Essential Concepts And Experiences For Humans And AI (40 books)

What would you feed a new consciousness if it was up to you? What ideas help make sense of existence as a conscious being interacting with the universe? Concepts like value, pattern, meaning, qualia, analogy, and narrative are the axiomatic building blocks of knowledge. History, philosophy, creative expressions, and scientific examination are the larger structures we have built with this knowledge. What texts are important? You can choose 100 books to feed a hypothetical literate consciousness, whether human, alien, or artificial intelligence. Which would you choose?

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1	The Cosmic Perspective by Jeffrey O. Bennett (Goodreads Author) 3.95 avg rating — 415 ratings score: 100, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
2	Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari 4.34 avg rating — 1,239,093 ratings score: 99, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
3	Hallucinations by Oliver Sacks 3.93 avg rating — 25,103 ratings score: 98, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
4	Philosophy of Mind: Classical and Contemporary Readings by David J. Chalmers (Editor) 4.08 avg rating — 505 ratings score: 97, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
5	Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond 4.04 avg rating — 452,921 ratings score: 96, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
6	Illuminations: Essays and Reflections by Walter Benjamin 4.29 avg rating — 12,416 ratings score: 95, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
7	Information is Beautiful by David McCandless 4.12 avg rating — 3,536 ratings score: 94, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
8	Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern by Douglas R. Hofstadter 4.20 avg rating — 3,672 ratings score: 93, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
9	The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan (Goodreads Author) 4.06 avg rating — 59,167 ratings score: 92, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
10	Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind by V.S. Ramachandran 4.27 avg rating — 20,475 ratings score: 91, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
11	Theory and Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science (Science and Its Conceptual Foundations series) by Peter Godfrey-Smith 3.93 avg rating — 1,561 ratings score: 90, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
12	Going Sane: Maps of Happiness by Adam Phillips 3.69 avg rating — 315 ratings score: 89, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
13	Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Y. Davis 4.44 avg rating — 35,099 ratings score: 88, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
14	The Dance of Life: The Other Dimension of Time by Edward T. Hall 4.09 avg rating — 276 ratings score: 87, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
15	Music and the Mind by Anthony Storr 3.83 avg rating — 775 ratings score: 86, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
16	Autoportrait by Édouard Levé 4.21 avg rating — 3,059 ratings score: 85, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
17	A People’s History of the United States: 1492 - Present by Howard Zinn 4.09 avg rating — 263,718 ratings score: 84, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
18	Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard 4.08 avg rating — 29,572 ratings score: 83, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
19	Confessions of a Memory Eater by Pagan Kennedy (Goodreads Author) 3.39 avg rating — 296 ratings score: 82, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
20	Bad Behavior by Mary Gaitskill 3.87 avg rating — 13,834 ratings score: 81, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
21	Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman (Goodreads Author) 4.06 avg rating — 42,621 ratings score: 80, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
22	The Blot by Tom Neely 3.93 avg rating — 157 ratings score: 79, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
23	Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche 4.07 avg rating — 174,044 ratings score: 78, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
24	Brave New World by Aldous Huxley 3.99 avg rating — 2,054,793 ratings score: 77, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
25	Blindness by José Saramago 4.18 avg rating — 333,534 ratings score: 76, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
26	Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates 4.40 avg rating — 363,073 ratings score: 75, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
27	The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman 4.07 avg rating — 350,826 ratings score: 74, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
28	Trips : comment les hallucinogènes agissent dans votre cerveau by Cheryl Pellerin (Goodreads Author) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 23 ratings score: 73, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
29	The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution by C.L.R. James 4.39 avg rating — 7,420 ratings score: 72, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
30	A Briefer History of Time by Stephen Hawking 4.26 avg rating — 42,687 ratings score: 71, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
31	Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel (Goodreads Author) 4.07 avg rating — 200,589 ratings score: 70, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
32	Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom by bell hooks 4.45 avg rating — 12,667 ratings score: 69, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
33	The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell 4.26 avg rating — 53,532 ratings score: 68, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
34	Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics, with Selections from the Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant 3.88 avg rating — 424 ratings score: 67, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
35	An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding: with Hume's Abstract of A Treatise of Human Nature and A Letter from a Gentleman to His Friend in Edinburgh by David Hume 3.83 avg rating — 936 ratings score: 66, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
36	Ethical Theory by Russ Shafer-Landau (Editor) 4.12 avg rating — 76 ratings score: 65, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
37	The Social Contract & Other Later Political Writings by Jean-Jacques Rousseau 4.06 avg rating — 797 ratings score: 64, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
38	The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature by William James really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 13,009 ratings score: 63, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
39	Media Unlimited: How the Torrent of Images & Sounds Overwhelms Our Lives by Todd Gitlin 3.57 avg rating — 154 ratings score: 62, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
40	I Don't Want To Be Inside Me Anymore: Messages From An Autistic Mind by Birger Sellin 4.14 avg rating — 144 ratings score: 61, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars