2015 Books Read

End of the year, so time for my annual accounting of books consumed for 2015!

The 2015 Book List

1. Libriomancer by Jim C. Hines (reread)
2. The Martian by Andy Weir
3. Arctic Rising by Tobias Buckell
4. Codex Born by Jim C. Hines (reread)
5. How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why It Happens by Benedict Carey
6. America's Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System by Steven Brill
7. Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words by Albert Einstein
8. Unbound by Jim C. Hines
9. Abraham Lincoln: A Presidential Life by James McPherson
10. The Just City by Jo Walton
11. The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap by Matt Taibbi
12. The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind by Michio Kaku
13. Does Santa Exist?: A Philosophical Investigation by Eric Kaplan
14. Thinking About Cybersecurity: From Cyber Crime to Cyber Warfare by Prof. Paul Rosensweig (The Great Courses)
15. On the Plurality of Worlds by David Lewis
16. Terrorists in Love by Ken Ballen
17. Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton
18. Beyond the God Particle by Leon Lederman & Christopher Hill
19. The Android's Dream by John Scalzi
20. Lock In by John Scalzi
21. Less Doing, More Living: Make Everything In Life Easier by Ari Meisel
22. Death of a King by Tavis Smiley
23. How to Win an Election: An Ancient Guide for Modern Politicians by Quintus Tullius Cicero & Philip Freeman
24. The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet by Neil deGrasse Tyson
25. Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman by James Gleick
26. The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World by Edward Dolnick
27. The Quantum Moment: How Planck, Bohr, Einstein, and Heisenberg Taught Us to Love Uncertainty by Robert P. Crease and Alfred Goldhaber
28. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (reread)
29. The Practicing Mind: Developing Focus and Discipline in Your Life - Master Any Skill or Challenge by Learning to Love the Process by Thomas M. Sterner
30. Animal Farm [audio dramatization] by George Orwell
31. The Science of Liberty: Democracy, Reason, and the Laws of Nature by Timothy Ferris
32. Gemini Cell by Myke Cole
33. The Evolution of God by Robert Wright
34. Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes by Maria Konnikova
35. Finding Your Element: How to Discover Your Talents and Passions and Transform Your Life by Ken Robinson and Lou Aronica
36. Behavioral Economics: When Psychology and Economics Collide by Prof. Scott Heuttel (The Great Courses)
37. Scientific Secrets of Self-Control by Prof. C. Nathan DeWall (The Great Courses)
38. Writing Monsters: How to Craft Believably Terrifying Creatures to Enhance Your Horror, Fantasy, and Science Fiction by Philip Athans
39. A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nassar
40. Love in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction: A Novel by Judd Trichter
41. The Death of Ivan Illyich by Leo Tolstoy
42. Monster by A. Lee Martinez
43. Heroes and Legends (The Great Courses) by Prof. Thomas Shippey
44. Forged: Writing in the Name of God - Why the Bible's Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are by Bart D. Ehrman
45. The Philosopher Kings by Jo Walton
46. Gentlemen Scientists and Revolutionaries: The Founding Fathers in the Age of Enlightenment by Tom Shachtman
47. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
48. Leviathan Wakes by James A. Corey
49. The Theological Origins of Modernity by Michael Allen Gillespie
50. A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell
51. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
52. Among Thieves by Douglas Hulick
53. The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder
54. The Sacredness of Questioning Everything by David Dark
55. Off to Be the Wizard by Scott Meyer
56. Spell or High Water by Scott Meyer
57. Islam and the Future of Tolerance: A Dialogue by Sam Harris and Maajid Nawaz
58. The Scorch Trials by James Dashner
59. An Unwelcome Quest by Scott Meyer
60. Emperor Mollusk Versus the Sinister Brain by A. Lee Martinez
61. Fable: Blood of Heroes by Jim C. Hines
62. How Ideas Spread (The Great Courses) by Jonah Berger

Breakdown

Format:

• Audiobooks: 45
• Kindle: 10
• Dead tree books: 10

Subjects:

• Total Fiction: 25
• Classics: 4
• Science Fiction: 12
• Fantasy: 14
• Urban/Modern Fantasy: 9
• Young Adult: 
• Steampunk: 1
• Non-Fiction: 37
• Science: 17
• Physics: 7
• Psychology: 8
• Biology: 1
• Technology: 2
• Math/Statistics: 1
• Religion: 12
• History: 15
• Politics: 11
• Education: 4
• Economics: 6
• Business: 2
• Philosophy: 11
• Humor: 1
• Writing: 2

These numbers don't quite match up, because some books cover multiple areas, and so I've included them in all relevant categories. So, for example, a book on free will would fall in both Psychology and Philosophy (and possibly even Religion) categories.

Similarly, some books I read using Whispersynch-for-Voice to jump between the Amazon Kindle and Audible audiobook versions of the books, so they got double-counted in the format section. I've also included The Great Courses audios that I listen to through Audible.com. Though not actually books, I figure that a 10+ hour course on a subject contains about the same informational content, if not presented structurally in quite the same way as it would take in a written book.

The History

And for anyone who is interested in looking into the past to see some of my previous book lists...

• 2014 books read
• 2013 books read
• 2012 books read
• 2011 books read
• 2010 books read
• 2009 books read
• 2008 books read

Prior to 2008, I didn't keep a precise running record of the books that I read.

Vlogging Success at Geek & Sundry

Today, I received an e-mail telling me that my audition video for the Geek & Sundry vlog channel has been selected to be among the 30 vlogs that move on to the second round of voting. My theme for a vlog was ... Science!

But my aim isn't to do cool science experiments, because - while cool - there's absolutely no shortage of such demonstrations on the internet (and they require a lot of clean-up). Instead, my focus is on the overall culture of science, the way scientific discoveries build on each other, why scientists work the way they do, and so on. Here's my initial audition video!

And, despite not making it into the top 30 in votes, apparently I caught the eye of the channel's founder, Miss Felicia Day herself, because she commented favorably on my YouTube page, and the channel decided to move me forward. I suspect it as the back-up support of Albeart Einstein, sitting there behind me in the video.

Anyway, I'm now working on a second video. I have some ideas, but do you have any suggestions about topics that I should cover? If so, leave a comment, as I'd love to add it to my list of topics to cover.

The second round will begin on July 10 at 10:00 am Pacific/1:00 pm Eastern, along with 29 other candidates. You will be able to vote each day from July 10 through July 19 at midnight Pacific.

The voting matters a lot more in the next round, so keep watching for when the link becomes available for the votes. Thanks!

What does the internet think ... and does it matter?

Thanks to the science fiction author John Scalzi, I stumbled upon an intriguing website called "What Does the Internet Think?" The site uses some methodology (who knows what) it comes up with a rating of the percentage of positive and negative postings on a topic across the internet. I couldn't pass up the chance to see what sort of fun data I could get out of this. For now, I'll post the information with very little commentary, but may follow up in the future.

Let's start by considering some broad subjects:

Where does the internet find truth and meaning?

It's probably not at all surprising that the internet skews toward the science-loving end of the spectrum, at least at the broadest level. I'm kind of surprised at the level of negativity about religion, to be honest. 

I would like to be heartened by the overflow of positive regard for skepticism, but it occurs to me that whatever methodology they're using probably cannot sort out the context of positive or negative statements ... so if a post is saying that it supports science, but then puts forward a concept like intelligent design as being scientific, it would likely count as a pro-science posting, even though it's really contradicting and undermining scientific inquiry and findings. Similarly, someone who supports being skeptical of evolution or skeptical of global warming would probably count toward being positive toward skepticism, even if their approach to the facts is fundamentally dogmatic, authoritarian, and revisionary instead of supporting principles of skeptical inquiry.

Which leads us to the next question ...

Does the internet prefer evolution or creationism?

The thing I find most interesting about this is that while there's a lot of indifference about creationism, there's virtually no indifference about evolution. This runs counter to my own experience. I know several people who are religious but are fairly indifferent about whether or not evolution is the physical mechanism of creation. In other words, they're religious but believe that God started evolution. But I know very few people on either side of the debate that are indifferent about creationism. 

However, given the extremely low hits on which "Creationism" is based, probably not much should be made of comparing these graphs. The "evolution" graph itself is, I think, telling enough on its own.

To put some of these values in context, though, we should look at a few baseline moral concepts, to see how they rate on the internet:

What does the internet think about morality?

I will let the above conclusion speak for itself ... for now. It's worthy of another post at another time.

On a morality-related note, though ...

What does the internet think of religion?

Christianity, Judaism, and Islam all rank positively ... but check out atheism & Buddhism! Amazingly polarized results on these religious viewpoints. Again, I'll let the results speak for themselves, although I'm sure I'll come back to this in another post sometime.

For comparison, though:

So atheists are viewed basically as negatively as their doctrine ... but both Christians and Muslims are (fairly or unfairly) viewed negatively by the internet, despite the fact that their religions themselves are viewed positively.

And, finally, a grain of salt:

Science Fiction, Science, and Inspiration

In the sixth grade, I read my first science fiction novel: Isaac Asimov's Foundation. From that moment, I was hooked.

These days, I make a decent chunk of my living writing about science and a less decent chunk of it writing about science fiction and related popular culture topics.

In that regard, consider my most recent publication, an essay in the collection The Big Bang Theory and Philosophy: Rock, Paper, Scissors, Aristotle, Locke (Amazon, B&N). I had a great time with this essay, which explores the differences between experimental and theoretical science, especially as it relates to the search for a workable theory of quantum gravity, such as the one that pushes Sheldon Cooper to study string theory.

The actual scientists who work at the frontier of discovery are typically inspired on this path in some way. In talking to, listening to, and studying these bold pioneers of the future, I've discovered that most of them were inspired by the same sort of science fiction which inspired me as a young man.

When the PBS NOVA blog The Nature of Reality asked me to write an article for their "Thought Experiments" column, I jumped at the chance. In the article, "Writing a Bold Future, Together," I discuss how science fiction inspires scientists (and vice versa). The article went live yesterday, so check it out and let me know what you think. Does it inspire you?

Speaking of inspiration ... one question that I'm sometimes asked is whether we'll ever know everything in science. I think that's highly unlikely, even though it is sort of the goal of theoretical physicists like The Big Bang Theory's Sheldon Cooper. (Emphasis on the "sort of.")

As I pointed out in a recent About.com Physics post on the end of science, the current understanding of science - the standard model of quantum physics - really can only account for about 4% of the universe. The other 96% is made up of mysterious dark matter and dark energy, which we do not understand at all!

So for those who are concerned that someone like Sheldon Cooper will usher in an era where there's nothing left to the imagination, don't worry ... there'll still be plenty of empty gaps for science fiction authors to exploit.

In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night, No Birthday Shall Escape My Sight

Today is the release date of the Green Lantern film DVD ... and also my 35th birthday. I am now officially old enough to run for President. Live in fear, America! (For anyone interested, I do have an Amazon.com wish list.)

While I realize the film may not have quite captured the attention of fans as much as it could, I'll take the opportunity of this DVD release to remind everyone that Green Lantern & Philosophy: No Evil Shall Escape This Book is available as part of the Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series. Once again, I'm fortunate enough to have an appearance in it. I love reading these sorts of books, so am equally pleased to get involved with them when they're based on subject matter that I enjoy.

This time my essay is the closing piece, which I'm interpreting as a good thing. Editors likely want the best essays at either the beginning or the end. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)

The essay, "Magic and Science in the Green Lantern Mythos: Clarke's Laws, the Starheart, and Emotional Energy," focuses on the role of science in the Green Lantern storyline ... or, more specifically, the lack of it. Though the Guardians of the Universe (the creators of the Green Lantern Corps and their fancy power rings) are depicted as having accumulated all known scientific knowledge in the universe, they don't actually function at all like scientists, but instead act like a secretive cabal of mystics or gnostics. I also spend a fair amount of time discussing the Starheart, which is the semi-sentient magical energy that the Guardians gathered up and "contained" in the early days of the universe, and which form the basis of the powers for Golden Age Green Lantern Alan Scott.

It was fun to write the article and to use this great setting to highlight some of the key concepts in science.

So, even if you hated the move, I still recommend that you check out the book.


Related Articles:

• About.com Physics - Thor, Science, Magic, and Shameless Self-Promotion
• BlackGate.com - The Meta-Reality of Fandom
• About.com Physics - What Are Clarke's Laws?

And, of course, you could also buy the Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital copy of the film, if you're into that sort of thing:

It's Official: I Talk Good!

Last month, I gave my first public talk and it went very well. The talk, presented at the Anderson Public Library, was entitled "String Theory for Everyone." Local high schools, as well as Anderson University, promoted the event, and many physics students in both places were offered extra credit for attending. Afterwards I was swarmed with fans wanting pictures with me ... mostly so they had proof for their teachers that they'd showed up.

Still, it was a good learning experience. Among other things, it showed me the places where I need to streamline my PowerPoint presentation before my next talk, on March 12 to the Central Indiana Mensa group.

As a follow-up, though, I asked for a testimonial letter from the library's information services librarian, who helped plan and coordinate the event. As I try to get more and more of these talks lined up, it of course helps to have these sorts of things. So, here's the fine (though somewhat bureaucratically sanitized) letter that I finally received:

The mission of the Anderson Public Library is to inform, connect, engage, and empower its customers. Since quality library programming meets many of the library's goals, APL strives to present its customers with the best possible programs. Your "String Theory for Everyone" presentation included all of the elements the library looks for in a quality program. You dealt with the complicated subject matter in an informative way while patiently allowing our customers to engage you with questions. Furthermore, your commitment to professionalism and excellent communication allowed the library to easily facilitate this program for our customers. On behalf of the Anderson Public Library, I would like to thank you for your efforts toward making this program a success!

This is a very nice addition to my speaking portfolio. I hope to get engagements in the future on a wide range of topics, some of which I already have planned. If any readers of this blog would like to solicit my speaking services for your organization, just contact me directly.

Note: I have many friends who are educators, so before I get frustrated e-mails from my elementary school grammar teacher, I'd like to state that I am aware that the title of this blog post is grammatically incorrect. It was done intentionally for entertainment effect. Grammarian, calm thyself.

Boskone Panel Schedule

I've received a preliminary schedule for my events at Boskone, the Boston science fiction convention of NESFA.  Boskone runs from Febrary 12 through February 14. I'll be taking part in a number of science-related panels. There could still be some changes before the actual event, but here's what I'm scheduled for as of this moment:

• Friday, Feb. 12 - 7:00 pm - Autographing
• Friday, Feb. 12 - 9:00 pm - The Place of Prediction in SF and Reality
• Sunday, Feb. 14 - 11:00 am - Bad Science on TV
• Sunday, Feb. 14 - 1:00 pm - Time Travel in Science and Science Fiction

I've got some great co-panelists, including Karl Schroeder, Allen Steele, & Vernor Vinge, so I'm really looking forward to it.