# Most intriguing/mind-expanding nonfiction? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 25, 2003, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-intriguing-mind-expanding-nonfiction/184204 "2003-06-25T02:53:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/df788c/32.png) [@Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ben)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2003, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-intriguing-mind-expanding-nonfiction/184204/1 "2003-06-25T02:53:17Z")
What are your most intriguing nonfiction books? I’d suggest: Braitenberg’s _Vehicles_, which shows, step-by-step, how more and more complex behaviors can evolve in little robot “vehicles,” starting from the simplest possible. Braitenberg then goes on to show how this illustrates how complex brains might have evolved, and illustrates his arguments with examples from neuroscience. Robert L. Forward’s _Indistinguishable from Magic_, which gives an overview of how various science-fiction dreams relate to modern-day science. He has a fairly lengthy section on our burgeoning antimatter industry, for example. I’d suggest Sagan’s _Dragons of Eden_, but I actually don’t remember it that well. I remember reading it over and over as a kid, and being fascinated by its discussions of split-brain patients, animal intelligence, AI, and so on. (And one of these days I intend to read _Godel, Escher, Bach_ and _Guns, Germs, and Steel_) ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2003, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-intriguing-mind-expanding-nonfiction/184204/2 "2003-06-25T03:46:02Z")
The Demon Haunted World by Sagan (Sagan destroys pseudoscience) The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould (Exploring the horrors of scientific racism) ---
**Author:** ![Trigonal\_Planar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/0ea827/32.png) [@Trigonal\_Planar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trigonal_Planar)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2003, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-intriguing-mind-expanding-nonfiction/184204/3 "2003-06-25T04:22:35Z")
I’d have to say _Godel, Escher, Bach_ Ah, but I see you already have it on your list. 🙂 Also, _The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size_ by Tor Nrretranders. A fascinating (though much debated) thesis on everything from information theory to entropy to discussions on consciousness. ---
**Author:** ![Ben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/df788c/32.png) [@Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ben)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2003, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-intriguing-mind-expanding-nonfiction/184204/4 "2003-06-25T05:13:30Z")
How could I have forgotten _The Mind’s I_? Quite simply, the most amazing book on the question of consciousness I’ve ever read. Short on answers, but very, very long on mind-blowing questions. ---
**Author:** ![rumraisin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8e7dd6/32.png) [@rumraisin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rumraisin)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2003, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-intriguing-mind-expanding-nonfiction/184204/5 "2003-06-25T05:31:30Z")
_Hyperspace_ and _The Elegant Universe_… simple explanations of mind-blowing physics. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2003, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-intriguing-mind-expanding-nonfiction/184204/6 "2003-06-25T06:22:08Z")
Wanted to pop in to say _Gödel, Escher, Bach_. I got a lot more out of it the second time around. Stephen Jay Gould’s _Full House_ is worth picking up, too, as long as you approach it as a work of general philosophy rather than as literal evolutionary theory. :clears throat: _ **The Names of Things: Life, Language, and Beginnings in the Egyptian Desert** _, by Susan Brind Morrow, is essential reading. It’s sort of a travelogue for word-nerds, and it as poetic as it is information-dense. ---
**Author:** ![Odinoneeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/97f17d/32.png) [@Odinoneeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinoneeye)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2003, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-intriguing-mind-expanding-nonfiction/184204/7 "2003-06-25T06:31:37Z")
If you’re interested in psychology, try Timothy Leary’s Infopsychology. I’ve read pretty much every major theorist in the field and his theories make the most sense to me. And of course, Hawking’s A Brief History of Time. ---
**Author:** ![Nichol\_storm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Nichol\_storm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nichol_storm)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2003, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-intriguing-mind-expanding-nonfiction/184204/8 "2003-06-25T06:49:14Z")
Anything and everything by Carl Sagan. It’s all good. I read his books whenever I need a reminder of reality. One non-fiction book I read that I thought was very good was Keith Richburg’s _Out of America: A Black Man Confronts Africa_. Richburg was a journalist who covered lots of African conflicts and human-interest stories in Africa in the early '90s. He was in Somalia during the events of “Black Hawk Down”, South Africa as Apartheid was dying, Rwanda during the Hutu-Tutsi genocide, etc. Great book, genuinely terrifying and moving. .:Nichol:. ---
**Author:** ![Murcielago](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@Murcielago](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Murcielago)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2003, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-intriguing-mind-expanding-nonfiction/184204/9 "2003-06-25T09:41:26Z")
A bit on the nose, but I’ll add Aldous Huxley’s [_The Doors of Perception_](http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/lsd/doors.htm). Interesting mixture of clinical and philosophical perspectives. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2003, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-intriguing-mind-expanding-nonfiction/184204/10 "2003-06-25T13:46:16Z")
The Professor and the Madman, for an interesting take on the difference between being sane and being useful. Regards, Shodan