I just had a quick browse of the first page and noticed you were reading this. I'm reading a few books at the moment, the most engaging I'm finding to be Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson. It began as a Ph.D. dissertation called "The Evolution of Neuro-Sociological Circuits: A Contribution to the Sociobiology of Consciousness," which he wrote in 1978-79, which was later been revised by R.A.W. for publication, "adding much to the humor and nothing to the good taste."hairscapades wrote:I've been reading The Illuminatus! Trilogy which is life changing, you know, if you're into the kind of thing. If you've never read Robert Anton Wilson's stream of consciousness, you're missing out on account he's totally brilliant and Robert Shea is hilariously funny.
It's a practical analysis of Dr Timothy Leary's 8-Circuit Model of Consciousness, chock full of humor, profundity, and wild predictions about the future. A great book for provoking self-critical thought (in a good way), as in thinking about the way one's own brain works. I recommend this book for sure.
Along similar lines, I'm also reading "Morphic Resonance and the Presence of the Past - The Habits of Nature" by left-field biologist Rupert Sheldrake. This is a theory on morphogenesis (the development of form) in not just biology, but geology, astronomy, and like, everything. Sheldrake attempts to provide an alternative to the (apparently) paradoxical idea of biological evolution in an otherwise static universe based on fundamental physical laws. In other words, it's a theory of cosmic evolution.
I think it's incredible. The opening chapters, which basically analyse the history of modern scientific thought, philosophy and the philosophy of science were especially enlightening to me. I could see a few of you guys coming to grief over this book, as it's very unconventional for scientific writing. However, it's worth keeping in mind that, as R.A.W. points out in Prometheus Rising, scientific discoveries generally have about a generation's gap between their discovery and their acceptance by the populace. Think about it!
I'm also re-reading Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World my Muarakami, an old favourite.
Edit: took out some "basically"s. -_-