David Auerbach’s Books of the Year 2022: Science and Technology

Waggish 2023-01-12

As ever, there are so many information-laden books on science and tech, as well as analytical ones, that the selection criteria are a little different. I tried to isolate books that contribute something different or at least provide something beyond their purported remit. Peebles’s book, for example, is far more assumption-questioning than most physics books of its kind, and to me far deeper for it. It demonstrates a way of thinking useful well beyond physics or science. If only there were an easier way to locate such books beyond browsing through many less distinguished books.

The Whole Truth: A Cosmologist’s Reflections on the Search for Objective Reality Peebles, P. J. E. (Author) Princeton University Press

The Genesis Machine: Our Quest to Rewrite Life in the Age of Synthetic Biology Webb, Amy (Author), Hessel, Andrew (Author) PublicAffairs

The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is: A History, a Philosophy, a Warning Smith, Justin E. H. (Author) Princeton University Press

Leibniz on Binary: The Invention of Computer Arithmetic Strickland, Lloyd (Author), Lewis, Harry R. (Author) The MIT Press

A Philosopher Looks at Science Cartwright, Nancy (Author) Cambridge University Press

Dialogue on the Two Greatest World Systems (Oxford World's Classics) Galileo (Author), Davie, Mark (Author), Shea, William R. (Author) Oxford University Press