Life / Philosophy

Glenn Greenwald

A groundbreaking look at the NSA surveillance scandal, from the reporter who broke the story, Glenn Greenwald, star of Citizenfour, the Academy Award-winning documentary on Edward Snowden

In May 2013, Glenn Greenwald set out for Hong Kong to meet an anonymous source who claimed to have astonishing evidence of pervasive government spying and insisted on communicating only through heavily encrypted channels. That source turned out to be the 29-year-old NSA contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden, and his revelations about the agency's widespread, systemic overreach proved to be some of the most explosive and consequential news in recent history, triggering a fierce debate over national security and information privacy. As the arguments rage on and the government considers various proposals for reform, it is clear that we have yet to see the full impact of Snowden's disclosures.

Now for the first time, Greenwald fits all the pieces together, recounting his high-intensity ten-day trip to Hong Kong, examining the broader implications of the surveillance detailed in his reporting for The Guardian, and revealing fresh information on the NSA's unprecedented abuse of power with never-before-seen documents entrusted to him by Snowden himself.

Going beyond NSA specifics, Greenwald also takes on the establishment media, excoriating their habitual avoidance of adversarial reporting on the government and their failure to serve the interests of the people. Finally, he asks what it means both for individuals and for a nation's political health when a government pries so invasively into the private lives of its citizens?and considers what safeguards and forms of oversight are necessary to protect democracy in the digital age. Coming at a landmark moment in American history, No Place to Hide is a fearless, incisive, and essential contribution to our understanding of the U.S. surveillance state.

Neuroscience

Stanislas Dehaene

From the acclaimed author of Reading in the Brain and How We Learn, a breathtaking look at the new science that can track consciousness deep in the brain

How does our brain generate a conscious thought? And why does so much of our knowledge remain unconscious? Thanks to clever psychological and brain-imaging experiments, scientists are closer to cracking this mystery than ever before.

In this lively book, Stanislas Dehaene describes the pioneering work his lab and the labs of other cognitive neuroscientists worldwide have accomplished in defining, testing, and explaining the brain events behind a conscious state. We can now pin down the neurons that fire when a person reports becoming aware of a piece of information and understand the crucial role unconscious computations play in how we make decisions. The emerging theory enables a test of consciousness in animals, babies, and those with severe brain injuries.

A joyous exploration of the mind and its thrilling complexities, Consciousness and the Brain will excite anyone interested in cutting-edge science and technology and the vast philosophical, personal, and ethical implications of finally quantifying consciousness.

Computer Science

Harrison Kinsley & Daniel Kukiela

"Neural Networks From Scratch" is a book intended to teach you how to build neural networks on your own, without any libraries, so you can better understand deep learning and how all of the elements work. This is so you can go out and do new/novel things with deep learning as well as to become more successful with even more basic models.

This book is to accompany the usual free tutorial videos and sample code from youtube.com/sentdex. This topic is one that warrants multiple mediums and sittings. Having something like a hard copy that you can make notes in, or access without your computer/offline is extremely helpful. All of this plus the ability for backers to highlight and post comments directly in the text should make learning the subject matter even easier.

Life / Philosophy

Kenneth O. Stanley, Joel Lehman

Why does modern life revolve around objectives? From how science is funded, to improving how children are educated -- and nearly everything in-between -- our society has become obsessed with a seductive illusion: that greatness results from doggedly measuring improvement in the relentless pursuit of an ambitious goal. In Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned, Stanley and Lehman begin with a surprising scientific discovery in artificial intelligence that leads ultimately to the conclusion that the objective obsession has gone too far. They make the case that great achievement can't be bottled up into mechanical metrics; that innovation is not driven by narrowly focused heroic effort; and that we would be wiser (and the outcomes better) if instead we whole-heartedly embraced serendipitous discovery and playful creativity.

Controversial at its heart, yet refreshingly provocative, this book challenges readers to consider life without a destination and discovery without a compass.

Neuroscience

Tan Le

Brain science is at the dawn of a new era—and the technologies emerging as a result could forever alter what it means to be human.

Welcome to what tech pioneer and inventor Tan Le calls "the NeuroGeneration." It will blow your mind.

The human brain is perhaps the most powerful and mysterious arrangement of matter in the known universe. New discoveries that unravel this mystery and let us tap into this power offer almost limitless potential—the ability to reshape ourselves and our thought processes, to improve our health and extend our lives, and to enhance and augment the ways we interact with the world around us. It may sound like the stuff of science fiction, but it is quickly becoming reality.

In The NeuroGeneration, award-winning inventor Tan Le explores exciting advancements in brain science and neurotechnology that are revolutionizing the way we think, work, and heal. Join Le as she criss-crosses the globe, introducing the brilliant neurotech innovators and neuroscientists at the frontiers of brain enhancement. Along the way, she shares incredible stories from individuals whose lives are already being transformed by their inventions—an endurance racer paralyzed in a fall, who now walks thanks to neural stimulation and an exoskeleton; a man who drives a race car with his mind; even a color-blind "cyborg" whose brain implant allows him to "hear" colors.

The NeuroGeneration reveals the dizzying array of emerging technologies—including cranial stimulation that makes you learn faster, an artificial hippocampus that restores lost memories, and neural implants that aim to help us keep up with or even outpace artificial intelligence—that promise to alter the brain in unprecedented ways, unlocking human potential we never dreamed possible.

Le also explores how these futuristic innovations will impact our world, disrupt the way we do business, upend healthcare as we know it, and remake our lives in wondrous and unexpected ways. As fascinating as it is timely, The NeuroGeneration offers a thrilling glimpse of the future of our species, and how changing our brains can change human life as we know it.