fiddlemath comments on Book Recommendations - Less Wrong

25 Post author: NancyLebovitz 09 August 2010 08:03PM

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Comment author: fiddlemath 10 August 2010 12:38:01AM *  1 point [-]

Nearly any book by Smullyan is likely to be enjoyable to LW readers, if not particularly on-topic for Less Wrong.

  • What is the Name of this Book? is classic - this is the canonical source (maybe the original source, I'm not sure) of the liars/truth-tellers puzzles and other delights.
  • "To Mock a Mockingbird" is a nicely-paced set of puzzles that just happens to lead the reader through the first few key insights of combinatory logic.
  • "The Tao is Silent" is what happens when you soak a brilliant logician in Taoism for a while. Somewhat in this flavor is his story Planet Without Laughter, which is the best defense of something between mysticism and realism I've met.
Comment author: Jonathan_Graehl 10 August 2010 05:55:18AM *  0 points [-]

I loved "Mockingbird" but usual for me and math-heavy books, I got tired of really following along and started merely reading halfway through. Beautiful stuff, though.

Comment author: teageegeepea 11 August 2010 04:54:05AM 0 points [-]

I'm not sure if I got Planet Without Laughter. Was the whole sequence of events (spoiler) whfg vagraqrq gb cynl n wbxr ba Arzbq?

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