Mapping the mind
This book shows how the latest scans, which reveal thoughts, memories - even our moods - as clearly as an X-ray reveals our bones, can be used to help explain aspects of our behaviour, and how behavioural eccentricities can be traced to abnormalities in an individual brain. Dyslexia, for example, may be caused by a short-circuit in the messages converting sound to visual cues; addiction, eating disorders and alcoholism stem from dysfunction in the brain's reward system; violent criminals may begin life with a small neurological fault.
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What Hacker News says
- I was recommended Liqun Luo's book by user periheli0n here - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28743804 But since it is somewhat advanced, i pair it with beginner-friendly Neurobiology: A Functional Approach by Georg Striedter for better understanding. I also find reading pop-sci books on Neuroscience/Brain a good supplement since these give a nice top-level overview (and thus stimulate motivation) before diving into the details in a textbook. Two i have found useful are The Accidental Mind by David Linden and Mapping the Mind by Rita Carter.
You can get pdfs of the Handbook of Unconventional Computing if you ask Google and/or Anna ;-)
One more book that i hope to get my hands-on is Peter Kogge's *The Zen of Exotic Computing" - https://epubs.siam.org/doi/10.1137/1.9781611977295 This seems like a nice overview (plus more) of most of the stuff from the above Handbook. Also checkout the wikipedia link for original papers/books/etc. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconventional_computing
- > You can get pdfs of the Handbook of Unconventional Computing if you ask Google and/or Anna ;-)
Agreed. In fact, I may have them downloaded already somewhere in my massive pile of <strike>pirate</strike> cough grey-market cough e-books. :-) But honestly, sometimes I still prefer reading off of paper. It's easier on the eyes in my experience.
> Neurobiology: A Functional Approach by Georg Striedter for better understanding. I also find reading pop-sci books on Neuroscience/Brain a good supplement since these give a nice top-level overview (and thus stimulate motivation) before diving into the details in a textbook. Two i have found useful are The Accidental Mind by David Linden and Mapping the Mind by Rita Carter.
Cool, I will look into those. I have a whole pile of similar pop-sci stuff to churn through already, but the more the merrier!
> One more book that i hope to get my hands-on is Peter Kogge's The Zen of Exotic Computing
Ooooohhh.. Now that sounds interesting. Thanks for the tip!
- YT, for example, contains many resources on brain anatomy and more. Plus, for example, the lessons from Robert Sapolsky at Stanford.
Plus, there exist the primer books from Rita Carter (first of all, Mapping the Mind).
There are loads of good material around. Note though, that CS is "forward" engineering, while Brain Science is backward engineering. So, if you do not find material that build from the ground up... it is easily because we are not at that level.
- Jenny Odell's essay was well-written.
No further comment here on the nurture vs. nature debate, except to mention for those interested in learning more about recent research into volition and agency (i.e. what is commonly referred to as "free will"), Rita Carter's Mapping the Mind is a good place to start.
Remember though that this book covers recent experimental work in psychology, so the usual disclaimers apply.
- Mapping the Mind is a fun book. It probably doesn't serve as an introduction to neuroscience, but it has a lot interesting, useful information.
