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Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig

-- Brede

Post 1

Monday, June 11, 2007 - 5:31am

The Future and Its Enemies - Virginia Postrel....

But the choices were hard, as have most these others, and consider Rose Wilder Lane's a better book than Patterson's, tho Act of Creation was the first of these to influence me......

Post 2

Monday, June 11, 2007 - 6:20am

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

I have not read most of the books listed on the poll.

Jim

Post 3

Monday, June 11, 2007 - 8:47am

I had submitted this survey some time back and wanted to focus mostly on non-libertarin (political or economic) books. I have modified the poll, my apologies to those who've already voted.

Ted

Post 4

Monday, June 11, 2007 - 8:53am

James, can you give a brief description of that title? (I happen, also, to have just picked up The Future and its Enemies.)

Post 5

Monday, June 11, 2007 - 9:49am

Amazon.com
You have heard about how a musician loses herself in her music, how a painter becomes one with the process of painting. In work, sport, conversation or hobby, you have experienced, yourself, the suspension of time, the freedom of complete absorption in activity. This is "flow," an experience that is at once demanding and rewarding--an experience that Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi demonstrates is one of the most enjoyable and valuable experiences a person can have. The exhaustive case studies, controlled experiments and innumerable references to historical figures, philosophers and scientists through the ages prove Csikszentmihalyi's point that flow is a singularly productive and desirable state. But the implications for its application to society are what make the book revolutionary.

From Library Journal
Aristotle observed 2300 years ago that more than anything men and women seek happiness. Csikszentmihalyi (psychology, Univ. of Chicago) has for 25 years made similar observations regarding "flow," a field of behavioral science examining connections between satisfaction and daily activities. A flow state ensues when one is engaged in self-controlled, goal-related, meaningful actions. Data regarding flow were collected on thousands of individuals, from mountain climbers to chess players. This thoroughly researched study is an intriguing look at the age-old problem of the pursuit of happiness and how, through conscious effort, we may more easily attain it. Recommended for general readers.
- Terry McMaster, Utica Coll. of Syracuse Univ. Lib., N.Y .
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Post 6

Monday, June 11, 2007 - 5:20pm

Thanks, Robert.

Monday, June 11, 2007 - 6:28pm

All his books are interesting, tho some of the latter seemed, as recall, less than clear at times [been several years since reading them, and - sadly yet - my books are still in storage....]

Post 8

Tuesday, June 12, 2007 - 8:47pm

There are many great non-libertarian books. I highly recommend Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. It's his first-hand account of how he discovered the nature of personal freedom as an inmate in the Auschwitz death camp. When you read about the kind of spiritual strength and intelligence it took for him to survive, you not only admire him but see what human beings are capable of even in the face of the worst evil.
(Edited by Ed Hudgins on 6/13, 8:47am)

Post 9

Saturday, June 16, 2007 - 6:03am

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson http://www.cryptonomicon.com/

Post 10

Saturday, June 16, 2007 - 4:42pm

Lars, could you explain what this book is about? The website is a bit too vague and esoteric and I don't like to have to work so hard to understand an advertisement.

Ted

Post 11

Sunday, June 17, 2007 - 4:47am

Googled and found a couple of reviws:

http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/stephenn/crypto.htm (scroll down)

http://www.themodernword.com/review_cryptonomicon.html

and some Wiki triva:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptonomicon

Sorry but the book is a beast, and it'd be a major effort for this alien to write something that even closely resembles the above.

(Edited by Lars Ritzman on 6/17, 6:16am)

Post 12

Sunday, June 17, 2007 - 7:41am

OK, you've hooked me ... I've ordered it.

Sam

Post 13

Sunday, June 17, 2007 - 1:35pm

It was a toss-up between Jaynes on Consciousness and Jacobs on Cities.

I also read Postrel's The Future and its Enemies when it first came out. (In fact, I read it in the bookstore, and then bought it then and there for full retail. I was impressed.) Thematically, it is based on Rand's "divine right of stagnation" but supplies facts and citations from modern life, news, etc., to underscore the presentation.

Funny thing is that I met one of those enemies. Stephanie Mills and I worked in the Bay Bucks community currency project together. She is about what you'd expect from an old hippie. I had a crush on her from the first and couldn't get over it. I kept putting my foot in my mouth. I was looking up something in Future Enemies when I saw her name and made the connection. I asked her if she really called herself an environmental fascist. She laughed and said that it was good press at the moment, but she really didn't mean it... and I knew she didn't. She is no friend of nuclear power, but her democratic principles are not to be compromised.

My torches aside, The Future and Its Enemies risks being left behind by the daily news as trends come and go. (I don't know if Bono is in the book.) Nonetheless, the book is a good source of facts for those who regard capitalism as the road to the future.

Post 14

Sunday, June 17, 2007 - 5:29pm

Lars, thanks. I take it this is a work of fiction? The thread topic was non-fiction, but I am always happy to find a new thing of value. Sam is a sober thinker, perhaps he can favor us with a review.

Ted

Post 15

Sunday, June 17, 2007 - 6:19pm

Well, Ted, judging by the size of this behemoth, (918 pages) it'll be a while before I can do that.

Cheers

Sam

Post 16

Sunday, June 17, 2007 - 7:38pm

I chose the texts for this poll mostly on the basis of my having read them and their having been influences on me. My main purpose was not to take a popularity poll, but to put the names forth, see if they had influenced others, and to elicit different works from which I myself might not have read. There are many others such as Paterson's God of the Machine which I left off, since it, like other libertarian works are presumably well known to the readers here. I also left off Stuart Kauffman's Origins of Order which I think is perhaps one of the most profound scientific texts of the last few decades. I figured it is a bit to esoteric for non-biologists. I agree with Mike and others that The Future and its Enemies is good, but dated. September 11th has done that for a lot of things.

If I could choose one work on this list that would be required reading in order to get a high school diploma, it would be Durant's Story of Civilization, especially volumes II,III, & IV, The Life of Greece, Caesar and Christ, and The Age of Faith. Perhaps someone else could come up with a poll of nine other non-libertarian works in a similar vain?

Ted

Post 17

Thursday, July 12, 2007 - 10:37pm

Sam, any word on the Cryptonomicon yet?

Post 18

Friday, July 13, 2007 - 7:19am

Ted: I've read only about 20 pages and all I can say is that I like the guy's style and it seems to be moving quite fast. I think it's a very intelligent book with lots of references to what a lot of people wouldn't appreciate if they didn't have a broad education. I can't tell you when I'll get the time to really get down to business on this one. I don't know if it's going to be a "profound" book but I think there will be some new perspectives for me.

Sam

Post 19

Friday, July 13, 2007 - 9:33am