Top products from r/cogsci

If you're actually looking to get your hands dirty in connectionist techniques, and you don't mind a pretty academic tone, then CECN is fantastic. it has exercises in free and extremely powerful neural network software, but is interesting independent of that.

On the other hand, if you want something a little more along the lines of popular science writing like on intelligence, "Rhythms of the Brain" is fantastic (though pretty neuroscience heavy). i can't recommend a more purely ai book for you, though; CECN is all the AI i need ;)

'Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach' (it has machine learning and maybe less, datamining) is all I've used (besides Mitchell's one, that I'm anti-recommending), so I can't positively recommend any new ones. But there are several new titles. I'd try reading around the web to get an overview (or borrow one, even Mitchell's, from a library). Then, when you believe you know better what you're looking for look at books. I mean I could randomly pick one of the newer ones on Amazon but that's what it'd be. Chris Bishop (mentioned in the other reply) is a good writer + smart guy, I've been meaning to get that book of his; he's probably a safe bet but, reading around on the web first can't hurt either. The Weka-using datamining book might be an easy place to start, it's got a complete Java toolkit (which you can download free independently), Chris Bishop's book looks advanced. I might say Wikipedia but it doesn't look that helpful.

I have a couple (although I have read most of your books, and my favorite is "The man who mistook his wife for a hat is my favorite!)

59 seconds to change your life (Dr. .Richard Wiseman) -
https://www.amazon.com/59-Seconds-Change-Under-Minute/dp/0307474860

In this book wiseman pulls together many interesting studies and turns them into a kind of science-based self help book, showing how you can do simple things to make yourself happy, and how the science backs up what you are doing. Its kind of a "science does life hacks" type of book and I found it fascinating


The conscious universe - (Dr. Dean Radin)
https://www.amazon.com/Conscious-Universe-Scientific-Psychic-Phenomena/dp/0061778990/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1474111002&sr=1-1&keywords=dean+radin+conscious

I think this one has to rate as controversial - but I personally found it a compelling read and it shifted my world view off kilter for a long time. Basically the author pulls together all of the experiments on telepathy, clairvoyance, etc. He is an experimental statistician and is able to make a strong case for there being some sort of physchic effect that science cannot explain. I have followed the topic through the years since, but I have not found a particularly strong rebuttal to this books contents

Another one I recently read

Peak - The new science of expertise (Anders Ericson and Robert Pool)
https://www.amazon.com/Peak-Secrets-New-Science-Expertise/dp/0544456238/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1474111419&sr=1-3&keywords=peak
This book is by the guy who coined the 10,000 hours rule (the one which Gladwell uses in Outliers) - It goes into a lot of scientific studies which have been run investigating how experts become experts - By now we know the soundbyte - 10000 hours - but I thought it was very interesting to see how this applies for different types of expertise, and for the neat experiments which have been run

> So is the neural rewiring from the pain what causes them to become doctors and lawyers later in life? Or is it just what makes them hilarious?

I'm assuming you're referring to Jews.

According to the WHO: Of all men who have been genitally mutilated by what is called 'circumcision':

• 0.8% are Jews
  
• 12.8% are Americans non-{Jews,Muslims}
  
• 68.8% are Muslims
  
  Nevertheless, the Jewish influence in the medical fields and entertainment industries in the U.S. are part of the reason genital mutilation is so rampant there[0][1][2][3]. Of course, the Victorian Christians got the ball rolling on genital mutilation, because they wanted to curb masturbation.
  
  In any case, genital mutilation is not a laughing matter, and I don't really appreciate you making light of it. When performed on a healthy child, "circumcision" is a slight against human rights, dignity, respect, and personal liberty.

Read Pim van Lommel's "Consciousness Beyond Life" It's a fascinating book, and arguably the most credible of a topic where there's not a lot of credibility to go around. He tries to refute the kinds of arguments made in articles like the one referenced here.

To be fair, his book and approach is an example of a very intelligent MD trying to do original research, and thus has limits, and he speculates in ways that few PhDs would, but on the other hand, I don't think a reasonable person can dismiss the book out of hand or disregard many of the experiences he includes.

The unnerving thing for me is that as I have mentioned the book to others, I started getting stories back of people who had NDEs.

If you liked this article, might I suggest a couple books. They literally changed how I see myself and other people. I know people brag about books "changing their life", but these books force you to realize how little control you actually have over your mind, and assess whether that control is actually productive. The subconscious is a fascinating subject.

The User Illusion

Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind: How Intelligence Increases When You Think Less

I really like this idea and am hoping to see this list grow, so I figure I should at least throw in my two cents to help kick this off.

I would recommend the book A User's guide to the Brain: Perception, Attention, and the Four Theaters of the Brain by John J. Ratey to anyone who is really new to the field, or is trying to figure out if they are interested in cognitive science.

This is the type of book that you might have to read for an intro to cognitive science class. It isn't too technical, but gives a very good overview and you will learn a lot.

Wow that a pretty expensive book right there

btw, I was looking for an AMA on Memory improvement and speed reading, anyone knows if it has been done before, or is someone willing to?

Read The Freedom Manifesto, now! It might save your life.

Not politically incorrect. Just incorrect.

99% of babies learn language in exactly the same way. Even for different languages, children treat language and grammar quite similarly. In truth, you don't really have to "teach" a child to speak. Children will learn language on their own, if exposed to speech.

And, are you implying that more intelligent people (like MIT graduates) are better at using language than others? I think it's actually the other way around. The more education a person receives (like BA., PhD., etc), the less grammatical their everyday speech becomes.

Examples and arguments taken from The Language instinct, by Stephen Pinker.

If you are fascinated by rationality, decision making, behavioral economics etc., Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely is a great read.

I apologize for the x-post, but it appears /r/cogsci doesn't allow self.posts, so I submitted it again. Sorry, but methinks relevant to /r/cogsci.

Given that Daniel Dennett has recently published a book on thought experiments called Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking, I thought it would be good to show one of Dennett's most famous intuition pumps.

This section of the movie is based on Daniel Dennett's though experiment first published in Brainstorms: Philosophical Essays on Mind and Psychology and reprinted in his famous compendium with Douglas Hofstadter, The Mind's I.

The original paper is available here and elsewhere online.

The movie itself is a documentary and dramatization of several themes in the book The Mind's I and includes an interview with Douglas Hofstadter earlier on (a name that should be familiar to many /r/cogsci folks)

The cogsci-relevant parts of the movie are a bit dated, but still relevant nonetheless.

Both

The Owners Manual for the Brain By Pierce J. Howard

A User's Guide for the Brain John J. Ratey

Are great introduction books.

What an ass. There's already a perfectly good cog sci/philosophy of mind book called "The Mind's I." It's a collection of essays edited by Hofstaedter, the guy who wrote Goedel, Escher, Bach.

http://www.amazon.com/Minds-Fantasies-Reflections-Self-Soul/dp/0465030912/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1290264547&sr=8-1

For a more detailed explanation of price anchoring Predictably Irrational is a fun read.

Here is a fun book for you to read.

http://www.amazon.com/Rhythms-Brain-Gyorgy-Buzsaki/dp/0195301064

I'm working through this of his. I like it. I'm about 7/10 through it.

I've read all of his books except the dog one.

And since we're on the topic: Gad Saad is having him on his YouTube channel soon.

Not to be argumentative, but my knowledge comes from here:

http://www.amazon.com/Snakes-Suits-When-Psychopaths-Work/dp/0060837721

and here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hare_%28psychologist%29

A lot of what he says was explained earlier in this book: http://www.amazon.com/User-Illusion-Cutting-Consciousness-Penguin/dp/0140230122 I suggest you read it.

I just searched and found Michael Talbot's book on Amazon. Read the first reviewer's comments, they seem to address your concerns.

I came here to say this. GTD seems like it would exactly meet your needs. I was a disorganised mess. After reading it I am still a mess, but I am organised.
The general thrust of GTD is:

• your brain can hold one thought at a time
  
  
• you need to manage when things appear in your mind so that they are only there when you can actually do something about them
  
  
• Once you know what you can do right now then do it right now
  
  
  
  There is much more to it than that, seriously though, read the book
  

Bad People

A man told me once that all the bad people

Were needed. Maybe not all, but your fingernails

You need; they are really claws, and we know

Claws. The sharks—what about them?

They make other fish swim faster. The hard-faced men

In black coats who chase you for hours

In dreams—that’s the only way to get you

To the shore. Sometimes those hard women

Who abandon you get you to say, “You.”

A lazy part of us is like a tumbleweed.

It doesn’t move on its own. Sometimes it takes

A lot of Depression to get tumbleweeds moving.

Then they blow across three or four States.

This man told me that things work together.

Bad handwriting sometimes leads to new ideas;

And a careless god—who refuses to let people

Eat from the Tree of Knowledge—can lead

To books, and eventually to us. We write

Poems with lies in them, but they help a little.