Books Recommended by Stewart Brand
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Finite and Infinite Games
James Carse
Source: "A fundamental interest is gamification – thinking of things in game terms and designing things in gaming terms is one of the profound things that civilization has done for a very long time." - Stewart Brand
Machines of Loving Grace
The Quest for Common Ground Between Humans and Robots
John Markoff
Source: "Basically spells out the ongoing debate between artificial intelligence and intelligence augmentation – I.A. and A.I." - Stewart Brand
1 recommender
Time Travel
A History
James Gleick
Source: "Some of the most cogent thinking about time that I think we’ve seen in a long time." - Stewart Brand
1 recommender
Dune (6 books)
Frank Herbert
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this series on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
A History of Civilizations
Fernand Braudel
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
The Way Life Works
The Science Lover's Illustrated Guide to How Life Grows, Develops, Reproduces, and Gets Along
Mahlon Hoagland
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
The Pattern On The Stone
The Simple Ideas That Make Computers Work
Danny Hillis
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
Culture (10 books)
Iain M. Banks
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this series on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
5 recommenders
Imagined Worlds
Freeman Dyson
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
A Pattern Language
Towns, Buildings, Construction
Christopher Alexander
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
Turing's Cathedral
The Origins of the Digital Universe
George Dyson
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
Foundation (7 books)
Isaac Asimov
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this series on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
The Map Book
Peter Barber
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
Thinking, Fast and Slow
Daniel Kahneman
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
The Long Summer
How Climate Changed Civilization
Brian Fagan
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
The Better Angels of Our Nature
Why Violence Has Declined
Steven Pinker
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
Medieval Civilization
400-1500
Jacques Le Goff
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
The Oxford Shakespeare
The Complete Works
William Shakespeare
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
The Future of Life
Edward O. Wilson
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
The Coming Population Crash
and Our Planet's Surprising Future
Fred Pearce
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
The Art of the Long View
Planning for the Future in an Uncertain World
Peter Schwartz
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
Tao Te Ching
Lao Tzu
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
What Technology Wants
Kevin Kelly
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
3 recommenders
The Gift
Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property
Lewis Hyde
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
2 recommenders
Powers of Ten
About the Relative Size of Things in the Universe
Philip Morrison
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
Triumph of the City
How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier
Edward Glaeser
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
2 recommenders
Thinking in Time
The Uses of History for Decision-Makers
Richard E. Neustadt
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
Infinite in All Directions
Freeman J. Dyson
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
Conceptual Physics
Paul G. Hewitt
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
Across Realtime
Across Realtime, Book 3
Vernor Vinge
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
Why the West Rules--for Now
The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future
Ian Morris
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
Venice
A Maritime Republic
Frederic C. Lane
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
The Prince
Niccolò Machiavelli
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
The Landmark Thucydides
Thucydides
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
The King and the Corpse
Tales of the Soul's Conquest of Evil
Heinrich Zimmer
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
The Eternal Frontier
An Ecological History of North America and Its Peoples
Tim Flannery
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
Meditations
Marcus Aurelius
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
Governing the Commons
The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action
Elinor Ostrom
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
Brave New World
Aldous Huxley
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
Beowulf
Seamus Heaney
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Bill Bryson
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
A History of the World in 100 Objects
Neil MacGregor
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
The Story of Writing
Alphabets, Hieroglyphs & Pictograms
Andrew Robinson
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
Star Maker
Olaf Stapledon
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
On the Nature of Things
Lucretius
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
2 recommenders
Grand Design
The Earth from Above
Georg Gerster
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
Dirt
The Erosion of Civilizations
David R. Montgomery
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
The Western Canon
The Books and School of the Ages
Harold Bloom
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
The Singularity Is Near
When Humans Transcend Biology
Ray Kurzweil
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
The Rise of the West
A History of the Human Community; with a Retrospective Essay
William H. McNeill
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
The Past From Above
Aerial Photographs of Archaeological Sites
Charlotte Trümpler
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
The Merck Manual Home Health Handbook
Robert Porter
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
The Idea of Decline in Western History
Arthur Herman
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
Gaia
A New Look at Life on Earth
James Lovelock
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Edward Gibbon
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
3 recommenders
The Odyssey
Homer
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
The Landmark Herodotus
The Histories
Herodotus
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
4 recommenders
The Epic of Gilgamesh
Anonymous
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
2 recommenders
The Encyclopedia of Earth
A Complete Visual Guide
Michael Allaby
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
The Discoverers
A History of Man's Search to Know His World and Himself
Daniel J. Boorstin
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
2 recommenders
The Complete Guide to Trail Building and Maintenance
Carl Demrow
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
The Complete Greek Tragedies
4 Volumes
David Grene
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order
Samuel P. Huntington
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
3 recommenders
The Civilization of the Middle Ages
A Completely Revised and Expanded Edition of Medieval History, the Life and Death of a Civilization
Norman F. Cantor
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
The Causes of War
Geoffrey Blainey
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
One True God
Historical Consequences of Monotheism
Rodney Stark
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
Military Misfortunes
The Anatomy of Failure in War
Eliot A. Cohen
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
Memory of the World
The Treasures that Record Our History from 1700 BC to the Present Day
UNESCO
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
The Elements
A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe
Theodore Gray
Source: Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.
1 recommender
The Sleepwalkers
A History of Man's Changing Vision of the Universe
Arthur Koestler
Source: Stewart Brand mentioned this book on "The Tim Ferriss Show" podcast.
1 recommender
Our Bodies, Ourselves
A Book by and for Women
Boston Women's Health Book Collective
Source: "Wonderful book by women on women’s health." - Stewart Brand
1 recommender
Homo Ludens
A Study of the Play-Element in Culture
Johan Huizinga
Source: "Games are basically what we do." - Stewart Brand
1 recommender
Collapse
How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Jared Diamond
Source: "Has some interesting stuff to propose." - Stewart Brand
3 recommenders
Learning to Breathe Fire
The Rise of CrossFit and the Primal Future of Fitness
J.C. Herz
Source: "Tells the story of how CrossFit came about." - Stewart Brand
1 recommender
1 recommender
Guns, Germs, and Steel
The Fates of Human Societies
Jared Diamond
Source: "The main [book by this author]." - Stewart Brand
Connectography
Mapping the Future of Global Civilization
Parag Khanna
Source: "About humanity's infrastructure." - Stewart Brand
1 recommender
Scale
The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies
Geoffrey West
Source: "Particularly fantastic." - Stewart Brand
The Good Ancestor
How to Think Long-Term in a Short-Term World
Roman Krznaric
Source: "A very good book." - Stewart Brand
1 recommender
The Water Will Come
Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World
Jeff Goodell
Source: "Do read." - Stewart Brand
2 recommenders
39 books
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