Interview with Gian Volpicelli, author of Cryptocurrency (WIRED guides) : How Digital Money Could Transform Finance
Gian Volpicelli, author of Cryptocurrency (WIRED guides) : How Digital Money Could Transform Finance recommends a fantasting list of books! Before jumping into the interview, please check out Gian's book:
A great primer on the major epochs in the history of cryptocurrency, covering the landscape leading up to Satoshi's Bitcoin white paper through to the ICO bubble and stablecoins, and onwards to Libra and DeFi. The description of each cryptocurrency incarnation is entertaining as well as informative, with critical analysis and considered opinion, as well as some granted hindsight, thrown in to produce an enjoyable commentary. (All affiliate links earn commission from purchases that help fund this site. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Cryptocurrency (WIRED guides) : How Digital Money Could Transform Finance
Most interesting is the discussion and speculation on the future applications of cryptocurrency, how the technology could move on from disrupting finance to disrupting politics and nation states. As the author describes, this process has already begun. A book that gets the mental wheels of possibility turning.
Buy On:
Book Depository €8.74
Waterstones £8.99
Wordery $11.89
Q. Do you have a favourite smart thinking book (and why that book)?
From Bacteria to Bach and Back, by Daniel Dennett. I always loved Dennett's philosophical-cum-scientific exploration of consciousness, its function and functioning, and how it evolved. This book is his definitive masterpiece on the subject – it is a must-read if you like to think about thinking.
Review from Book Depository:
What is human consciousness and how is it possible? These questions fascinate thinking people from poets and painters to physicists, psychologists, and philosophers.
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From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds
This is Daniel C. Dennett's brilliant answer, extending perspectives from his earlier work in surprising directions, exploring the deep interactions of evolution, brains and human culture. Part philosophical whodunnit, part bold scientific conjecture, this landmark work enlarges themes that have sustained Dennett's career at the forefront of philosophical thought. In his inimitable style, laced with wit and thought experiments, Dennett shows how culture enables reflection by installing a profusion of thinking tools, or memes, in our brains, and how language turbocharges this process. The result: a mind that can comprehend the questions it poses, has emerged from a process of cultural evolution.
An agenda-setting book for a new generation of philosophers and thinkers, From Bacteria to Bach and Back is essential for anyone who hopes to understand human creativity in all its applications.
Buy On:
Book Depository €10.29
Waterstones £10.99
Wordery $12.10
Q. What's the most recent smart thinking book you've read (and how would you rate it)?
I recently re-read The Book of Why, by Judea Pearl. It is a book about how to think about causation – not just correlation – in data. A lot of the complex mathematical formulas flew over my head, but all in all it is a highly readable book about an apparently abstract topic whose real-world consequences (especially for AI design) are monumental.
Review From Book Depository:
'Correlation does not imply causation.' For decades, this mantra was invoked by scientists in order to avoid taking positions as to whether one thing caused another, such as smoking and cancer, or carbon dioxide and global warming. But today, that taboo is dead. The causal revolution, sparked by world-renowned computer scientist Judea Pearl and his colleagues, has cut through a century of confusion and placed cause and effect on a firm scientific basis.
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The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect
Now, Pearl and science journalist Dana Mackenzie explain causal thinking to general readers for the first time, showing how it allows us to explore the world that is and the worlds that could have been. It is the essence of human and artificial intelligence. And just as Pearl's discoveries have enabled machines to think better, The Book of Why explains how we too can think better.
Buy On:
Book Depository €11.62
Waterstones £10.99
Wordery $13.45
Q. Do you have a favourite childhood book?
It'll have to be Pinocchio, by Carlo Collodi – which by the way is far superior to the bastardised Disney version. I was such a fan that during my primary school years I used to read it from cover to cover at least once a year .
Review From Book Depository:
The story of the walking and talking puppet Pinocchio is one of the best-loved children's tales of all time.
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Pinocchio
Carved by old Gepetto, Pinocchio has an enormous nose which grows even longer whenever he tells a lie. Pinocchio is such a scamp that he gets into all sorts of mischief. He runs away to join a puppet show, he teams up with a rascally fox and wily cat, and plays truant from school which has dreadful consequences. Eventually the conscience of a talking cricket and Pinocchio's guardian fairy restore him to good behaviour, obedience and care for others.
Buy On:
Easons €2.80
Book Depository €3.57
Waterstones £2.50
Wordery $4.96
Q. Do you prefer reading on paper, Kindle or listening to an audiobook?
Generally Kindle, for convenience and portability. I am, however, faster when I read on paper, and I am an avid consumer of graphic novels, which must be read on paper. I have only ever listened to three audiobooks in my life, specifically Heart of Darkness, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and Robert Caro's The Passage of Power; I am too much of a word-buff to appreciate the audio form.
Q. Do you have a favourite bookshop (and why that shop)?
I have to confess– not really. I buy most of my books online.
Many thanks to Gian for recommending a fantastic list of books! Please don't forget to check out Gian's book Cryptocurrency (WIRED guides) : How Digital Money Could Transform Finance.
Daryl
Image Copyrights: (Cryptocurrency) Cornerstone, Penguin Books Ltd (From Bacteria To Bach and Back, The Book of Why), Wordsworth Editions Ltd (Pinocchio).
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