Did you try GNU Go? That should be hard enough for most beginners.

Side-note, Wikipedia has a nice article on computer-Go; it's gotten a lot better, but still... with all the discussions on AGI on LW, it's sobering to see how difficult even a constrained well-understood domain like Go can be dealt with using today's methods.

Let me advertise my absolute favorite: an obscure Hungarian writer called Geza Csath. He was a doctor and journalist at beginning of the 20th century and he wrote the most beautiful and objective stories on self-deception and other human weaknesses. Highly accurately, without moralizing or romanticizing.

I've only read the originals, but I hope the translation is not too bad. (Unfortunately, in English, it is available only used: http://www.amazon.com/Magicians-Garden-Other-Stories/dp/0231047320/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1281569193&sr=1-4

A good book I am reading currently is The Art Of Choosing by Sheena Iyengar.

I think it is mostly hopeless trying to teach rationality to most people.

For example, both of my parents studied Math in university and still have a very firm grip of the fundamentals.

I just got a phone call yesterday from my father in Germany saying: "We saw in the news, that a German tourist couple got killed in a shooting in San Francisco. Will you avoid going out after dark?" When I tried to explain that I won't update my risk estimates based on any such singular event, he seemed to listen to and understand formally what I said. Anyhow, he was completely unimpressed, finishing the conversation in an even more worried tone: "I see, but you will take care, won't you?"

The silly thing is that they present it as a timeline, but it is in fact an incoherent list of technological breakthroughs without really considering the interaction between them. It's like they had a nano writer, a climate writer and so on, all of them wrote a timeline, and the editors merged them in the end.

An object lesson in how not to think about the future:

http://www.futuretimeline.net/

(from Pharyngula)

Hm, isn't he saying that unattractive people claim they value attributes other than physical attractiveness when selecting a mate? If that's what you're referring to, hilarious. If not, speak more slowly next time. : )

: )

More like: I'm not stunning, just ordinary good looking, and I also have a great sense of humor.

I didn't say I was stupid, just not a genius.

I consider myself in the middle of the bell curve when it comes to intelligence. I'm average. I am, however, more rational than some very smart people I know..

Don't read too much into my fusion analogy; you're right that cryonics is different than fusion.

um... why isn't it? There's a logically possible chance of revival someday, yeah. But with no way to estimate how likely it is, you're blowing money on mere possibility.

We don't normally make bets that depend on the future development of currently unknown technologies. We aren't all investing in cold fusion just because it would be really awesome if it panned out.

Sorry, I know this is a cryonics-friendly site, but somebody's got to say it.