A Spy Among Friends by Ben Macintyre (2014)

I enjoy Ben Macintyre's books. His mix of rigorous research and narrative skill is on full display in this one. The story is about Kim Philby, the infamous British intelligence officer who spied for the Soviet Union for decades as he rose to senior ranks within MI6 while betraying his friends and country.

What sets this book apart is Macintyre's meticulous use of original sources and his skepticism toward the self-serving revisionist memoirs of those involved.  Rather than recycling familiar spy lore, he reconstructs a credible picture of how an entire generation of British and American intelligence leaders was incompetent.  They were deceived, not just by Philby, but by their own class loyalties and misplaced trust.

The most damning revelation is that Philby's final escape to Moscow was not a clever, daring flight but a deliberate act of protection by members of Britain's upper-class intelligence elite. The result is a portrait not only of treachery but of institutional rot: privilege shielding privilege while national security collapsed for political expediency.

Macintyre also highlights the profound cost of these failures. The intelligence compromises Philby enabled during the early Cold War were not abstract; they led to thousands of real deaths and strategic disasters. His betrayal reverberated across continents, exposing just how fragile Western intelligence networks truly were and how inept the Soviet Union was at economic prosperity for their people.

I have an interest in systems thinking and failure analysis so I found this book especially compelling for its anatomy of organizational blindness. Macintyre dissects how personal loyalty, arrogance, and class solidarity overrode logic and evidence. These conditions allow catastrophic breaches to persist.

The book is a gripping narrative of espionage, friendship, and institutional failure, told with clarity and restraint. 4/5 Stars.

Abundance by Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson

Despite moments of political bias and some selective use of data, Abundance excels at what few books attempt: explaining the mechanics of modern economic growth within the tangled realities of politics, culture, and urban life. Klein and Thompson trace how societies build—or fail to build—the physical foundations of prosperity: housing, infrastructure, and industrial capacity.

They move easily from global trends to city-level bottlenecks, showing how ideology, regulation, and social attitudes shape what gets built and what stalls. The book's strength lies in its synthesis: it connects political theory with hard economic outcomes, revealing how values and governance directly determine material progress.

Where Vaclav Smil dissects production from a paleontological view -- purely technical or ecological perspective, Abundance focuses on agency: on the people and policies that choose between creation and constraint. Even when chronicling policy fiascos like California's high-speed rail, the authors maintain a credible optimism rooted in civic will and practical reform.

Addressed primarily to liberal readers, their message is blunt: scarcity is a political choice, not an inevitability. Choosing abundance means reclaiming ambition and capacity for collective improvement.

Clear, timely, and uncommonly coherent, Abundance deserves attention well beyond its partisan audience. 5/5 stars.

🤯 Wut? ChatGPT implemented in Minecraft?

This project reminds me of when developers booted Windows 95 inside a JavaScript VM in a browser, then launched the Netscape Navigator browser in the VM running in the browser. Hat tip: Michael Haupt.

Deep Time by Ian Douglas (1999)

This sixth book in the "Star Carrier" series is much better than the last one.  The fleet battles rage in fun space operatic fashion.  First-contact scenarios with inscrutable, cryptic aliens are intriguing and we are willing to suspend disbelief.  Even the time travel elements fail to detract from the plot and story arcs.  Heroic close-combat continues to pulse.  The awe-and-wonder space opera elements are all represented.  The big picture narrative of the invasion of our universe by beings fleeing their universe's heat death is wonderful.  Humanity deals with a civil war and forges pacts with space aliens amid existential battles. The story faces the "Singularity" question of whether the technology explosion will cause extinction or enable survival. Fun! 4/5 Stars.

Sunward by William Alexander (2025)

This book is terrible!  There is no science at all.  The plot is bizarre, random contrivances. I put it down after a few dozen pages. 0/5 Stars.

Lions and Scavengers by Ben Shapiro (2025)

Ben Shapiro's book crafts an allegory contrasting Enlightenment-driven wealth creation with socialist power grabs aiming for equal outcomes through wealth redistribution. The ecological model—hunters versus scavengers—starts strong, illustrating humanist rationality against emotional collectivism. Yet, the analogy falters. Shapiro introduces "weavers" and forces mismatched behaviors into the framework, muddying the narrative. Douglas Murray's On Democracies and Death Cults tackles similar themes with sharper clarity, avoiding speculative motives and strained metaphors. Shapiro's evidence and judgments on justice and policy hold weight, but selective scripture quotes and ascribed dark intentions to political actors weaken his case. The book gestures at insight but collapses under its own contrivances. I do not recommend this book. 3/5 stars.

What's With Baum by Woody Allen (2025)

Having grown up on the East Coast in a culture similar to the author's, I appreciated the book's sense of place. The descriptions of New York—its streets, sounds, and smells—are vivid and precise. The characters feel authentic, shaped by familiar neuroses, habits, and rhythms of speech.

The plot, however, is less engaging. Without a shared context, the inner turmoil of writers, artists, and critics carries little weight. The publishing-world drama that drives the story feels insular. I admired Allen's humor and self-awareness, but the novel's appeal depends heavily on cultural familiarity. Readers without deep ties to New York's intellectual circles may find it remote.  4/5 stars.

Dark Matter by Ian Douglas (2014)

Dark Matter, the fifth novel in Ian Douglas's Star Carrier series, pushes humanity's struggle into new cosmic territory where intelligence, evolution, and divinity blur. Admiral Trevor "Gray" Grayman leads his fleet against not only alien forces but also the unsettling prospect that consciousness itself may be a cosmic weapon.

The premise is ambitious but uneven. The vast scale of the multiverse and its alien hierarchies promises awe, yet the story sinks under repetition and pseudo-science. Physics, sociology, and psychology appear as hollow exposition rather than tools that move the plot or deepen character. The best parts—the space combat and the mystery of the "posthuman" entities—are buried beneath long detours on AI, memeplexes, and vacuum energy.

The novel aims for transcendence but rarely achieves coherence. I may continue the series for its scope, but this volume disappoints. 2/5 stars.

Retired Today!

I am grateful for colleagues, mentors, and the journey.  I am excited for what's next -- and may return if the right opportunity comes along.

When everyone knows that everyone knows by Steven Pinker (2025)

Why do groups keep up stories everyone knows are false—where each person sees the truth but pretends not to? Why do we tolerate polite hypocrisy, subtle bribes, half-hidden threats, or strategic flirtation? As someone wired for blunt honesty, I've long been baffled by these layers of social theater that seem to breed confusion and harm.

Steven Pinker's new book takes this puzzle apart with his trademark clarity, drawing on research in evolution, linguistics, and game theory—from the prisoner's dilemma to "The Emperor's New Clothes." He argues that shared fictions and mutual pretense aren't just signs of human weakness; they are tools that keep social life running. Sometimes truth is too volatile, and a bit of collective make-believe prevents conflict or preserves dignity.

What's most compelling is how Pinker turns apparent irrationality into evidence of strategic intelligence. The very evasions that frustrate literal-minded people serve an adaptive purpose, softening the blunt edges of honesty in complex societies. In an age flooded with misinformation, the book offers a sharp framework for seeing when concealment unites and when it corrupts.

Nothing has changed how I think about communication this profoundly since Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow. This is Pinker at his best—precise, surprising, and deeply relevant. 5/5 stars.

Second Thoughts on the imminent Pop of the AI Bubble

The internet is buzzing with entertaining rants and doomsday predictions about the AI hype bubble's bursting any day now. Critics love to paint it as a fleeting fad doomed for a spectacular crash. Here are some of my favorite takedowns (links to the originals for your doom-scrolling pleasure):

• Fabio Ciucci's tweets
  
• Ed Zitron's fabulous vitriol
  
• Cory Doctorow's rant
• Nichil Suresh (of course)
• Vantille
• Ash Milton's sober article

Investors, meanwhile, obsess over "timing the top": Ride the wave of inflated expectations to the peak, then cash out before the plunge into the "trough of disillusionment." Smart strategy? Not so fast. Not so fast!

Because I am old, I see parallels to the Visicalc era of spreadsheets—the groundbreaking 1979 software that sparked a revolution but got crushed in the shakeout wars. What emerged? Microsoft Excel, the "evil empire's" powerhouse that now generates about $70 billion annually for Microsoft (MSFT). Valued alone at around $684 billion (excluding its vast ecosystem), Excel proves how one dominant tool can redefine industries. If AI proves even more transformational, $1 trillion in returns isn't just possible—it's within striking distance  

Wiser voices than mine argue this "hype bubble" won't deflate in one massive correction. The traditional Gartner Hype Cycle might not even apply here. Instead of a single pop, expect a series of refinements as AI matures into practical, profitable dominance. The real winners? Those who build for the long game, not the quick flip. What do you think—bubble or breakthrough?

The woman who smashed codes by Jason Fagone (2017)

I picked up The Woman Who Smashed Codes on the recommendation of colleagues who thought it might appeal to me because of its loose connection to cybersecurity. They were right. The book tells the story of Elizebeth Smith Friedman, a pioneering American cryptanalyst whose work laid much of the groundwork for modern codebreaking and national intelligence.

Fagone's writing is vivid and accessible. He brings the early 20th century to life through rich scenes and authentic dialogue that reflect the social norms, speech patterns, and intellectual energy of the time. What I particularly enjoyed was how the book captures that era's mindset—its optimism, its limits, and the quiet revolutions happening in scientific thought long before most people realized it.

The book does not shy away from the entrenched sexism Elizebeth and her peers faced, yet it handles those issues with balance. Fagone's tone is indignant where necessary but never heavy-handed. The result is both a tribute and a well-researched historical narrative.

Elizebeth's story also intersects with the birth of information theory and the cryptographic advances that would eventually culminate in Claude Shannon's 1939 work. Reading about her pre-Shannon efforts underscores how revolutionary those later ideas were, and how much of modern computing owes to the hidden labor of people like her.

For readers unfamiliar with cryptography, the book explains enough to make the puzzles and breakthroughs intelligible without drowning in mathematics. For readers who already know the field's history, Fagone's attention to archival detail and his portrayal of Elizebeth's marriage to fellow codebreaker William Friedman add valuable depth.

As a PhD in computer science and an avid reader of historical narratives grounded in real scientific and social change, I found this book deeply satisfying—both as history and as storytelling. It's an absorbing portrait of an overlooked figure whose intellect shaped the course of modern intelligence work.  5/5 Stars.

Does anyone really know what time it is?

The countdown to the "Epochalypse" has started.

https://slideshare.net/slideshow/epochalypse-now-the-coming-collapse-of-time-integrity-brucon-2025-umbelino-darley/283533877



See also TAI: https://mitchwyle.blogspot.com/2022/08/i-feel-earth-move-under-my-feet.html

( Thank you, "Chicago" for the title: https://youtube.com/watch?v=jgF_ycCmF18&t=67s )

Moon Rising by Ian McDonald (2019)

McDonald concludes the Luna trilogy by converging every narrative arc with space-opera optimism. The novel's lunar dynasties, shattered by betrayal and war, persist in a final contest for survival and autonomy. Character trajectories—Lucas Corta's persistence, Wagner's loyalty, and the Suns' political calculation—unfold through fun and credible transformations. McDonald sharpens genre conventions, anchoring personal stakes to wider systemic change and broader scope. Tension between familial ambition and social order drives the series to its conclusion, elevating the outcome beyond melodrama 5/5 stars.

Into the impossible: Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner by Brian Keating (2021)

I rarely make time for long-form podcasts, but I often watch Brian Keating's short YouTube videos. They condense physics and astronomy insights into compact, accessible commentary. Keating's strength lies in his engagement with unconventional thinkers—Avi Loeb, Eric Weinstein, Sabine Hossenfelder—and in his defense of rational inquiry: curiosity, the scientific method, collaboration, Humanist Enlightenment values, and ethical responsibility in research.

The book distills conversations with Nobel laureates into a framework for creative thought and scientific curiosity. Keating extends his interest in physics toward a broader philosophy of how discovery unfolds. Into the Impossible blends scientific reflection with the rhetoric of self-improvement, urging readers to test assumptions, question orthodoxy, and cultivate purposeful collaboration.

The result is engaging and coherent, though familiar. The book reiterates themes Keating has already articulated across his public work. For readers accustomed to his "snackable" videos, the content will feel like a polished synthesis rather than new terrain. Still, its clarity and intellectual warmth make the repetition worthwhile. 4/5 stars

Deep Space by Ian Douglas (2013)

In Deep Space, the fourth installment of Ian Douglas's military science fiction series, the familiar blend of vast interstellar conflict, political intrigue, and alien mystery continues with impressive energy. Douglas expands his universe with new technologies, additional alien species, and a steady escalation of fleet-scale battles that retain both tactical realism and emotional resonance.

The novel balances the spectacle of large-scale combat with evolving character arcs that add substance to the action. Several returning figures grow in depth, and for once, their personal stakes feel genuinely earned amid the chaos of war. The author handles his shifting perspectives and complex geopolitics with clarity, keeping the pacing brisk even as the strategic layers multiply.

While the grand themes of sacrifice and duty remain constant, Douglas injects enough unpredictability into the plot to keep readers engaged. A few turns arrive unexpectedly yet feel natural within the larger narrative structure.

Deep Space is classic Ian Douglas: hard-edged, cinematic, and unapologetically patriotic, with enough speculative science and spacefaring wonder to satisfy serious fans of the genre. 4/5 stars

The sword of freedom by Yossi Cohen (2025)

This book is equal parts memoir, political manifesto, and strategic reflection. While the text is saturated with self-promotion and at times descends into outright boasting, Cohen nevertheless delivers an unusually candid account of the inner workings of a modern intelligence service and its entanglement with statecraft. His personal ambition—to position himself as a plausible future prime minister—is barely concealed, and readers seeking a detached or modest narrative will not find it here.

Despite the political grandstanding, the book offers genuine rewards. Cohen's biographical vignettes and his recounting of espionage operations are both entertaining and instructive. More importantly, his discussion of the mission of a national intelligence service, the role of the individual spy, and the necessity of engaging with one's adversaries on their own terms is striking. He shows rare empathy for the values and goals of opponents, and from this vantage point explains the effectiveness of disinformation, deception, "big lies," and ideological campaigns waged against the West.

Perhaps the book's greatest contribution lies in its critique of the West's chronic diplomatic failures. Cohen highlights the disjunction between Western nations' reliance on Enlightenment humanist assumptions and the fundamentally different axioms guiding most political powers in the world today. By revealing how this mismatch enables adversaries to manipulate and outmaneuver liberal democracies, he forces readers to rethink not only intelligence but the philosophical underpinnings of Western diplomacy.

Ambitious, self-serving, yet ultimately illuminating, The Sword of Freedom succeeds in balancing flawed authorial ego with valuable insight into intelligence, power, and the limits of Western ideals. 4/5 stars

Wie Krankheiten Geschichte Machen von Ronald D. Gerste (2019)

Gerste hat mit „Wie Krankheiten Geschichte Machen" ein Buch geschrieben, das leider nicht an die Qualität von „Wie das Wetter Geschichte macht" heranreicht. Einige Anekdoten und Details sind zwar unterhaltsam, wirken aber eher wie Klatschgeschichten ohne echten Einfluss auf Politik oder historische Entwicklungen der großen Persönlichkeiten, über die er schreibt.

Spannender waren oft die beiläufig erwähnten Entwicklungen in der Medizin – Methoden, Therapien und diagnostische Fortschritte, die sich im Lauf der Zeit durchgesetzt haben. Gerade hier hätte man sich mehr Tiefgang gewünscht. Dagegen bleiben die Kapitel zu wirklich weltbewegenden Krankheiten wie der Schwarzen Pest, der Cholera oder den alltäglichen Belastungen durch endemische Leiden blass und oberflächlich.

Am Ende bleibt der Eindruck eines Buches, das zwar stellenweise nett zu lesen ist, aber sein Potenzial nicht ausschöpft. Wer sich ernsthaft für die Rolle von Krankheiten in der Menschheitsgeschichte interessiert, wird enttäuscht. 2/5 Sterne – keine Empfehlung.