Books
The Singularity is Near
By Ray Kurzweil
Audible Read by George Wilson
Review by Stacy Holmes
Singularity has a special meaning to mathematicians referring to values beyond precise expression, like infinity. Kurzweil is fluent in high level math, but he uses the term in this book to depict a time when computers and biological people are no longer separate.
The progress to singularity is already well underway. Computers were housed in large buildings with special cooling systems to control the temperature of the massive machines. Within the lifetimes of many still living today, computers have become part of every business, even every workstation. Then computers far more powerful than the old mainframes were packed into our mobile phones and now wristwatches. Pacemakers, insulin pumps and similar devices have brought smart devices into our bodies. Kurzweil describes a future that is only years, not decades, away when nanobots will enhance immune systems with intelligence to detect disease, aging breakdowns and injury with onboard capability to self-replicate immediate massive nanobot response to protect the body. More
A Calamity of Souls By David Baldacci
Review by Stacy Holmes
A Calamity of Souls is not just another best seller from David Baldacci whose over sixty books have sold more than 110 million copies. A revealing author’s preface introduces this work as a book that he started to write long ago and put aside. The project did not wait quietly. It kept calling to Baldacci. Born in Virginia in 1960, Baldacci grew up in the era of resistance to Brown v. Board of Education and other governmental actions mandating inclusive equitable treatment of blacks and other minorities in all walks of life in America. With A Calamity of Souls, Baldacci has picked up “the book” that has been waiting for him to complete for years.
Jack Lee, a former star quarterback for the local high school football team, has completed law school and established a practice as a litigator. While visiting his parents on a return trip home in 1968, a black woman familiar to the family comes to their home, an act in itself violating the well established barriers between races and economic neighborhoods. She pleads for Jack’s help. More
Nexus
A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI
By Yuval Noah Harari
Review by Stacy Holmes
The author of best-selling Sapiens, a history of the human species, and the even more highly acclaimed Homo Deus, aptly subtitled “brief history of the future” extends his historical perspectives and future prognostications for this book. Nexus chronicles information systems from the preliterate world, to ancient scribes with clay tablets, to the printing presses, typewriters, and now to computers capable of 24/7 self-directed activity.
Harari helps us see the ethical collapse of social media not as evil or even mean-spirited tech billionaires but rather as the unforeseen result of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms being instructed by their human creators to maximize human engagement with social media platforms. Evil billionaires maybe not, greedy billionaires for sure. Gorged on user data, AI knows users spend more time on social media when they are angered, outraged or otherwise provoked.
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Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell Review
Use Your Voice by Alice Paul Tapper Review
I Hate the Ive League by Malcom Gladwell Review
Dust by Patricia Cornwell Review
An Unfinished Love Story History of the 1960s Review
Stories of the Boy With Yellow Socks Review
American Oligarchs Review
Red Notice by Bill Browder Review
Why We Love Baseball by Joe Posnanski Review
It’s Okay to Be Angry about Capitalism by Bernie Sanders Review
Prequel by Rachel Maddow Read Full Review
Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons by Sam Kean More
Profiles in Ignorance by Andy Borowitz Review
The Boys From Biloxi by John Grisham Review
Oath and Honor A Memoir and a Warning by Liz Cheney Article
Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point by Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt. Audible narrator Fred Sanders. More
Enough by Cassidy Hutchinson More
Heaven & Earth Grocery Story by James McBride More
Shadow Docket Book Review More
Homo Deus: A Brief History of the Future Review More
Suspect by Scott Turow More