Thursday 21 November 2013

Tim Tyler: Book reviews

I've reviewed some books over the last few years - many of them relevant to cultural evolution in some way. I used to make videos of my book reviews relating to cultural evolution and memetics - and post them on this blog. These videos have become less frequent - but I still read and review many books. To summarize this activity, my reviews are listed below:

  1. From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds by Daniel C. Dennett
  2. Memetics: Evolutionary Perspective for Interpreting Culture by Mr Eko Wijayanto
  3. The Mystery of Metamorphosis: A Scientific Detective Story by Frank Ryan
  4. The Domestication of Language: Cultural Evolution and the Uniqueness of the Human Animal by Daniel Cloud
  5. Machine Super Intelligence by Shane Legg
  6. Evolution As Entropy: Toward a Unified Theory of Biology by Daniel R. Brooks and E. O. Wiley
  7. The Engine of Complexity: Evolution as Computation by John E. Mayfield
  8. Why Humans Cooperate: A Cultural and Evolutionary Explanation - by Joe Henrich and Nathalie Henrich
  9. Evolution, the Extended Synthesis edited by Massimo Pigliucci and Gerd B. Müller
  10. Niche Construction: The Neglected Process in Evolution - by F. John Odling-Smee, Kevin Laland, Marcus Feldman
  11. Evolution's Eye: A Systems View of the Biology-Culture Divide (Science and Cultural Theory) by Susan Oyama
  12. Darwinian Sociocultural Evolution: Solutions to Dilemmas in Cultural and Social Theory by Marion Blute
  13. Ethical Artificial Intelligence by Bill Hibbard
  14. Disinfect your mind by Ely Asher
  15. Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era by James Barrat
  16. The Secret of Our Success: How Culture Is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarter by Joseph Henrich
  17. The Master Algorithm: How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World by Pedro Domingos
  18. Harnessed: How Language and Music Mimicked Nature and Transformed Ape to Man by Mark Changizi
  19. The Anthropic Principle: Man as the Focal Point of Nature by Reinhard Breuer
  20. The Evolution of Everything: How Selection Shapes Culture, Commerce, and Nature by Mark Sumner
  21. The Evolution of Everything: How New Ideas Emerge by Matt Ridley
  22. The Expanding Circle: Ethics, Evolution, and Moral Progress by Peter Singer
  23. Darwin's Conjecture: The Search for General Principles of Social and Economic Evolution by Geoffrey M. Hodgson
  24. Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies by Nick Bostrom
  25. Riddled with Life: Friendly Worms, Ladybug Sex, and the Parasites That Make Us Who We Are by Marlene Zuk
  26. Darwinian Dynamics by Richard Michod
  27. Darwin Does Physics by John Campbell
  28. Probably Approximately Correct: Nature's Algorithms for Learning and Prospering in a Complex World by Leslie Valiant
  29. Cosmic Jackpot: Why Our Universe Is Just Right for Life by Paul Davies
  30. The Biology of Moral Systems by Richard Alexander
  31. Cultural Evolution: Society, Technology, Language, and Religion by Richerson and Whitehouse
  32. Science and Selection: Essays on Biological Evolution and the Philosophy of Science by David L. Hull
  33. War and Peace and War by Peter Turchin
  34. Proving Darwin: Making Biology Mathematical by Gregory Chaitin
  35. The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves by Matt Ridley
  36. Machines Who Think: A Personal Inquiry into the History and Prospects of Artificial Intelligence by Pamela McCorduck
  37. The Intelligent Universe: AI, ET, and the Emerging Mind of the Cosmos by James N. Gardner
  38. Anthropic Bias: Observation Selection Effects in Science and Philosophy by Nick Bostrom
  39. Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
  40. Genetic Takeover: And the Mineral Origins of Life by A. G. Cairns-Smith
  41. A Cooperative Species: Human Reciprocity and Its Evolution Paperback by Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis
  42. In the Beat of a Heart: Life, Energy, and the Unity of Nature by John Whitfield
  43. Mathematical Models of Social Evolution: A Guide for the Perplexed by Richard McElreath and Rob Boyd
  44. Where Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson
  45. The Ghosts Of Evolution Nonsensical Fruit, Missing Partners, And Other Ecological Anachronisms by Connie C. Barlow
  46. Guerrilla Creativity: Make Your Message Irresistible with the Power of Memes by Jay Conrad Levinson
  47. The Lights in the Tunnel: Automation, Accelerating Technology and the Economy of the Future by Martin Ford
  48. Darwinizing Culture: The Status of Memetics as a Science by Robert Aunger
  49. Zarrella's Hierarchy of Contagiousness: The Science, Design, and Engineering of Contagious Ideas by Dan Zarella
  50. The Nature of Technology: What It Is and How It Evolves by W. Brian Arthur
  51. Design in Nature: How the Constructal Law Governs Evolution in Biology, Physics, Technology, and Social Organization by Adrian Bejan
  52. Biocosm: The New Scientific Theory of Evolution: Intelligent Life Is the Architect of the Universe by James N. Gardner
  53. Did Darwin Get It Right?: Essays on Games, Sex and Evolution by John Maynard Smith
  54. The Penguin and the Leviathan: How Cooperation Triumphs over Self-Interest by Yochai Benkler
  55. Darwinian Populations and Natural Selection by Peter Godfrey-Smith
  56. Moral Origins: The Evolution of Virtue, Altruism, and Shame by Christopher Boehm
  57. Evolutionary Worlds without End by H. C. Plotkin
  58. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt
  59. The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World by David Deutsch
  60. The Evolutionary World: How Adaptation Explains Everything from Seashells to Civilization by Geerat J. Vermeij
  61. Into the Cool: Energy Flow, Thermodynamics, and Life by Eric D. Schneider and Dorion Sagan
  62. The Origin and Evolution of Cultures by Robert Boyd
  63. Natural Selection: Domains, Levels, and Challenges by George C. Williams
  64. The Dawn of Symbolic Life: The Future of Human Evolution by Jon Beach
  65. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell
  66. I'll Have What She's Having: Mapping Social Behavior by Alex Bentley
  67. The Imagined World Made Real by H. C. Plotkin
  68. Darwin Machines and the Nature of Knowledge by H. C. Plotkin
  69. What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelly
  70. The Complete Universe of Memes: Branches of Reality on The Reality Tree by Lloyd Whitling
  71. Why Evolution Is True by Jerry A. Coyne
  72. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
  73. An Introduction to Evolutionary Ethics by Scott M. James
  74. Cosmos and Culture: Cultural Evolution in a Cosmic Context by NASA History Division
  75. The Things We Do: Using the Lessons of Bernard and Darwin to Understand the What, How, and Why of Our Behavior by Gary Cziko
  76. The Darwin Economy: Liberty, Competition, and the Common Good by Robert H. Frank
  77. Coevolution: Genes, Culture, and Human Diversity by William H. Durham
  78. Culture and the Evolutionary Process by Robert Boyd
  79. People Will Talk: The Surprising Science of Reputation by John Whitfield
  80. The Social Conquest of Earth by Edward O. Wilson
  81. Darwinism and Human Affairs by Richard D. Alexander
  82. The Mocking Memes: A Basis for Automated Intelligence by Mark Martin
  83. The Cerebral Code: Thinking a Thought in the Mosaics of the Mind by William H. Calvin
  84. Plan and Purpose in Nature: The Limits of Darwinian Evolution by George C. Williams
  85. Evolution and the Levels of Selection by Samir Okasha
  86. Darwin's Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society by David Sloan Wilson
  87. CHECheating Monkeys and Citizen Bees : The nature of cooperation in animals and humans by Lee Alan Dugatkin
  88. Information and Meaning in Evolutionary Processes by William F. Harms
  89. Contagious Ideas: On Evolution, Culture, Archaeology and Cultural Virus Theory by Ben Sandford Cullen
  90. On the Origin of Tepees: The Evolution of Ideas (and Ourselves) by Jonnie Hughes
  91. The Robot's Rebellion: Finding Meaning in the Age of Darwin by Keith E. Stanovich
  92. The Origin of Everything via Universal Selection, or the Preservation of Favored Systems in Contention for Existence by D. B. Kelley
  93. Summary of The Origin of Cultures by John Lin
  94. Universal Darwinism: The path of knowledge by John Campbell
  95. The Altruism Equation: Seven Scientists Search for the Origins of Goodness by Lee Alan Dugatkin
  96. Genes, Memes, Culture, and Mental Illness: Toward an Integrative Model by Hoyle Leigh
  97. Genes, Memes and Human History: Darwinian Archaeology and Cultural Evolution by Stephen Shennan
  98. Darwin's Blind Spot: Evolution Beyond Natural Selection by Frank Ryan
  99. SuperCooperators: Altruism, Evolution, and Why We Need Each Other to Succeed by M. A. Nowak
  100. The Imitation Factor: Evolution Beyond The Gene by Lee Alan Dugatkin
  101. Ever-Expanding Horizons: The Dual Informational Sources of Human Evolution by Carl P. Swanson
  102. The Theory of Cultural and Social Selection by W. G. Runciman
  103. Genes, Mind, And Culture: The Coevolutionary Process by Charles J. Lumsden
  104. Cultural Evolution: How Darwinian Theory Can Explain Human Culture and Synthesize the Social Sciences by Alex Mesoudi
  105. Promethean Fire: Reflections on the Origin of Mind by Charles J. Lumsden
  106. Sense and Nonsense: Evolutionary perspectives on human behaviour by Kevin N. Laland
  107. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Memes by Damon Brown
  108. The Selfish Meme by Kate Distin
Amazon indexes many of my book reviews here.

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