XiXiDu comments on Open Thread, August 2010 - Less Wrong
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Thanks, I just ordered 'Darwin's Dangerous Idea' and 'Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software'. I've already got the others.
Here a tidbit from 'The Mathematical Experience'
I've ordered a copy, but on a second look, I'm not sure that the argument is sound, or even interesting.
Biological evolution runs on the local non-survival of the least fit (and sometimes the unlucky), not on an overview-based evaluation of the fittest.
Peer-review is the predator. But if the prey population is higher than can be sheltered by selection of promising ideas from nonsense, nonsense will prevail. That is, those people producing valuable results won't be favored over those that come up with marginal or wrong results.
Yes, that's exactly the kind of stuff I recommended The Mathematical Experience for. It takes a bird's eye view instead of going for the usual textbook minutiae, but still feels like it's talking about the actual practice of mathematics instead of something simplified to death for the benefit of popular audiences.