1. Journey of the Mind: How Thinking Emerged from Chaos by: Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam

2. Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States by: James C. Scott

This post represents a new feature (experiment?) I plan to occasionally write posts which take advantage of one or more books I read recently, but which aren’t actually reviews of those books. See, for example, my last post: Superminds, States, and the Domestication of Humans. 

Despite the fact that the books feature heavily in these posts, I assume my adoring fans still want actual reviews. But it doesn’t make sense to wait until the next book review collection for those reviews to appear, nor does it make sense to cram the reviews into the original essay which was about something else. And so I thought that instead I would have the reviews quickly follow the essay as sort of supplementary material. So that’s what this is. Let me know what you think. 

How durable is the state? How resistant is it to being overthrown? How closely does it reflect our desires? Is it possible it has its own desires?

But maybe more importantly how does all this affect the possibility of a very close election in November?

A narcissistic dialogue around ideas that are either annoyingly fractured or wholly unrealistic. 

DON'T DIE: Dialogues 

By: Bryan Johnson

Published: 2023

247 Pages

Briefly, what is this book about?

How best to extend the lifespan of humans and the lifetime of humanity presented in the form of a fictional dialogue between various aspects of the author's personality. 

What's the author's angle?

Bryan Johnson is a biohacker who measures dozens and dozens of biomarkers. As a result of this he claims to be aging at 64/100th the normal rate. He’s also a former and, as near as I can tell, disaffected member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

Who should read this book?

If you’re really into lifespan expansion, then maybe? Or similarly very concerned with X-risks? But I will warn you that the book is written in one of the more annoying styles I’ve ever encountered. Not only does it directly impede the transmission of information, it actively works against its inclusion..

Specific thoughts: A strange approach to X-risks...

1. Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940 by: George Chauncey

2. The Conservative Futurist: How to Create the Sci-Fi World We Were Promised by: James Pethokoukis

3. Morning After the Revolution: Dispatches from the Wrong Side of History by: Nellie Bowles

4. Every Man for Himself and God Against All: A Memoir by: Werner Herzog

5. The Complete Maus: A Survivor's Tale by: Art Spiegelman

6. The Master and Margarita by: Mikhail Bulgakov

7. The Buried Giant: A Novel by: Kazuo Ishiguro

8. Naked Defiance: A Comedy of Menace by: Patrik Sampler

9. The Riddle of the Third Mile (Inspector Morse Series Book 6) by: Colin Dexter

10. Dungeons & Dragons 2024 Player's Handbook (D&D Core Rulebook) lead designer: Jeremy Crawford

Transcript: https://www.wearenotsaved.com/p/divine-disappointment-and-mortal

By: Kurt Francom

Published: 2024

190 Pages

Our parents expect that we will do certain things—perhaps it’s cleaning our rooms, perhaps it’s becoming a doctor—when we don't, they're disappointed. We have a tendency to view God in the same fashion; He also has expectations, and when we fail to meet them we imagine that He is similarly disappointed. Francom claims this is a false belief. Because of God’s omniscience and infinite love, He cannot be disappointed. When we think He might be it leads to shame, which prevents us from accessing His love. 

Francom is the director of Leading Saints, an organization whose primary focus is providing advice and resources for the lay leadership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He’s also heavily involved with Warrior Heart a Christian men’s organization that runs retreats with a focus on addiction recovery. This book is part of those focuses and a personal expression of Francom’s approach to leadership and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I’ve known Francom for going on ten years. As such I’ve been privy to his argument that God cannot be disappointed from his initial epiphany all the way down to his full, book-length treatment of the subject. As I’ve watched the idea develop, I’ve raised numerous objections. To Francom’s great credit most of these objections are at least acknowledged in the book. I suspect that I wasn’t the only one to raise these objections, but I fancy that he first heard of them from me. 

My name is listed in the book’s acknowledgments but it’s pretty generic. I had hoped for something more like “And thanks to Ross Richey, if not for his relentless criticism, unending negativity, poor character, and dark soul, the book would have been less accurate, but probably more inspiring.”

1. A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through? by: Kelly and Zach Weinersmith

2. Ravenna: Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe by: Judith Herrin

3. The Birth of the West: Rome, Germany, France, and the Creation of Europe in the Tenth Century by: Paul Collins

4. Missing: The Need for Closure After the Great War by: Richard van Emden

5. In My Time of Dying: How I Came Face to Face with the Idea of an Afterlife by: Sebastian Junger

6. Do Hard Things: Why We Get Resilience Wrong and the Surprising Science of Real Toughness by: Steve Magness

7. Eruption by: James Patterson and Michael Crichton 

8. The Last Devil to Die: A Thursday Murder Club Mystery (#4) by: Richard Osman

9. He Who Fights with Monsters 8: A LitRPG Adventure by: Shirtaloon

10. He Who Fights with Monsters 9: A LitRPG Adventure by: Shirtaloon

11. He Who Fights with Monsters 10: A LitRPG Adventure by: Shirtaloon

My submission to the Astral Codex Ten Book Review Contest. It was not a finalist. Comments are appreciated. (Especially ones pointing out how much better it is than the actual finalists.) 

Links to transcript sections:

I- Prologue

II- The Core Observation

III- The Realm of the Potentially Traumatic

IV- “Won’t Somebody Please Think of the Children!?”

V- A Continuum of Parenting, With Sundry Bad Examples, and an Appearance by The Last Psychiatrist

VI- Resilience

1. Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work by: Matthew B. Crawford

2. Nuclear War: A Scenario by: Annie Jacobson

3. The Pragmatist's Guide to Relationships: Ruthlessly Optimized Strategies for Dating, Sex, and Marriage by: Malcolm and Simone Collins

4. Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by: Salman Rushdie

5. Arkham: (The Weird of Hali #7) by: John Michael Greer

6. Robert E. Howard's Conan the Cimmerian Barbarian: The Complete Weird Tales Omnibus by: Robert E. Howard & compiled by: Finn J D John

7. Stories of Your Life and Others by: Ted Chiang

8. He Who Fights with Monsters 6: A LitRPG Adventure by: Shirtaloon

9. He Who Fights with Monsters 7: A LitRPG Adventure by: Shirtaloon

10. Astrophilosophy, Exotheology, and Cosmic Religion: Extraterrestrial Life in a Process Universe by: Andrew M. Davis (editor), Roland Faber (editor), and Various

Just look at the episode picture. The episode picture explains all...