Thread: Most mindblowing, life changing scientific book you've read?

Blow my mind! What's the best book you've ever read? A book that change your paradigm about life, reality or everything. A book that changed your life, forever

Well I read the "kama sutra" once and I must say it was a life changing book.

I don't think I can match that sort of expectation, but 'the man who mistook his wife for a hat' by Oliver Sacks (the guy played by Robin Williams in Awakenings) is very unusual and interesting.
It is a commentary on people with different brain legions who see the world in very different ways. One guy literally thought his wife was a hat.

Originally Posted by lokariototal

Blow my mind! What's the best book you've ever read? A book that change your paradigm about life, reality or everything. A book that changed your life, forever

I am sufficiently sceptical that no single work has been able, thus far, to change my viewpoint in a major way. I suppose some simple popular science books written by Patrick Moore helped cement a growing interest in science when I was a child. Other than that I can think of no individual work that has impacted me.

None really 'blows your mind' for me as far as it does enlighten you on different topics or ideas that had never crossed your mind before, like a different viewpoint. One of these is the book 'The Lucifer Principle', I found that book incredibly enlightning.

For science..."The Selfish Gene" and "Broca's Brain."
Also more philosophical than scientific is less known "The Sacred Depths of Nature" by Goodenough, which helped solidify my own long transition from being a Christian to a spiritual atheist

The Attachment and Loss trilogy by John Bowlby was a real eye opener for me.

On the philosophy/theory of science, Karl Popper. Popper > Kuhn.

I won't say it changed my life but all changed my views:

First it was 3 books written in the 60's by a german man, I think Klein but not sure. They were vulgarisation of sciences, I bought them in Djibouti in 1976. They were amazing because it was using a lot of graphical analogy to introduce concepts. Scientifically, it was very very sound for the time. I will always remember the chapter on insects. If someone could give me the title or even the name of the writer, I will be very happy. They were stolen during one move from one house to another.

"The Ancestor's Tales" by R. Dawkins

"The Third Ape" by Jared Diamond

The Lucifer Principle by Howard Bloom set my synapses to firing. He likens human society to a bacterial colony. The bit that sticks is how influential social position is to eliciting certain behaviors. Bacteria "use" their outer elements to scout for food and they "use" their core elements to make decisions. So, I was able to fit together some ideas about how we're very similar in potential, but end up playing such different roles.

I like, too, that his argument attends to deep evolution: bacteria figured out some essential social functions, and it could be useful for us to look not just to primate research, for instance, but even down to cells for fueling our intuitions about who we are and how we got to be this way.

Recommended for fans of The Selfish Gene.

Probably Steven Pinker's The Language Instinct. I had been studying language from the perspective of humanities ideas (social constructionism, etc), and Pinker's book was so invigorating and paradigm jolting it felt like a blast of fresh air after being in a stuffy room for far too long.

i would say goedel escher bach by douglas hofstader. very interesting.

The olographic universe by Michael Talbot

it shocked me

For beginner curiosity how about "The seven mysteries of life" by Guy Murchie

'Evolutionary psychology, the new science of the mind' from David M. Buss. Changed my whole perspective on how people interact en behave. Pretty mindblowing if you asked me

Originally Posted by EPstudent

'Evolutionary psychology, the new science of the mind' from David M. Buss. Changed my whole perspective on how people interact en behave. Pretty mindblowing if you asked me

I worked with him, and took a class with him right when he was on tour with his Evolution of Desire book which helped to explain the evolution of sexual jealously. He had fun parties at his house, too.