Occult

Terence McKenna

This mesmerizing, surreal account of the bizarre adventures of Terence McKenna, his brother Dennis, and a small band of their friends, is a wild ride of exotic experience and scientific inquiry. Exploring the Amazon Basin in search of mythical shamanic hallucinogens, they encounter a host of unusual characters -- including a mushroom, a flying saucer, pirate Mantids from outer space, an appearance by James and Nora Joyce in the guise of poultry, and translinguistic matter -- and discover the missing link in the development of human consciousness and language.

Neuroscience

David J. Linden

A spirited collection of essays by cutting-edge neuroscientists that irreverently explores the quirky and counterintuitive aspects of brain function

"Make[s] us realize that what goes on in our minds is nothing short of magical." -Yasemin Saplakoglu, Scientific American

Neuroscientist David J. Linden approached leading brain researchers and asked each the same question: "What idea about brain function would you most like to explain to the world?" Their responses make up this one-of-a-kind collection of popular science essays that seeks to expand our knowledge of the human mind and its possibilities. The contributors, whose areas of expertise include human behavior, molecular genetics, evolutionary biology, and comparative anatomy, address a host of fascinating topics ranging from personality to perception, to learning, to beauty, to love and sex. The manner in which individual experiences can dramatically change our brains' makeup is explored.

Professor Linden and his contributors open a new window onto the landscape of the human mind and into the cutting-edge world of neuroscience with a fascinating and enlightening compilation that science enthusiasts and professionals alike will find accessible and enjoyable.

Life / Philosophy

Shoshana Zuboff

The challenges to humanity posed by the digital future, the first detailed examination of the unprecedented form of power called "surveillance capitalism," and the quest by powerful corporations to predict and control our behavior.

In this masterwork of original thinking and research, Shoshana Zuboff provides startling insights into the phenomenon that she has named surveillance capitalism. The stakes could not be higher: a global architecture of behavior modification threatens human nature in the twenty-first century just as industrial capitalism disfigured the natural world in the twentieth.

Zuboff vividly brings to life the consequences as surveillance capitalism advances from Silicon Valley into every economic sector. Vast wealth and power are accumulated in ominous new "behavioral futures markets," where predictions about our behavior are bought and sold, and the production of goods and services is subordinated to a new "means of behavioral modification."

The threat has shifted from a totalitarian Big Brother state to a ubiquitous digital architecture: a "Big Other" operating in the interests of surveillance capital. Here is the crucible of an unprecedented form of power marked by extreme concentrations of knowledge and free from democratic oversight. Zuboff's comprehensive and moving analysis lays bare the threats to twenty-first century society: a controlled "hive" of total connection that seduces with promises of total certainty for maximum profit -- at the expense of democracy, freedom, and our human future.

With little resistance from law or society, surveillance capitalism is on the verge of dominating the social order and shaping the digital future -- if we let it.

Life / Philosophy

Alan Watts

Deep down, most people think that happiness comes from having or doing something. Here, in Alan Watts’s groundbreaking third book (originally published in 1940), he offers a more challenging thesis: authentic happiness comes from embracing life as a whole in all its contradictions and paradoxes, an attitude that Watts calls the “way of acceptance.” Drawing on Eastern philosophy, Western mysticism, and analytic psychology, Watts demonstrates that happiness comes from accepting both the outer world around us and the inner world inside us — the unconscious mind, with its irrational desires, lurking beyond the awareness of the ego. Although written early in his career, The Meaning of Happiness displays the hallmarks of his mature style: the crystal-clear writing, the homespun analogies, the dry wit, and the breadth of knowledge that made Alan Watts one of the most influential philosophers of his generation.

Computer Science

Lance Henderson

The NSA hates Tor. So does the FBI. Even Google wants it gone, as do Facebook and Yahoo and every other soul-draining, identity-tracking vampiric media cartel that scans your emails and spies on your private browsing sessions to better target you.But there's hope. This manual will give you the incognito tools that will make you a master of anonymity!Other books tell you to install Tor and then encrypt your hard drive... and leave it at that. I go much deeper, delving into the very engine of ultimate network security, taking it to an art form where you'll receive a new darknet persona - how to be anonymous online without looking like you're trying to be anonymous online.Covered in Tor:- Browse the Internet Anonymously- Darkcoins, Darknet Marketplaces & Opsec Requirements- Tor Hidden Servers - How to Not Get Caught- Counter-Forensics the FBI Doesn't Want You to Know About- Windows vs. Linux - Which Offers Stronger Network Security?- Cryptocurrency (Real Bitcoin Anonymity)- Supercookies & Encryption- Preventing Marketers and Debt Collectors From Finding You- How to Protect Your Assets - i.e., How to Be Invisible and even Hide from the Internet itself!- How to Hide AnythingScroll back up and click "Look Inside" and Take Back Your Life Today!