Books ⁽³⁾

Oh, that worry, that your prizes will feel empty. – Robert Sapolsky True, that title’s been meant to let you know what this is about, and – if I’m lucky – to even make you curious. In reality, there is no such debate: not in a factual, concrete way, and not with regard to content/substance either. Rather, there are two books, Determined – The Science of Life without Free Will by Robert Sapolsky, author of Behave, and Free Agents by Kevin Mitchell, author of Innate. For me, the link has been there ever since I listened to Brain Science Podcast episode 213, featuring Kevin Mitchell and his new book. Somehow, there was mention of another book forthcoming on that topic,…

Please allow us to introduce Deep Learning and Scientific Computing with R torch. Released in e-book format today, and available freely online, this book starts out by introducing torch basics. From there, it moves on to various deep-learning use cases. Finally, it shows how to use torch for more general topics, such as matrix computations and the Fourier Transform. First things first: Where can you get it? As of today, you can download the e-book or order a print copy from the publisher, CRC Press; the free online edition is here. There is, to my knowledge, no problem to perusing the online version – besides one: It doesn’t have the squirrel that’s on the book cover. So if you’re a…

Much as we humans like to believe, consciousness is not a neocortex thing, a matter of analysis and meta-analysis. Instead – says Mark Solms, in his 2021 The Hidden Spring: A Journey to the Source of Consciousness – instead, consciousness is all about feeling. A claim that, if we take it seriously (and I don’t see why we shouldn’t) has far-ranging consequences. A few years ago, I found myself wanting to learn and, maybe, try to make up my mind, about a topic I – surprisingly – never had given much thought to, before: consciousness. However, having read around some (first and foremost, Blackmore & Troscianko’s Consciousness: An Introduction, which I liked a lot), I certainly had not made up…