1 reading · 17 in the backlog · 9 read

Reading

What I am reading, what is next, and what I have read: books, papers, reports, and long articles, with a review when I have something specific to say.

Reading is the slowest input I have, and the one I trust most. A book or a long paper makes me hold one argument in my head for days, put it into my own words, and notice where it stops holding. Now that a model can summarise anything in seconds, I think that skill is worth keeping on purpose. The summary is not the thinking.

This is my reading log: anything long enough to argue with, from books to papers to the occasional long article. Not everything I have ever read is here. When I have something specific to say about a work, I write a review, and it sits with the articles. Every work on this page is also on the map, next to the topics and the writing it connects to.

  1. Reading now

  2. The Infinity Machine Sebastian Mallaby

    Book, 2026

    Demis Hassabis, DeepMind, and the Quest for Superintelligence

    The book ↗

    Machine learningReinforcement learningHistory of technology

  3. Backlog

  4. Why Machines Learn Anil Ananthaswamy

    Book, 20242025 paperback, with the afterword on transformers

    The Elegant Math Behind Modern AI

    The book ↗

    Machine learning

  5. The Dream Machine M. Mitchell Waldrop

    Book, 2001Stripe Press

    The book ↗

    History of technologyThe open web

  6. The Alignment Problem Brian Christian

    Book, 2020

    Machine Learning and Human Values

    The book ↗

    Machine learningEvaluation

  7. Artificial Intelligence Melanie Mitchell

    Book, 20192025 edition, with the new preface

    A Guide for Thinking Humans

    The book ↗

    Machine learning

  8. Deep Thinking Garry Kasparov

    Book, 2017

    Where Machine Intelligence Ends and Human Creativity Begins

    The book ↗

    Machine learningGames

  9. Understanding Deep Learning Simon J. D. Prince

    Book, 2023

    The book ↗

    Machine learning

  10. Build a Large Language Model (From Scratch) Sebastian Raschka

    Book, 2024

    The book ↗

    Machine learningInference

  11. AI Engineering Chip Huyen

    Book, 2025

    Building Applications with Foundation Models

    The book ↗

    AI platformsEvaluation

  12. Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction Richard S. Sutton and Andrew G. Barto

    Book, 2018Second edition

    The book ↗

    Reinforcement learningMachine learning

  13. Probabilistic Machine Learning: An Introduction Kevin P. Murphy

    Book, 2022

    The book ↗

    Machine learning

  14. The Making of the Atomic Bomb Richard Rhodes

    Book, 198625th anniversary edition

    The book ↗

    History of technology

  15. Seeing Like a State James C. Scott

    Book, 1998

    How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed

    The book ↗

    Complex systemsHistory

  16. A Peace to End All Peace David Fromkin

    Book, 1989

    The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East

    The book ↗

    HistoryGeography

  17. The Billion-Dollar Molecule Barry Werth

    Book, 1994

    The Quest for the Perfect Drug

    The book ↗

    Life sciencesHistory of science

  18. The Eighth Day of Creation Horace Freeland Judson

    Book, 1979Commemorative edition

    The Makers of the Revolution in Biology

    Life sciencesHistory of science

  19. The Demon Under the Microscope Thomas Hager

    Book, 2006

    The book ↗

    Life sciencesHistory of science

  20. The Butchering Art Lindsey Fitzharris

    Book, 2017

    Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine

    The book ↗

    Life sciencesHistory of science

  21. Read in 2026

  22. The Cauldron Simon Sebag Montefiore

    Book, 2026Finished end of summer 2026

    The Making of the Modern Middle East

    The book ↗

    HistoryGeography

  23. State of Brain Emulation Report 2025 Zanichelli, Schons, Freeman, Shiu, and Arkhipov

    Report, 2025Finished June 2026

    The field's own survey of where connectomics, recording, and modelling stand, and how far apart they still are.

    The report ↗

    NeuroscienceSimulation

  24. From Worm to Human: Scaling Brain Emulation Isaak Freeman

    Paper, 2026MIT, Boyden Lab (thesis)Finished June 2026

    A thesis that treats brain emulation as an engineering programme, and whose numbers read like a capacity plan.

    The paper ↗

    NeuroscienceDistributed systemsGPUs

  25. Read in 2025

  26. Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace

    Novel, 1996Finished winter 2025

  27. Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond

    Book, 1997Finished November 2025

    The Fates of Human Societies

    HistoryGeography

  28. This Is for Everyone Tim Berners-Lee

    Book, 2025Finished 2025

    The Unfinished Story of the World Wide Web

    Read on the shores of Okinawa: the web as a commons, and how far what we built drifted from it.

    Discussed in Looking back on 2025

    The open webHistory of technology

  29. Nuclear War: A Scenario Annie Jacobsen

    Book, 2024Finished autumn 2025

    The book ↗

  30. Jurassic Park Michael Crichton

    Novel, 1990Finished summer 2025

    Complex systems

  31. Read in 2024

  32. The Books of Jacob Olga Tokarczuk

    Novel, 2014Translated from the Polish (Księgi Jakubowe) by Jennifer CroftFinished summer 2024