Literate Scientist

Just finished reading it. In summary: Everything is Nothing as their complexity measure is the same. Interesting short and small book to read if you have never heard of computationalism, many world interpretation of quantum mechanics, anthropic principle, self sampling assumption and quantum immortality. Discusses everything briefly and provides bibliography. However I think I should have read David Deutsch’s “The Fabric of Reality” book first which I bought recently and put on my reading list. The number of new concepts introduced was too overwhelming so I consider to read “Theory of Nothing” second time after finishing some other related books. 

Theory of Nothing

- Dmitry Vostokov @ LiterateScientist.com -

If you ask me about the single book to learn about mathematics used in computer science I would recommend without hesitation the following two volumes:

Comprehensive Mathematics for Computer Scientists 1: Sets and Numbers, Graphs and Algebra, Logic and Machines, Linear Geometry

Comprehensive Mathematics for Computer Scientists 2: Calculus and ODEs, Splines, Probability, Fourier and Wavelet Theory, Fractals and Neural Networks, Categories and Lambda Calculus

The breadth of covered mathematics is astonished. Each topic from 43 of them is fit into 10 to 20 pages which is very manageable to read if you need just a review and want to understand major concepts, definitions and theorems. I read the first edition of the first volume when it was published couple of years ago. Now I decided to refresh my knowledge, read the second edition of the first volume and then read the second volume. 

- Dmitry Vostokov @ LiterateScientist.com -

This one finished reading yesterday. I don’t want to repeat my review you can find here:

Review of Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets

Just want to add that I carried it in my pocket during flight that evening and perhaps avoided black swans. Knowledge-driven superstition…

- Dmitry Vostokov @ LiterateScientist.com -

Just finished reading this book written by Steven Sloman. Very readable explanation about a causal modeling framework involving probability distributions and causal graphs, explanation of counterfactuals, logic of intervention, Markov equivalence, explanation discounting, causal structures and language, reasoning and decision making, the difference between observation and action. I became interested in causality from software troubleshooting and debugging perspective where we need to diagnose causes (defects) from symptoms (failures) and this book was a good introduction to me.

Causal Models: How People Think about the World and Its Alternatives

- Dmitry Vostokov @ LiterateScientist.com -

I read this book written by Thomas A. Garrity 4 years ago to fill gaps in my mathematical education. Here I learned the concept of manifolds and differential forms I missed entirely and got the good overview of modern math with informal and semi-formal proofs. This book also persuaded me to read Mac Lane’s “Mathematics, Form and Function”. 

All the Mathematics You Missed: But Need to Know for Graduate School

- Dmitry Vostokov @ LiterateScientist.com -

If you want to understand mainstream modeling in physics I would recommend the following book The Comprehensible Cosmos: Where Do the Laws of Physics Come From? written by Victor J. Stenger which I finished reading a couple of months ago. It shows how the so called physical laws (the author calls them models) can be derived from various symmetries including gauge invariance. This short book (300 pages) covers topics from classical mechanics and relativity including Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulations to statistical and vacuum physics.

The nice feature of this book is its clear separation between textual description and mathematics. The first 190 pages don’t have any mathematical formulas and the next 130 pages repeat the same discussion using undergraduate level of mathematics.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ LiterateScientist.com -

This book I found and read 4 years ago was written by Edna Ernestine Kramer. At that time I was looking for a lightweight introduction to parts of modern mathematics that I missed during my university education at the end 80s. Remembered my earlier school encounters with Morris Kline’s book “Mathematics: The Loss of Certainty” I wanted an introduction along the historical lines of 20th century and this book was a pleasant discovery. It is more than 700 pages and was printed in small font so it was the long but very enjoyable read. It covers unusually wide range of mathematical disciplines and their historical development from Babylonian era to games, statistical decision and utility theory, functional analysis, topology, homotopy and homology, Grassmann algebras, and many other 20th century developments.

Here is the brief TOC:

1. From Babylonian Beginnings to Digital Computers
2. Mathematical Method and Main Streams Are Launched
3. Mathematical Reasoning from Eudoxus to Lobachevsky
4. Algebra from Hypathia to Hamilton
5. Equations, Human and Inhuman
6. A Universal Language
7. Forefathers of Modern Mathematics and Their Legacy
8. A Calculus for Heaven and Earth
9. Determinism and Its Creators
10. The Elements of Strategy in War and Peace
11. Probabilistic Models, Great Expectations, and Randomized Strategies
12. General Games and Statistical Decision Theory
13. From Dice to Quantum Theory and Quality Control
14. Realm of Random Variables
15. Demons, Energy, Maxwell, and Gibbs
16. Sweet Manuscript of Youth
17. The Unification of Geometry
18. A Special Group and Its Application
19. Geometry for Universe-Builders
20. Post-Relativity Geometry
21. East Meets West in the Higher Arithmetic
22. The Reformation of Analysis
23. Royal Roads to Functional Analysis
24. Infinite Hierarchy
25. Angelic Geometry
26. The Leonardos of Modern Mathematics
27. Twentieth-Century Vistas - Analysis
28. Twentieth-Century Vistas - Algebra
29. Twentieth-Century Vistas - Logic and Foundations
30. Retrospect and Prospect

The Nature and Growth of Modern Mathematics

- Dmitry Vostokov @ LiterateScientist.com -

After reading Rosen’s book “Life Itself” I became very interested in non-reductionist thinking and found the book from Alwyn C. Scott. It is an excellent overview and the last 30 page chapter “Reductionism in Life” is worth the whole book:

• Newton’s Legacy
  • The Reductive Program
  • Supervenience and Physicalism
  • Practical Considerations
• Objections to Reductionism
  • Googols of Possibilities
  • Convoluted Causality
  • Nonlinear Causality
  • Time’s Arrow
  • Downward Causation
  • Open Systems
  • Closed Causal Loops and Open Networks
• Theories of Life
  • Artificial Life vs. Autopoiesis
  • Relational Biology
  • Mechanisms
  • Complex Systems and Chaotic Emergence
  • What Is Life?

The Nonlinear Universe: Chaos, Emergence, Life (The Frontiers Collection)

Highly recommended especially if you were trained as a physicist or a chemist like myself.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ LiterateScientist.com -