Reading now: code books
February 27, 2011 by Fernando Duran
I'm currently reading, among other things:
Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges
I'm really enjoying this. There's a lot of detail and science in it. Chapter two for example with about 60 pages has one of the best explanations I've seen about many philosophical and mathematical ideas, including determinism and free will, Hilbert and figuring out if mathematics are complete, consistent and decidable (they are not btw), Russel, Goedel, Einstein and the "Turing Machine".
My only complaint is that the pages of the book itself are hard to read; with almost 600 pages it's using a small font and poor paper quality.
The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography by Simon Singh
Very informative and enjoyable, plus as far as I can tell it's rigorous with the definitions and technical descriptions. Also the physical book itself (fonts, layout, feeling) is wonderful.
The Extended Phenotype: The Long Reach of the Gene by Richard Dawkins
OK, I'm going to need a little time to go over this one; touted as the continuation to The Selfish Gene (one of the best books ever, everybody should read it) it seems way more technical.
