun time playing Border Zone - another 80s "cold war" based game - this time you get to play 3 chapters, in one you're an American businessman, in the second you're a spy for the west, and in the third you're a spy for the east.

http://www.csd.uwo.ca/Infocom/borderzone.html

I think a lot of our literature and media from the 50s to the 80s was colored by the cold war.  Look at movies like Mad Max, Wargames, etc.  It was a time when we were all slightly in fear of a global thermonuclear war that could break out at any moment.

[Lone Wolf]

Thanks, bigamish!  Those are going on my Amazon wishlist.

Wow, I used to play a lot of those Infocom interactive text adventures when I was younger.  This was a good one, although I don't remember the details of it now.  I'll have to go back and replay some of them, as there are emulators available for PC/iPhone/iPad/Android/etc.

Those games were great because it was really like playing an interactive novel.  The writing was exceptional, and the text processing engine was so intelligent that you could really type commands in plain english and get good results.

My brother from another mother!

I completely agree.  I own almost all of the games (bought a collection about fifteen years ago) and am still slowly working my way through the remaining few that I haven't played.  I'll put in a little time every so often when the ol' thinking cap needs a workout. 

I actually had a really fun time playing Border Zone - another 80s "cold war" based game - this time you get to play 3 chapters, in one you're an American businessman, in the second you're a spy for the west, and in the third you're a spy for the east.

Ah!  That's the one that's in real-time, isn't that right?  Big bonus if you're a fast typist.  I played that one many (15?) years ago but can't remember the details very well.  I'll be sure to queue that one up, sounds fun!  Marc Blank's one of the original authors of the Zork games (probably the most famous games in the genre.)

Trinity probably can't be topped, but the entire Zork and Enchanter series are great games.  The finale of the "Enchanter" series is a game called Spellbreaker.  Great game and very, very difficult.  Getting through that one without hints took me months.  It crushed me when I played it as a kid so I returned to tangle with it in adulthood.  I am not sure I'd have been able to get through that one without a computer science background so I unconditionally forgive my younger self. 

[stone]

The radio series, "History of the World in 100 Objects" is an all time favorite for me. They have photos of the objects on the web too :-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/ahow

[jackely]

I have recently started reading David Foster Wallace, a man that had a knack for looking at things ranging from truth to lobsters from a different perspective. I highly recommend this short essay/ commencement address, "This is Water", to see if he appeals to you:

http://moreintelligentlife.com/story/da ... -own-words

Very interesting read, especially learning beforehand that these were the thoughts of a man struggling with suicidal depression.

And speaking of suicidal depression among geniuses I recommend "Tolstoy's Confession". I've never been a fan of novels, especially huge ones, so I never read "War and Peace" but I discovered some time ago that Tolstoy had a spiritual awakening after he wrote his famous novels and most of his later writing was non-fiction. In addition to his Confession I recommend "The Kingdom of God is Within You" which Gandhi cited as one of his biggest influences.

[Lone Wolf]

The radio series, "History of the World in 100 Objects" is an all time favorite for me. They have photos of the objects on the web too :-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/ahow

Hey, looks like a great series!  Sounds like one podcast per object too.  Perfect for expanding one's mind during the commute. 

And speaking of suicidal depression among geniuses I recommend "Tolstoy's Confession". I've never been a fan of novels, especially huge ones, so I never read "War and Peace" but I discovered some time ago that Tolstoy had a spiritual awakening after he wrote his famous novels and most of his later writing was non-fiction. In addition to his Confession I recommend "The Kingdom of God is Within You" which Gandhi cited as one of his biggest influences.

Good suggestions.  I've never read any Tolstoy so this sounds like a great starting point.  "Confession" should be perfect perfect since something that weighs in at 100 pages (versus 10 million) is a lot less intimidating than "War and Peace"!

[Gosso]

***Bump***

Over the weekend I began listening to a podcast called "Ideas", which is produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).  The last seven episodes have been fantastic, and eerily match what I have been lightly researching over the past few weeks/months.  The five most recent episodes focus on a series called "After Atheism", which deals with how one can move from Richard Dawkins onto something more meaningful (part 1, 4 and 5 were the best, IMO).  There is also a two part series on Carl Jung's Red Book, where it describes how Carl Jung allowed himself to fall into his unconscious mind/world, providing the material required to write the Red Book.

A link to the Podcast can be found here:  http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/podcasts/

Or simply download it on iTunes.

This has quickly become my new favorite podcast.  Highly recommended! 

[Mountaineer]

My favorites:

Non-fiction
------------
The Bible
7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

Fiction
-------
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Entertaining but not mind-expanding so much as the 3 above
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Most books by Tom Clancy, Arthur C. Clarke, Stephen Coonts, Louis L'Amour, Frederick Forsyth and Ken Follett

[Lone Wolf]

7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

Thanks, I've managed not to read this one for too long.  With a Kindle version within easy reach, I'm all out of excuses not to check it out.

Over the weekend I began listening to a podcast called "Ideas", which is produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).  The last seven episodes have been fantastic, and eerily match what I have been lightly researching over the past few weeks/months.  The five most recent episodes focus on a series called "After Atheism", which deals with how one can move from Richard Dawkins onto something more meaningful (part 1, 4 and 5 were the best, IMO).  There is also a two part series on Carl Jung's Red Book, where it describes how Carl Jung allowed himself to fall into his unconscious mind/world, providing the material required to write the Red Book.

Nice, sounds like really interesting stuff.  After talking to a buddy of mine about lucid dreaming I got the sense of just how many of his ideas come from tapping into the subconscious fountains of creativity that most of us don't access with any regularity.  I didn't know enough about Jung to realize that the "Red Book" existed but it sounds like he took himself through a very similar process.  I'll subscribe for sure.

[Gosso]

Over the weekend I began listening to a podcast called "Ideas", which is produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).  The last seven episodes have been fantastic, and eerily match what I have been lightly researching over the past few weeks/months.  The five most recent episodes focus on a series called "After Atheism", which deals with how one can move from Richard Dawkins onto something more meaningful (part 1, 4 and 5 were the best, IMO).  There is also a two part series on Carl Jung's Red Book, where it describes how Carl Jung allowed himself to fall into his unconscious mind/world, providing the material required to write the Red Book.

Nice, sounds like really interesting stuff.  After talking to a buddy of mine about lucid dreaming I got the sense of just how many of his ideas come from tapping into the subconscious fountains of creativity that most of us don't access with any regularity.  I didn't know enough about Jung to realize that the "Red Book" existed but it sounds like he took himself through a very similar process.  I'll subscribe for sure.

Carl Jung was extremely intense.  It sounds like he was (willingly) balancing a fine line between sanity and insanity during the writing of The Red Book.  I know almost nothing about him, and I am a little hesitant to get into it, since I'm not sure how deep the rabbit-hole goes.

I would buy the book but its $130 -- I may see if the library has it.

Another good Jung podcast is here: http://www.jungian.ca/jung-podcasts/

It has encouraged me to start writing a "dream journal", which has been neat.