3 Books That Will Change Your Beliefs
This is not just another article on reading books. It’s more than that. It’s books that have the potential to change many important beliefs you have about the world. You may believe, for example, that AI will eventually overtake humanity. We will be helpless and unable to fight back. You may also believe that one day you will be old and unable to move. Life won’t be as exciting then and you’re forced to simply let aging take its course. I’m here to tell you that it isn’t always that way. You may actually be wrong.
Why you ask? I for one thought the same. I read these books and changed my entire perception and updated my belief system. I held many of these false beliefs thinking I was right. I couldn’t possibly be wrong. But it turns out I was and for good reasons. Just take a look at what they’re about.
The first book I recommend is Garry Kasparov’s Deep Thinking. It’s about the relationship between humans and AI. It goes back to 1997 when Kasparov lost to the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue. Garry discusses all the circumstances around the match including how the machine was rebooted mid-match to reset its search algorithm. But more importantly Garry discusses the significance this match had for the future of AI. How many thought that computers had exceeded humans in terms of computational power and intelligence. Yet wasn’t the case at all. We are just now understanding how limited machines are in areas humans excel such at such as creativity.
Why do you want to read this book? Simple. For one, it relates a different message than most AI books. Rather than doom and misery, Garry discusses how AI capabilities compliment what humans can do. You can use, for example, Google Assistant to search terms online or find directions. But it will only work with some of your input such as your voice recording or previous data that you’ve searched. Another example is self-checkout where machines count and total your purchases with scales and barcode scanners. But it is up to the human to provide the items. Garry points out that we’ve had this technological discussion before when the industrial revolution hit. But rather than trains and telegrams that operate on their own, humans had to run them. This is just history repeating itself with the same discussion about humans and AI can relate. Garry theorizes it will not be a one-sided battle with machines taking over but rather a symbiotic beneficial relationship where the two sides will work with each other.
Next I recommend Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. This chronicles the experiences of Frankl and other prisoners of the concentration camps during World War II and after. Frankl, a Jewish prisoner and neurologist, describes the hard daily labor with little food and virtually no sleep. He relates that men who accepted their circumstances such as working until physical exhaustion and remained indifferent lasted longest and those who had caved to despair tended to die sooner. This difference, Frankl suggests, is due to a person’s psychological attitude that can cause them to live longer or die sooner. Life, though it can entail a lot of suffering, can often still have meaning even in complete despair that Frankl witnessed in the camps. By the end of the book, Frankl discusses how prisoners adapted to life after liberation and puts forth his own psychological theory called “Logotherapy” that describes man’s ultimate search for purpose in life. It’s important to note this book is considered one of the most influential books in history.
If you aren’t convinced yet, take the time to read it yourself. You will find a lot of good information to apply to your own life. For example, Frankl writes that suffering is inevitable but that it can cease to exist in our own life just as soon as we realize our life has a purpose. This means that though we may have pain at times, it can inspire us to achieve great things such as strengthening our minds or building stronger relationships with others. To find this purpose, however, one must search their work, experiences, and their own attitudes to find out. It is even more relevant today with recent events in the world and the struggle to find our own inner peace. The search must continue, however, to bring about harmony to our lives.
The final book I recommend is the Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean Dominique-Bauby. Taking place in the early 2000s, it relates the story of a French journalist who has a stroke one day and as a result experienced locked in syndrome. If you haven’t heard of it before, this condition imprisons a person inside their body rendering them unable to move with basically full physical paralysis. This is what Bauby had, but what makes it so interesting is that Bauby uses this time to dictate a book about his experiences. A nurse visits him each day and reads him the alphabet and Bauby, a man who was still in his 40s, blinks on the letter he wants, and the nurse transcribes it onto paper. Eventually it would become an entire book.
The reason I recommend this story is because it is told from the perspective of someone who still sees the richness of life despite their circumstances. Like Man’s Search for Meaning, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly talks about Dominiques life as a child, his experience meeting his wife, having children, and even going to the barber shop with his father. Bauby says that although he cannot move, he can imagine it vividly as if he were there. He still feels the textures in his imagination, sees the details of the shop, and smells the fresh air outside his window and in the settings he imagines. We should adopt this attitude about life because allows us to see passed our present circumstances and embrace the positive aspects our existence such as our ability to mental change places. To be frank, Bauby does not tell this story as always cheerful knowing he cannot move, but he does lighten the experience by relating how he felt on his best days when he realized he had endless potential to imagine. It is this optimism the reader should take with them.
These three books have had the largest impact on my life. They’ve changed how I see the world. Whether it’s how I view AI, or how I see passed periods of suffering, they ultimately shaped some of my beliefs. For example, I now see suffering as inevitable, a part of life, and the tension we go through to achieve our potential as necessary. These are bare facts of the human psyche that cannot be avoided. Please allow yourself the opportunity to change your beliefs to even update them, after reading these books. You may learn more than you actually thought you could and change your outlook for the better.