Mind Games, a collection of nineteen stories of brave new worlds and alternate realities Clint Brooks, former Senior Advisor for Homeland Security and Assistant Deputy Director, NSA, "Richard Thieme takes us to the edge of cliffs we know are there but rarely visit. He wonderfully weaves life, mystery, and passion through digital and natural worlds with creativity and imagination. Delightful and deeply thought provoking reading." Stories of computer hackers, deception and intelligence, puzzling anomalies, spirituality and mysteries of consciousness, the paranormal, UFOs, alien life forms - in short, everyday life in the 21st century. Play these ""Mind Games" and see why the most common response to Richard Thieme's writing and speaking "You made me think."
I saw Richard Thieme speak at Blackhat/Defcon in 2012 and he was amazing, best speaker at the event. However the book was a bit hard to get through, but worth the read if you have seen him talk.
This is a wonderful collection of short stories that make you think twice about being out in the dark or what kind of dark projects higher ups as we call them are up to. The writing was crisp and the story lines intriguing to say the least. I am so glad I added it to my collection of books on out of this world beings.
This is a tricky book to talk about, because without some previous engagement with its themes of dystopian futures, no-mind, consciousness, extraterrestrial belief, conspiracy theories, and overall truth-stranger-than-fiction-so-we-will-disguise-the-truth-as-fiction, it can be hard to penetrate some stories in the book at all. With that being said, I can't remember the last time a book made me put it down, pause, and look at the way I've been looking at the world - and even how I look at looking.
If you're interested in anything along the lines of hacker culture/attitude, programming, conspiracy theory, dystopian and utopian visions of the future, biohacking, and a general impending sense of singularity, you should read the stories in this book. You'll definitely get something out of it.
Richard is one of my favourite speakers and always seems to give amazing talks. So I was a bit disappointed by this book, which was harder to get through then I'd have liked. The part I liked most was the short story "Break, Memory", which was quite fun to read. You can read this story on Richards website: http://www.thiemeworks.com/break-memory/