Gil's Blog

Here are ten of the most influential and entertaining books I have read. some will teach you thinks, others will make you laugh. You might hate one or two. A couple might change your life. None will leave you indifferent.

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.
This is probably the most important book I have ever read. It shed a bright light on how the world works, what is wrong with it, and how it could get better. Rand’s views are extreme, but they are right. Objectivism and laissez-faire capitalism might not be applicable to the letter, but they provide us with a solution to the economic, and thus, many problems we encounter today. The book promotes strong moral values, individualism, self reliance and work ethics. It is a long book, 1000+ pages, and is a bit repetitive sometimes, but the story is a page turner.

Dune by Frank Herbert.
What a great book! I read in in three days, barely stopping to eat and sleep. Frank Herbert created a whole new world on planet Arrakis, along with it’s religions, political intrigues, war, and desert culture. The writing is brilliant, you can hardly put it down. Best of all, there is a whole series of books following that one.

Eons by Greg Bear.
Greg Bear’s books always teach me something, I like that. I learned a lot of biology in “Darwin’s Radio.” Eons gives a glimpse of a distant future that would otherwise be hard to imagine. Though far fetched, it is hard science fiction, and you will learn about physics.

Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche.
Nietzsche is one of my favorite philosophers. I was once reading one of his books at a coffee shop when a friend came by and said “You’re reading Nietzsche, it’s so dark..” I didn’t think so. It certainly is a sobering look at reality, but for anyone who favors reason rather than self-deception, it is an empowering and refreshing read.

Kiln People by David Brin.
Here is a funny and entertaining science fiction novel that also raises the question of identity and who we really are. In a distant future, people can make doubles of themselves to help with daily tasks. The doubles live only twenty four hours and may or may not upload memories to their originals before expiring. All is well, until someone figures out how to increase their lifespan..

Startide Rising by David Brin.
I like big sagas, and this other Brin novel is the start of a long one. Humans work alongside of genetically modified and intelligent chimps and dolphins. They deal with alien species on alien planets. The book has very interesting concepts of alien fauna and flora, as well as what aliens might look like and think. A great summer read with lots of adventures and resistance.

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson.
Three different stories in one come together in this thrilling book about data heavens, business and cryptography during World War II. If you know nothing about cryptography, and don’t think you need to, this book will definitely change your mind. It is also a great adventure novel, with a love story thrown in for good measure. A must read for your geek side!

Shogun by James Clavell.
I have learned so much about medieval Japan and Japanese culture in this historical novel. The complexities of the plots are amazing. It is also a poignant forbidden love story. And let’s face it, tall ships and samurai are pretty darn cool. I highly recommend all of Clavell’s novels.

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
I had to pick one. I love all his books. Dostoevsky is a master at understanding human behavior. His characters are so rich in personality, they seem more human than, well, humanly possible. I did read most of them in French, because I thought it would be closer to the original Russian. I also highly suggest “Crime and Punishment” and “The Idiot.” His writing style is brilliant. The best ‘existentialist’ novels, undoubtedly.

All right, this is nine, not ten. I can’t think of one right now, but I will post it when it comes to mind. I have read so many good books. Have you read any of those above? What did you think? What are your favorite books? Please comment below..

Reading “The Dancing Wu Li Masters” tonight, really got me thinking about electron standing wave patterns. Ok, I get into weird things sometimes when I am bored. It is the advantage of not having a television, you actually use your brain.

Quantum physics became interesting to me when I learned about quantum computers; machines that would stop working when observed! I have always been a skeptic when it came to the unexplained, but here, we have it, shown by science, not by some (maybe not so) deranged mystic. You know the old question “When a tree falls in the forest, and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a sound?” No need to meditate for years anymore. According to science, apparently not. It even raises another question: “Is there anything at all without observers?” Again, apparently not. Science is about to merge with eastern mysticism. I don’t think anyone has thought much about the implications and consequences these new discoveries will have on society in the near future.

Now, according to Schrödinger, electrons really do not bounce between different orbits of an atom’s nucleus, like in Bohr’s planetary model, but rather, are standing waves changing patterns as energy levels change, quantum jumps. Did I understand this right? Schrödinger pictured electrons as being spread out over their wave patterns in the form of a tenuous cloud.

I would not have been able to picture any of this at all, had I not seen the following video:

Yep, standing waves were known in the middle ages…

Change the frequency of the sound (thus changing the energy, hello Mr. Planck!), standing waves jump from one pattern to another. Ha! Great stuff, it makes more sense now. So, an atom is not a bunch of little balls orbiting a nucleus, and is it isn’t made of “stuff.” That really puzzles the mind… It seems to me like movement is the key. Isn’t energy always kinetic, sort of? Let’s see, Einstein found that E=mc2. We have energy, mass(matter), speed (movement), and it’s all related. Movement is energy which creates matter?

Now, that reminds me of something else, introduced to me by my good friend Joey: The reciprocal system by Dewey B. Larson. If I remember our coffee shop discussions well, he (Larson) stated that all matter was no more than spinning movement, or something of that nature.. It all made a whole lot of sense when I heard and discussed it, now I can’t remember it all.

In any case, reality isn’t what it seems. Reality is what we make it. We may actually make everything. We are the center of the universe, because we materialize it.

I am only on page 110 of the book, and I already feel myself turning Buddhist, amazing. I will report later on, I am sure, other epiphanies, as I learn more about Quantum Physics. I highly recommend the book. Another great book, because we also have a standing wave, is “Kiln People,” by David Brin; one of the most entertaining science fiction book I have ever read.

Until next time, keep thinking out of the box (the one with the cat inside