The following references were used in some manner while preparing this presentation. It is suggested that further information on each source (both author and title) be obtained by the judicious use of web search engines. If the viewer is sufficiently intrigued by the information obtained, then serious thought might be given to obtaining the book and actually reading it. Each book also gives many additional references which can lead to a lifetime of personal study and enjoyment. At the very least, this works for me.
The books are lumped into four categories: Cognitive Psychology, History, Mathematics and Technology, but such categorization should be taken lightly since all themes are interrelated.
Susan Blackmore (1999). The Meme Machine. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Richard Brodie (1996). Virus of the Mind. Seattle: Integral Press.
Terrance W. Deacon (1997). The Symbolic Species. New York: W. W. Norton.
Aaron Lynch (1996). Thought Contagion. New York: Basic Books.
Steven Mithen (1996). The Prehistory of the Mind. London: Thames & Hudson.
Steven Pinker (1994). The Language Instinct. New York: Morrow.
A very popular book that outlines the development and history of language.
Pinker has fun with language while describing many of the features of the nature of language.
Steven Pinker (1997). How the Mind Works. New York: Norton.
This best seller provides a witty and vibrant synthesis of much that is currently known about how the
mind works. There is a strong evolutionary perspective as Pinker describes many common psychological phenomena.
Henry Plotkin. (1997). Evolution in Mind. London: Penguin.
This book is subtitled An Introduction to
Evolutionary Psychology. It presents a new perspective on how one might view psychology, an approach that gives much more emphasis to the role of history in the development of our psychological characteristics.
Fred Adams & Greg Laughlin (1999). The Five Ages of the Universe. New York: Free Press.
A superb book that describes the major phases in the evolution of the universe. At present, we are in the early stages of the second phase.
Phillip R. Coutu & Lorraine Hoffman-Mercredi (1999). Inkonze: The Stones of Traditional Knowledge. Edmonton: Thunderwoman Ethnographics.
David Darling (1989). Deep Time. New York: Delta
A provocative and highly readable book about the origins of the universe.
Stephen Jay Gould (1989). Wonderful Life. New York: W. W. Norton.
A bestseller that describes the early forms of life as evidenced from the fossils of the Burgess Shale in Yoho National Park.
Stuart Kauffman (1995). At Home in the Universe. New York: Oxford University Press.
Jeffrey H. Schwartz (1999). Sudden Origins. New York: John Wiley.
Barbara Huck & Doug Whiteway (1998). In Search of Ancient Alberta.
Winnipeg: Heartland.
A beautiful book with superb photographs. The authors select about 40 places in Alberta and provide a brief history of that site
Keith Devlin (1998). The Language of Mathematics. New York: Freeman.
Hans Magnus Enzensberger (1997). The Number Devil. New York: Henry Holt.
Midhat J. Gazale (1999). Gnomon: From Pharaohs to Fractals. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Jan Gullberg (1997). Mathematics: From the Birth of Numbers. New York: Norton.
Edward MacNeal (1994). Mathsemantics: Making Numbers Talk Sense. New York: Viking.
John L. Casti (1997). Would-Be Worlds. New York: John Wiley.
Freeman J. Dyson (1999). The Sun, The Genome, and the Internet. New York: Oxford University Press.
George Dyson (1997). Darwin Among the Machines. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley.
Neil Gershenfeld (1999) When Things Start to Think. New York: Henry Holt.
Jim Jubak (1992). In the Image of the Brain. Boston: Little Brown.
Heinz R. Pagels (1988). The Dreams of Reason. New York: Bantam.
Clifford A. Pickover (1991). Computers and the Imagination. New York: St. Martin's Press.
