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The Lifebox, the Seashell, and the Soul: What Gnarly Computation Taught Me About Ultimate Reality, the Meaning of Life, and How to Be Happy
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A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, goes the ancient saying. This concept is at the root of the computational worldview, which basically says that very complex systems — the world we live in — have their beginnings in simple mathematical equations. We've lately come to understand that such an algorithm is only the start of a never-ending story — the real ac
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Paperback, 576 pages
Published
September 28th 2006
by Basic Books
(first published September 27th 2005)
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Start your review of The Lifebox, the Seashell, and the Soul: What Gnarly Computation Taught Me About Ultimate Reality, the Meaning of Life, and How to Be Happy
There are a lot of widely varied and sometimes outlandish ideas in here. I don't agree with all of them but the overarching concept of universal automatism is something I've long been comfortable with. The enumeration of possible kinds of ontologies and challenge to / refinement of Stephen Wolfram's Principle of Computational Equivalence. Unfortunately there are numerous typesetting errors, like 21000 instead of 2^1000 (with a proper superscript) and there is also unfortunately something of a la
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Great food for thought. Some clunkiness along the way as well, but no harm no foul. I enjoyed this book immensely.
Gnarly dude!
Rudy Rucker started as a philosopher of mathematical logic, who turned to computer science mid-career, and is also a writer of science fiction. This non-fiction book ranges broadly over all of those topics and more, taking the position that everything can be understood as a form of computation. It was a gift to me a few years ago, perhaps in a category with Douglas Hofstadter’s Gödel, Escher, and Bach.
The book is a compendium made up of several big ideas, and hundreds of sometimes related smalle ...more
The book is a compendium made up of several big ideas, and hundreds of sometimes related smalle ...more
Books ultimately are conversations between you and the author. The best books connect with you. They change you. They become a part of you. But there are some conversations you simply have to walk away from.
Rudy Rucker's "Lifebox, the seashell and the soul" is a conversation I an walking away from. I don't care much for his playful mixing of biology, spirituality and computer science. Everything is poorly organized. I've spent a week with the book, and not really sure what to make of it.
As someo ...more
Rudy Rucker's "Lifebox, the seashell and the soul" is a conversation I an walking away from. I don't care much for his playful mixing of biology, spirituality and computer science. Everything is poorly organized. I've spent a week with the book, and not really sure what to make of it.
As someo ...more
I found this book interesting and mentally stimulating, but recommend taking its conclusions with a grain of salt the size of the Rock of Gibraltar. There's a lot of cool stuff here, but the author also makes a lot assumptions, and some of them, like quantum mechanics being deterministic at some level, do not seem to be the way to bet. And sometimes he just seems to be replacing process with computation without actually saying anything meaningful. But this is a fun read, and the author is humane
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This book is full of interesting, fascinating idea about relating computing to the human mind/soul. I'd recommend this as a philosophical read to anyone interested in such. So why 3 stars? Because while the author is fully conversant in computer theory, he tries to extend that expertise in areas where he isn't - such as physics and biology - and then explains why the real experts are wrong. He also expects you to take him at his word no matter what because of that. I find that attitude insulting
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A book discussing cellular automata and what they tell us about the nature of the universe and the origins of complexity. This is the sort of book I really would have loved when I was about sixteen, but most of the interesting stuff in it I was already familiar with. I think Rudy Rucker sometimes confuses poetic connections with scientific ones.
Came in looking for answers that only a computer science professor could provide. Came out feeling ok that there can be many answers as the process unfolds. Will definitely reread at future points in my life.
Very odd book.
This book so entranced me that I wrote to the author and ended up having a nice conversation with him
Some interesting math leads to some half-baked philosophical speculation. I will resist further plays on the word 'baked' but there is a definite whiff of potsmoke emanating from this book.
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The core idea is interestng, but I'm not sure the book really expounds on it in a way that provides any new insights. Couldn't get through it.
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Didn't really enjoyed it.
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Rudolf von Bitter Rucker is an American mathematician, computer scientist, science fiction author, and one of the founders of the cyberpunk genre. He is best known for his Ware Tetralogy, the first two of which won Philip K. Dick awards. Presently, Rudy Rucker edits the science fiction webzine Flurb.
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