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Ask HN: What are you reading?

467 points · 883 comments · dan-bailey

  1. mindcrime · · focus · HN ↗
    Fiction:

    I'm on Book Two of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series.

    Non-Fiction:

    More than I can count, as far as "I've read at least some, put a bookmark in it, and intend to finish it eventually." But in terms of the books I'm really actively engaging with right now, the top one is:

    Neuroscience: Exploring The Brain[1] by Mark F. Bear, Barry W. Connors, and Michael A. Paradiso

    And sort of in parallel with that, is

    Analog Computing: Development, Programming, Applications, and Future Directions[2] by Bernd Ulmann

    [1]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;dp&#x2F;0781760038&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;dp&#x2F;0781760038&#x2F;

    [2]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Analog-Computing-Development-Programming-Applications&#x2F;dp&#x2F;3119146285" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Analog-Computing-Development-Programm...

    1. jesuslop · · focus · HN ↗
      What drove you to an analog computing book, may I ask?
      1. mindcrime · · focus · HN ↗
        I have a longstanding general interest in what might be term &quot;unconventional computing architectures&quot; (or at least &quot;non mainstream computing architectures&quot;). And, frankly, a general interest in &quot;unconventional&quot; things all around.

        In regards to analog computers, it&#x27;s that, plus an awareness of the constraints of the Von Neumann Bottleneck[1] and a vague notion that analog computing might (keyword, might) offer some potential to avoid that, and&#x2F;or avoid the insane power consumption of modern digital computers (relative to a given workload).

        And that in turn ties back to the Neuroscience book, as I&#x27;m reading that mainly because of my interest in neuromorphic computing[2]. And neuromorphic computing and analog computing, while separate topics, seem like they may have some interesting touch-points.

        [1]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Von_Neumann_architecture#Von_Neumann_bottleneck" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Von_Neumann_architecture#Von_N...

        [2]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Neuromorphic_computing" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Neuromorphic_computing

        1. jesuslop · · focus · HN ↗
          Nice, we have some fat problems ahead in this Moore law dying world that need new ideas.
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