All in Non Fiction

Helgoland: Making Sense of the Quantum Revolution by Carlo Rovelli

Helgoland: Making Sense of the Quantum Revolution by Carlo Rovelli

Kristopia
Non Fiction

It is now a matter of widespread recognition that the conundrums of quantum mechanics are epitomized by the phenomena of superposition and quantum entanglement. The former, in particular, presents the unsettling proposition that, prior to the act of “observation,” a quantum entity exists in a state of probabilistic indeterminacy, aka electrons can be at multiple location simultaneously until being “observed”, devoid of definitive properties—a stark departure from the classical paradigm, wherein an object’s position is presumed absolute at any given temporal juncture. This peculiar dependency on “observation” suggests an ontological mutability, as if reality itself is contingent upon the mere act of perceiving. But what underpins this peculiar mechanism? What is an “observation”? What entity qualifies as an observer? Does the cosmos, in its infinite complexity, actually care if someone is “observing”?

A Kidnapped West: The Tragedy of Central Europe by Milan Kundera

A Kidnapped West: The Tragedy of Central Europe by Milan Kundera

Kristopia
Non Fiction

Geographic Europe, from the Atlantic to the Ural Mountains, has always been a land of two distinct worlds. One traced its lineage to ancient Rome and the Catholic Church, its languages shaped by the Latin alphabet. The other drew its roots from Byzantium and the Orthodox Church, adopting Cyrillic script for its tongues. But after 1945, the fragile balance shifted. The dividing line moved several hundred kilometers westward, leaving several nations that had long identified themselves as Western to wake up and find, to their dismay, that they now belonged to the East.

Understanding Ignorance by Daniel R. DeNicola

Understanding Ignorance by Daniel R. DeNicola

Kristopia
Non Fiction

In a culture of ignorance, appalling ignorance not only flourishes, it is flaunted, even celebrated. It becomes an ideological stance.  The tenacious strain of anti-intellectualism in North American society is well chronicled. It manifests in the disparagement of "book learning," a distorted skepticism towards orthodox views, the elevation of "my common sense" above specialized knowledge, a proclivity for conspiracy theories on a wide range of subjects, and a rural antipathy toward urban existence and its mores. This populist sentiment has long pervaded public discourse. While it may occasionally be motivated by genuine intellectual inquiry, it is often marred by individuals who perversely revel in their own ignorance. In certain instances, this attitude may be rooted in class antagonism, a form of ressentiment directed at intellectual elites, but more commonly, it represents a defensive stance shaped by religious or ideological convictions. Frequently, a disdain for commonly accepted knowledge is buttressed by claims of “private”, “special” insights into "the real truth" insider knowledge of conspiracies, information available only to the initiated, or truths "revealed" to individuals. But such claims to esoteric knowledge by the supposedly savvy are merely forms of ignorance in elaborate disguise.

The Knowledge Machine: How Irrationality Created Modern Science by Michael Strevens

The Knowledge Machine: How Irrationality Created Modern Science by Michael Strevens

Kristopia
Non Fiction

Civilization has spanned millennia, yet modern science—distinct from the ancient and medieval sciences or what was once called natural philosophy—has existed for only a few centuries. Why did it take so long? Why weren’t the ancient Babylonians launching zero-gravity observatories into orbit? Why weren’t the ancient Greeks developing flu vaccines and performing heart transplants? The ancients were certainly not devoid of a thirst to unravel the mysteries of the world.

The Medici by Paul Strathern

The Medici by Paul Strathern

Kristopia
Non Fiction

In The Medici, Paul Strathern presents a masterful narrative of one of the most influential families in the history of Florence, Italy. Strathern adeptly interweaves the Medici family's story with the broader historical and cultural context of Renaissance Italy, providing readers with a profound understanding of the era in which they flourished.

Intellectuals and Society by Thomas Sowell

Intellectuals and Society by Thomas Sowell

Kristopia
Non Fiction

Intellectuals and Society is a masterful treatise that delves deeply into the intricate interplay between intellectuals and society. With an astute and penetrating analysis, Sowell compels readers to question their long-held assumptions regarding the role of intellectuals in shaping public discourse and public policy. Drawing on a rich array of historical examples and a keen understanding of human nature, Sowell's meticulous arguments reveal the complexities and nuances of the intellectual landscape.

Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond

Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond

Kristopia
Non Fiction

The book attempts to explain why Eurasian and North African civilizations have survived and conquered others, while arguing against the idea that Eurasian hegemony is due to any form of Eurasian intellectual, moral, or inherent genetic superiority. The author brought forth the central thesis that it is not racial biology that determines the victors in history but rather a complex combination of agriculture, geography, population density, and continental orientation. Societies that had a head start in food production advanced beyond the hunter-gatherer stage, and then developed writing, technology, government, and organized religion—as well as nasty germs and potent weapons of war—and adventured on sea and land to conquer and decimate preliterate cultures. Throughout the book, Diamond showed us how history is not just “one damn fact after another” as cynic put it. There really are broad patterns to history, and the search for their explanation is as productive as it is fascinating.

Living in Data by Jer Thorp

Living in Data by Jer Thorp

Kristopia
Non Fiction

To live in data in the 21st century is to be incessantly extracted from, indexed, classified, and categorized, sold, discriminated against, and monitored. The new data reality is made by us, but it isn’t for us. Data come from us, but rarely return to us. In the book Living in Data, Data artist Jer Thorp takes an enlightening excursion through human’s ever-changing relationship with data, and asks the crucial questions of our time: How do we stop passively inhabiting data, and instead become active citizens of it? How can we build new data systems that start as two-way streets where data can actually service the belonging?

What Money Can't Buy by Michael J. Sandel

What Money Can't Buy by Michael J. Sandel

Kristopia
Non Fiction

We live in a time when almost everything can be bought and sold. Over the past three decades, markets and market values have come to govern our lives as never before. What Money Can’t Buy is a book that takes up one of the missing debates in contemporary politics of our time: Is there something wrong with a society in which everything is for sale? Are there any moral limits of markets? If yes, what are they? How can we prevent market values from reaching into spheres of life where we have decided that they don't belong?

Religion for Atheists by Alain De Botton

Religion for Atheists by Alain De Botton

Kristopia
Non Fiction

This book is written by an atheist for atheists. The author, Alain de Botton , bases his comments on the premise that supernatural claims of religion are false, yet, we can discover religions as repositories of a myriad ingenious concepts which we can try to assuage a few of the most persistent and unattended ills of secular life. The author believed that the error of modern atheism has been to disregard the multiple aspects of the faiths remain relevant even after their central tenets have been dismissed. It is when people cease to feel that they must either prostrate themselves before religion or denigrate them, we can import religious ideas into the secular realm.

Plural Logic by Alex Oliver and Timothy Smiley

Plural Logic by Alex Oliver and Timothy Smiley

Kristopia
Non Fiction

When singularists attempt to address multiple things at once, they create this ambiguous interpretation. The sentences above contain collective predicates, which apply to their arguments collectively, not individually. As a result, the theory of plural quantification stated that plurals cannot be satisfactorily analyzed in terms of the singular. Thus, plural reference, plural quantification, and plural predication must be recognized as primitive. They can then form part of genuinely plural logics.

How Proust Can Change Your Life by Alain de Botton

How Proust Can Change Your Life by Alain de Botton

Kristopia
Non Fiction

Humans are dedicated to suffering.

Various reasons to be inconsolable abound: the frailty of our bodies, the feebleness of our souls, the fickleness of love, the insincerities of social life, the compromises of relationships, the deadening effects of habits. In the face of such perpetual ills, one might see that no event would be awaited with greater anticipation than the moment of our own death.

The question is: How to suffer successfully?

Basic Writings of Nietzsche by Friedrich Nietzsche

Basic Writings of Nietzsche by Friedrich Nietzsche

Kristopia
Non Fiction

Ever since he went insane and silent in 1889, Nietzsche’s ideas have been most things to most men. Devout Christians can hardly derive any comfort from Nietzsche’s writings, which are centrally preoccupied with a destructive analysis of Christianity, its birth, its triumph, its unfortunate longevity; nor could principled democrats find much to please them in his political views. However, nihilists and existentialists, cosmopolitans and chauvinists, followers of Freud and his critics, Anti-Semites and Philo-Semites, Francophiles and professional Teutons, nature worshipers and pragmatists have all been struggling over Nietzsche’s legacy for a century and more.

The Vision of the Anointed by Thomas Sowell

The Vision of the Anointed by Thomas Sowell

Kristopia
Non Fiction

The author, Thomas Sowell, demonstrates that the prevailing vision of our time emphatically offers a state of grace for those who believe in it. Those who accept this vision are deemed to be not merely factually correct but morally on a higher plane. To paraphrase, to disagree with these visions, even if backed by statistics and empirical evidence, one will still be deemed as not merely incorrect, but selfish or evil. With various examples, Thomas enumerates the pattern of the anointed holding on to their visions, their quest is not for reality but for vision—the vision would allow them to assume their own moral superiority.

Resistance, Rebellion and Death Essays by Albert Camus

Resistance, Rebellion and Death Essays by Albert Camus

Kristopia
Non Fiction

There is nothing in Resistance, Rebellion, and Death of the metaphysical Camus; all the subjects are socio-political, and the essay topics vary from the French Spirit, European civilization, colonial warfare in Algeria, to the social cancer of capital punishment, death, resistance, rebellion, and freedom. In this Camus is relatable, not because we necessarily are in concord his views or values, but because consistently and without rest man lived the views and values.

But What If We're Wrong? by Chuck Klosterman

But What If We're Wrong? by Chuck Klosterman

Kristopia
Non Fiction

The modern problem is that reevaluating what we consider “true” or “facts” is becoming increasingly difficult. In a frame work where public consensus has become the ultimate arbiter of validity. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to ask “What if”. Certainty can often be paralyzing. It locks us into paths that may not be preferable. The problem is never about finding what is right, but realizing oneself can be wrong even when proven right.

The Black Swan

The Black Swan

Kristopia
Non Fiction

Until the 19th century, people were convinced that all swans were white, an unassailable belief derived from millennia of confirmatory sightings of white swans…. Then boom! There comes the discovery of mutant black swans in Australia.

Atomic Habit by James Clear

Atomic Habit by James Clear

Kristopia
Non Fiction

The Atomic Habit is not a book consists of revolutionary ideas, but James Clear took the already known insights and developed actionable plans for readers to create their system. It is the proposed system that really brings value to this book. Positive/Negative Habit tracking method, Habit forming system, step-by-step guide on making unwanted habits less attractive etc…these are some simple yet effective systems that readers can implement. After all, we do not rise to the level of our goals. We fall to the level of our systems.

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