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Books

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How /g/entoomen read books

Distributed in a variety of formats, books are wads of text which sometimes include images intended for educational or entertainment purposes. Once upon a time, books were distributed physically using dead trees (similar to toilet paper). This is rare now. While its still a good idea to have some physical media, digital editions can serve as a replacement for those that don't have want to bother making physical room. eBooks are now very common. Also more economical as they are usually cheaper or in some cases, if you're tech savvy and know where to look, free. Downside is that you will have to figure out a solution for digital storage which isn't usually a problem as book file formats such as .mobi, .pdf, and .epub are usually lightweight. So it is really only a concern if you acquire a lot. If you can, get a version without DRM aka anti-ownership botnet or use free software like Calibre to remove it. Establishes restriction-free access to your product which prevents publishers and distributors abusing it by doing things such as deleting a book, sometimes along with your account without warning. For a more pleasant reading experience and decreased eye strain, you might look into acquiring an e-reader with an electronic ink display. There are also Audiobooks (sometimes called Talking Books) which are audio files in which a well spoken person reads the book to you, similar to a podcast. Many e-readers, usually the more expensive ones, can play audiobooks. Below are /g/ core reads (You) should go through.


Fiction Books

Sci-Fi

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932)
This novel is set in the far future where a trans-humanist dystopia has replaced the whole of humanity. Human beings are stripped of every shred of individualism, and children are grown in bottles. The population is kept under control using opiate-like drugs known as Soma, and are sent to experience extreme pleasure, such as a social event known as the "Orgy-Porgy". They have replaced religion with a worship for industrialism, and the state-sanctioned deity is Henry Ford (whom they believe to be the same person as Sigmund Freud). It is often compared with Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. This book, the people are controlled using pleasure, and hedonistic conditioning, while in the other they are controlled via fear and force.
Some trans-humanists are drawn on the nature of the book. Some believe that it is simply a negative, almost propagandist piece on an otherwise Utopian Society, while some believe that it is in-fact a utopia in the point of view of a person who misunderstands. A good article on the first point (it is a negative look at a possible utopia) is Brave New World? A Defense of Paradise-Engineering by David Pearce (2014)
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (1948)
A dystopian novel that tells the history of a society controlled and spied by a person named Big Brother, who may not even exist.
The Last Question by Isaac Asimov (1956)
A short-story by prolific writer Isaac Asimov about the evolution of man and a machine named the Multivac. In multiple stages of human history, Humanity has asked the machine the question "Can the workings of the second law of thermodynamics (used in the story as the increase of the entropy of the universe) be reversed?"
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (1979)
A comedy that follows the life of Arthur Dent, the last surviving human followed by the demolition of the planet Earth. It's the first in a series.

Cyberpunk

Neuromancer by William Gibson (1984) <Sprawl, #1>
One of the first, and widely regarded as the best cyberpunk novels.
Count Zero by William Gibson (1986) <Sprawl, #2>
Sequel to Neuromancer.
Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson (1988) <Sprawl, #3>
Sequel to Count Zero.

Non-Fiction Books

Programming

See: Programming resources

Non-Programming

As We May Think by Dr. Vannevar Bush, PhD (1945)
Dr. Bush was one of the heads of The Manhattan Project. While he was working on this, he wrote this short essay for The Atlantic, proposing that once we re-enter peace time our scientists should create machines that aide the human condition. He proposes the prerequisites for Hypertext, in a fictional machine known as the Memex. it is one of the greatest pieces of literature in the whole history of modern computing.
Computer Lib/Dream Machines by Ted Nelson (1974)
In his book Tools for Thought, Howard Rheingold calls Computer Lib "the best-selling underground manifesto of the microcomputer revolution." In Steven Levy's book Hackers, Computer Lib is described as "the epic of the computer revolution, the bible of the hacker dream. The book fundamentally examines the future of Hypertext as an augmentation of Human Intellect
Exo-Psychology: A Manual on The Use of the Nervous System According to the Instructions of the Manufacturers by Dr. Timothy Leary (1977)
In this essay, Dr. Timothy Leary attempts to propose a theory of an 8-stage development model for evolution and states that Interstellar Travel will bring us from the 4th stage (the last "Newtonian" stage) into the 5th stage (the first "Quantum"/"Einsteinian" phase).
Info-Psychology: A Revision on Exo-Psychology by Dr. Timothy Leary (1987)
A revision on Exo-Psychology which relates to the Authors discovery of cyberspace. The author expands his idea expressed in Exo-Psychology and replaces references of Interstellar Travel with accessing Virtual Worlds.
Chaos and Cyber Culture by Dr. Timothy Leary (1994).
The last book by Dr. Timothy Leary, he covers his ideal that the creation of Cyberspace as well as the eventual blurring between virtual and real, will lead to an expansion of the human mind.
Cyberia: Life in the Trenches of Hyperspace by Douglas Rushkoff (1994)
A book about the early cyberspace subculture.
Industrial Society and its Future by Prof. Dr. Ted Kaczynski (1995)
The "Unabomber Manifesto", it is the antithesis to the Computer, and a warning as to how we have become slaves to the Computer.
Fair Use: The Story of the Letter U and the Numeral 2 by Negativland (1995)
A book exploring the long and frivolous lawsuit that resulted from the release of Negativland's EP "U2", from U2, Casey Kassem, SST Records, and the music industry as a whole.
Underground by Drefuss, Suelette (1997)
Covers the hacker culutre in Melbourne, Australia during the late 80s/early 90s. Much of the research was done by Julian "Mendax" Assange well before his Wikileaks days. Available online for free.
The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence by Ray Kurzweil (1999)
A trans-humanist book exploring the concept of Artificial Intelegence. Introduces a formalized concept of the "Singularity".
Free as in Freedom 2.0 by Williams, Sam and Stallman, Richard (2010)
Biography of Richard Stallman as edited by the man himself. Available online for free.
Free Software, Free Society by Stallman, Richard (2010)
A collection of essays by Stallman covering a variety of topics around free software. Available for free from the Free Software Foundation.
The Erotic Engine by Patchen Barss (2010)
A book that proposes that the development of Contemporary Mass-Communication has a secret history of pornographers, which aided in the development of the systems.
Cypherpunks by Assange, Julian with Applebaum, Jacob, Muller-Maguhn, Andy and Zimmerman, Jeremie (2012).
A discussion of computer security in contrast to traditional government and law enforcement with a focus on publicly available cryptography as a game-changer.
We Are Anonymous by Olson, Parmy (2012)
History of LulzSec, with the Stratfor and HBGary hacks and a brief history of 4chan. Audiobook available.
You are Not So Smart by McRaney, David (2012)
46 ways your lizard brain messes with your INTJ master race brain. Explains many internet discussion phenomenon. Audiobook exists.
No Place to Hide by Greenwald, Glenn (2014)
Inside the Snowden files and the story of their disclosure.
When Google Met Wikileaks by Assange, Julian (2014)
Deconstructs a meeting between Assange and Eric Schmidt and discusses possible wider motives which Google could be pursuing.
Learning the Art of Electronics by Thomas C Hayes (2016)
This book is a basic primer to EE, and basic Electronics

Magazines

Magazines were similar to books, but lighter. They often comprised of many short articles which spanned only a page or two out of a 50-100 page magazine. They were distributed weekly or monthly and would often include sections such as "news" and "letters to the editor". It was possible to "subscribe" to a magazine, where a subscriber would pay for a year's worth of magazines in advance and have them home delivered.

Magazines were replaced by websites and comment sections on the web. They have died a very slow death, relying on technological illiterates to continue buying them.

Some magazines still exist in an online-only format, but tend to update daily rather than weekly/monthy and are "magazines" in name only.

The MagPi (2012 - ongoing)
A monthly zine about the Raspberry Pi which includes news, projects and code snippets. Available free from the MagPi website.
Wired Magazine (1993 - present)
Previously the best magazine for tech people by tech people, it had a sharp decline in the mid-2000's and is now mostly an advertiser's shitposting medium. The Wired website is better than the print publication.
Commodore User (CU) (1983 - 1990)
One of the longest running tech magazines, CU was a magazine for Commodore users. It specialized in Games, upcoming systems, and had large amounts of user submitted articles. A short-lived spin-off was created in the 1990's, named CU Amiga, and was solely for Amiga users.
Modo 2000 (1984-1998, 2017)
A publication for the Techno-Futurist and cyberpunk. Created by R. U. Sirius, it was one of the most shared underground print-magazines of the time.
The Youth International Party Line (YIPL) and Technological American Party (TAP) (1971-1995)
A publication of the Youth International Party, it demonstrates how to phreak the Ma Bell lines. Later on it teaches computer hacking, and has Op-Eds. It changed its name to TAP in the mid 1980's.

E-zines

Main Article: Zine

Lainchan Zine (2014 - present)
The official E-zine for Lainchan
Phrack (1985-Present)
Phrack is one of the oldest E-Zines still being published. It has hacking tips and various phreaking tips as well.

See also

External Links

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