For the last 6 months or so, I have been getting together with a few friends to discuss the book Consciousness Explained by Daniel Dennett. This is a lot of fun and a great way to make sure you are understanding what you are reading.
Having recently learned of the ability to do audio conferencing for free using Yahoo Messenger, I thought it would be neat if interested people with broadband might want to get together virtually once a week to discuss a book that we might all find appealing. It would be great way to meet like-minded folks and build community at a distance.
I wasn't thinking about just strictly transhumanist books, though that would certainly be included. Rather, I was thinking about the kind of stimulating reading you might see referenced at a site like http://www.edge.org
Here are a list of possible suggestions:
* The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
* Darwin's Dangerous Idea by Daniel Dennett
* Freedom Evolves by Daniel Dennett
* Nonzero by Robert Wright
* On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins with Sandra Blakeslee
* The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory by David Chalmers (as a a sort of counter-argument to Dennet)
* The Life of the Cosmos by Lee Smolin
* The New Humanists by John Brockman
* The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes
Might also be worthwhile to read more classic works by people like David Hume, John Stuart Mill, Adam Smith, Charles Pierce, Gilbert Ryle, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Karl Popper, Ludwig Von Mises, W.V.O. Quine--people like that.
Anyway, let me know if anyone is interested. I think it would be a hoot!
Warm regards,
Hugh
