The Helmet of Horror: The Myth of Theseus and the Minotaur

The Helmet of Horror: The Myth of Theseus and the Minotaur by Victor Pelevin

This books is weird. It is tied to both mythology and the modern world. Much of it consists of dialogs between mythological beings. They look at mythology, religion and other aspects of life. There is the maze and the natural and supernatural nature. There is enlightenment and other things. It felt interesting, but I wasn't sure where it was going.

2001: A Space Odyssey

Kubrick's 2001 was "inspired" by a short story by Arthur C. Clarke. However, this was only a basic concept influence. Clarke worked with Kubrick to create the movie. The audiobook is a novelization of the movie. It starts with the primitive society and the monolith, proceeds to the space mission. There is the conflict with HAL and then the final question about humanity. It is very faithful to the movie and does not add a whole lot. This is a rare case where the movie is much better. 

Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious

Sometimes we just "know" something without being able to understand it. A computer would take a huge amount of time to identify a face, but people do it easily all the time. Even something like chess includes a number of quick decisions that are made without going through the detailed calculations a computer would need. How do humans do this? Many things are completed by "gut feelings". Many times these are correct.

In many cases, more information can make decisions worse. In some tests done to name the largest city of a pair, those that knew more of the cities made worse decisions. Germans were better able to choose a larger American city than a German one. The knowledge caused deeper analysis, while lack of knowledge led to just guessing, or chosing the one that was most familiar. The act of choosing the most recognizable is surprisingly often a successful heuristic. Stock portfolio of most recognizable companies has been shown to beat the market (while one of least recognizable trails.) General recognition of tennis players has better predictive power than their ratings. This seems logical - the most successful will have more name recognition. Alas, marketers have also used this to make their brands more "recognizable", rather than better. People may express a strong preference for a given brand of peanut butter or beer, even if they often pick out others in blind taste tests.

Science and policy often has trouble with gut instincts. There are many efforts to establish logical standards that must be followed instead. These can lead to plenty of problems on their own (such as medical overt-testing to avoid liability.) However, in many cases the gut of the experienced practitioner remains superior to the test results. In cases where it does not, processes to "retrain" the instincts can often lead to superior outcomes. 

People can often carry around "fake" understandings that are reinforced by real occurrences. Social pressure can continue to drive these. Social pressure can also nudge people away. Does social pressure sometimes move people from truths to falsehoods also? Are we sometimes too logical for our own good? What is the proper balance of gut instinct and logical calculation? Oftentimes are first impression is better than are detailed analysis. Other times it is very wrong. How do we work towards the right path?

I Sing the Body Electric! And Other Stories

Narration of audiobooks is an art. A high quality narration can make the book so much better. The voice and tone of the narrator can change the feeling of the book. For "I Sing the Body Electric", the narration is grandfatherly. I found it hard to appreciate the stories. They focus on human conditions, occasionally with a science fiction hook. One story is about a highway bypassing a small town. Another (also in an edition of Martian Chronicles) deals with the last man on mars suffering from his own practical telephone jokes from a few decades earlier. There are also depression-era travelers who stay in a hotel with chickens that lay special eggs. There are some interesting explorations of the human condition, but it is hard to maintain interest.

Freefall

Stiglitz writes an "I told you so" book criticizing the factors the people and policies that lead to the great recession of the late 1990s. He selectively remembers his critiques of the policies, and implies that if people had just listened to him, everything would be better. There are some interesting insights in here, but he does get off topic and spend a little too long trying to "grind his axe".