Richard Steffy – Wooden Ship Building and the Interpretation of Shipwrecks
It would be worthwhile research topic to map the development of ship building to the principles of disruptive innovation as laid out by Clayton Christensen.
Indigenous societies show that, next to capitalism, there are many alternative blends of violence, knowledge and charisma on which a viable social power structure can be built
David Graeber and David Wengrow – The dawn of everything
The authors attack a overly simplified version of the theories they aim to refute, failing to recognize the necessarily non-linear nature of evolution.
Determining the value function is a difficult problem that is nonetheless key to safely and effectively using reinforcement learning
Brian Christian – The Alignment Problem
The analogies between human and machine learning strategies are skillfully narrated, but rather drawn out.
Ongoing advances in technology make that ethical norms develop incredibly fast
Filled with highly interesting statistics about the evolution of public perception on ethical issues.
To disprove ‘Intelligent Design’, just note that one can very well exhibit intelligent behavior without actual intelligence
Daniel Dennett – From bacteria to Bach and back
Caleidoscopic overview of Dennett’s ideas, but it would benefit from an more thorough justification of its antropocentric perspective (compare: Frans de Waal).
Scott Carney – What doesn’t kill us
The quest of a journalist overcoming his initial scpeticism and transforming from a coach potatoe into a survival adept, who walks up mount Kilimajaro bare-chested and loses his initial stance as an objective observer.
Yuval Noah Harari – Sapiens
Refreshing evolutionary perspective, emphasizing the cognitive, agricultural, and industrial revolutions as turning points in human development.
Jared Diamond – Guns, Germs, and Steel
Remark: Fascinating narrative on how agriculture spread across the globe.