rlm@97: #+title: Prof. Sussman's Reading List
rlm@97: #+author: Gerald Sussman (compiled by Robert McIntyre)
rlm@97: #+email: rlm@mit.edu
rlm@103: #+description: Professor Sussman's reading recommendations
rlm@122: #+keywords: Sussman physics computer science reading list MIT
rlm@97: #+SETUPFILE: ../../aurellem/org/setup.org
rlm@97: #+INCLUDE: ../../aurellem/org/level-0.org
rlm@97: #+babel: :mkdirp yes :noweb yes :exports both
rlm@97: 
rlm@122: Serving as a TA for Professor Sussman will get you three things: great
rlm@122: advice, spectacular reading recommendations, and lots of high quality
rlm@121: tea. I can't share the advice or the tea, but I can compile a reading
rlm@121: list. Some of the materials on this represent research paths that lead
rlm@122: to unexplored territory. Some are textbooks that express concepts so
rlm@121: clearly they will change your life and make you weep for joy. I hope
rlm@121: that you will get something interesting out of this reading list,
rlm@121: wherever you are in life -- there's stuff I wish I knew about in
rlm@121: middle school, and there are things I can't wait to read this
rlm@121: summer. Enjoy! (and send corrections to reading-list@aurellem.org!)
rlm@115: 
rlm@104: If you want to cite any of these papers, [[./sussman-recs.bib][here]] is a bibtex format file
rlm@104: that contains all of these papers in the order they appear on the
rlm@104: page. ([[./sussman-recs.bib]]).
rlm@104: 
rlm@123: * Some /Real/ High school Reading
rlm@123: 
rlm@123:   - [[http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/physics/cosmology-relativity-and-gravitation/first-course-general-relativity][A First Course in General Relativity]], by Bernard F Schultz
rlm@123:     - ISBN: 9780521277037
rlm@123:     - Readable, not too heavy.
rlm@123:     - Minimal dependencies
rlm@123:     - You can just go through it slowly and understand at each step. 
rlm@123: 
rlm@123:   - [[http://www.amazon.com/Space-Special-Relativity-David-Mermin/dp/0881334200][Space and Time in Special Relativity]], by [[http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/mermin/][David Mermin]]
rlm@123:     - ISBN: 0881334200
rlm@123:     - HIGHLY accessible.
rlm@123:     - This will change your life.
rlm@123:     - You will understand special relativity!
rlm@123: 
rlm@123:   - [[http://www.feynmanlectures.info/][The Feynman Lectures on Physics]]
rlm@123:     - Highly understandable
rlm@123:     - Just go there and learn something already!
rlm@123: 
rlm@123:   - [[http://aurellem.org/society-of-mind/][Society of Mind]], by [[http://web.media.mit.edu/~minsky/][Marvin Minsky]]
rlm@123:     - A trove of wonderful ideas!
rlm@123: 
rlm@123:   - [[http://www.cambridge.org/us/knowledge/discountpromotion/?site_locale=en_US&code=L3QCSD][Quantum Computing since Democritus]], by [[http://www.scottaaronson.com/][Scott Aaronson]]
rlm@123:     - Everything you might want to know about computing with QM, with
rlm@123:       a philosophical outlook.
rlm@123: 
rlm@123:   - Bible, Talmud, Koran
rlm@123:     - Read them whether or not you believe them!
rlm@123:     - Be sure to read between the lines, and you can discover what
rlm@123:       people were actually thinking back then.
rlm@123:     - Very interesting documents!
rlm@123:     - [[http://jhom.com/topics/voice/bat_kol_bab.htm][Bava Metzia 59b]] is an interesting story!
rlm@123: 
rlm@123: * Representative Student Theses
rlm@123:   
rlm@123:   These are students where I played a large role in their
rlm@123:   education. Many of them represent compelling research directions
rlm@123:   that desperately need to be extended by the next generation of
rlm@123:   researchers! As Minsky says, if you want to do something really new,
rlm@123:   go back to points in the past where there was a neat idea that never
rlm@123:   really caught on, and follow the path of that idea to see where it
rlm@123:   leads. A comprehensive list of all my student's works can be found
rlm@123:   at my [[http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/gjs/gjs.html][homepage]]. If you want to cite any of these papers, you can
rlm@123:   find bibtex citations here: [[./sussman-recs.bib]].
rlm@123: 
rlm@123:   In particular, here's two great ideas that seem extremely promising
rlm@123:   and have NOT been properly explored! You could be the first person
rlm@123:   to get them working!
rlm@123: 
rlm@123:   - Using Chaotic Systems to get unlimited measurement precision!
rlm@123:     - Two papers: 
rlm@123:       - [[http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/5953][A Global Approach to Parameter Estimation of Chaotic Dynamical
rlm@123:         Systems]], by [[http://eas.caltech.edu/people/3209/profile][Athanassios G. Siapas]], 1992.
rlm@123:       - [[http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/7060][Parameter Estimation in Chaotic Systems]], by Elmer Hung, 1995.
rlm@123:     - No one put enough effort into seeing if it really worked.
rlm@123:     - Seems to allow for almost unlimited precision in measurement. 
rlm@123:     - Initial results look very promising, with a =13 order of
rlm@123:       magnitude= improvement in measurement precision in a simple
rlm@123:       experiment. 
rlm@123:     - You will win the Nobel Prize if you can get it to work, because
rlm@123:       you will revolutionize the way we do measurements. 
rlm@123: 
rlm@123:   - [[http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/12007][Towards Intelligent Structures: Active Control of Buckling]]
rlm@123:     - By [[http://www.berlinplace.com/][Andrew A. Berlin]], 1994
rlm@123:     - Achieves a 10 fold increase in strength by actively eliminating
rlm@123:       vibrational modes. 
rlm@123:     - Such a good idea; It's cool, short -- great!
rlm@123:     - No one's followed up on it!
rlm@123:   
rlm@123:   In historical order:
rlm@123: 
rlm@123:   - [[http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/6888][A System for Representing and Using Real-World Knowledge]]
rlm@123:     - By [[http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~sef/][Scott Elliot Fahlman]], 1977
rlm@123:     - Basically the reason that the Connection Machine was later
rlm@123:       invented.
rlm@123: 
rlm@123:   - [[http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/5679][The Connection Machine]]
rlm@123:     - By [[http://longnow.org/people/board/danny0/][Danny Hillis]], 1981
rlm@123:     - Beautiful thesis, though it doesn't tell you anything you can
rlm@123:       really /do/ today.
rlm@123: 
rlm@123:   - [[http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/6948][A Circuit Grammar For Operational Amplifier Design]]
rlm@123:     - By Andrew Ressler, 1984
rlm@123:     - If you're an Electrical Engineering person.
rlm@123: 
rlm@123:   - [[http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/6959][ONTIC: A Knowledge Representation System for Mathematics]]
rlm@123:     - By [[http://ttic.uchicago.edu/~dmcallester/][David A. McAllester]], 1987
rlm@123:     - Very hard, very deep.
rlm@123:     - You will need to know a lot of Math.
rlm@123: 
rlm@123:   - [[http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/7025][KAM: Automatic Planning and Interpretation of Numerical
rlm@123:     Experiments Using Geometrical Methods]]
rlm@123:     - By Kenneth Man-Kam Yip, 1989
rlm@123:     - Coolest PhD thesis ever!
rlm@123:     - Solve problems using graphs.
rlm@123:     - So cool!
rlm@123: 
rlm@123:   - [[http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/80483][Botanical Computing: A Developmental Approach to Generating
rlm@123:     Interconnect Topologies on an Amorphous Computer]]
rlm@123:     - By [[http://sta.uwi.edu/pelican/60under60/dcoore.asp][Daniel Coore]], 1999
rlm@123:     - Interesting to programmers especially.
rlm@123: 
rlm@123:   - [[http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/86667][Programmable Self-Assembly: Constructing Global Shape using
rlm@123:     Biologically-inspired Local Interactions and Origami Mathematics]]
rlm@123:     By [[http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~rad/][Radhika Nagpal]], 2001
rlm@123:     - Also Interesting to programmers.
rlm@123: 
rlm@123:   - [[http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/8228][Cellular Computation and Communications using Engineered Genetic
rlm@123:     Regulatory Networks]]
rlm@123:     - By [[http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/rweiss/][Ron Weiss]], 2001
rlm@123:     - Third in a line of bio / amorphous computing papers which should
rlm@123:       be highly interesting to programmers.
rlm@123: 
rlm@123:   - [[http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/6082][An Algorithm for Bootstrapping Communications]] 
rlm@123:     - By Jake Beal, 2001
rlm@123:     - Seems like it could be "the right thing" for how modules in the
rlm@123:       brain learn to talk to each other.
rlm@123:     - Someone should expand on this work!
rlm@123:     - Also a PhD thesis from Beal on this: [[http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/38483][Learning by Learning to
rlm@123:       Communicate]], 2007
rlm@123: 
rlm@123:   - [[http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/37913][Games, Puzzles, and Computation]]
rlm@123:     - By [[http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/bob/][Robert Aubrey Hearn]], 2006.
rlm@123:       
rlm@123:   - [[http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/49525][Propagation Networks: A Flexible and Expressive Substrate for
rlm@123:     Computation]]
rlm@123:     - By [[http://web.mit.edu/~axch/www/][Alexey Andreyevich Radul]], 2009
rlm@123:     - Is a completely new way to program computers.
rlm@123:     - Under active development. You can get the latest code [[http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/gjs/propagators/propagator.tar][here]].
rlm@123: 
rlm@120: * From Sussman's Bookshelf:
rlm@101: 
rlm@117:   - [[http://www.amazon.com/Introductory-Network-Theory-Amar-Bose/dp/B0000CMXS1][Introductory Network Theory]], by A.G. Bose and K.N. Stevens
rlm@117:     - ASIN: B0000CMXS1
rlm@117:     - Get the real story about RLC circuits!
rlm@117:     - Obsolete -- it only covers linear circuits.
rlm@101: 
rlm@117:   - [[http://www.amazon.com/Linear-Nonlinear-Circuits-Leon-Chua/dp/0070108986][Linear and Nonlinear Circuits]], by Chua, Desoler, and Kuh
rlm@117:     - ISBN: 0070108986
rlm@117:     - More up-to-date than /Network Theory/
rlm@101:     - 10/10 would teach
rlm@117:     - Mathematically very clear
rlm@101: 
rlm@117:   - [[http://frank.harvard.edu/aoe/][The Art of Electronics]], by Horowitz & Hill
rlm@117:     - ASIN: B001ERDQVI
rlm@117:     - Practical
rlm@117:     - Beautiful
rlm@101: 
rlm@117:   - [[http://www.amazon.com/Analysis-Design-Analog-Integrated-Circuits/dp/0471574953/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1401819423&sr=1-1&keywords=Analysis+and+Design+of+Analog+Integrated+Circuits+3rd+edition][Analysis and Design of Analog Integrated Circuits]], by Grey and
rlm@117:     Meyer
rlm@117:     - ISBN: 0471574953
rlm@117:     - Get the 2nd or 3rd edition, not later ones.
rlm@101: 
rlm@117:   - [[http://www.maa.org/publications/maa-reviews/a-survey-of-modern-algebra][A Survey of Modern Algebra]], by Garrett Birkhoff and Saunders
rlm@117:     MacLane
rlm@117:     - ISBN: 9781568814544
rlm@122:     - Goes all the way to Galois Theory!
rlm@117:     - Clear!
rlm@101: 
rlm@117:   - [[http://usf.usfca.edu/vca//][Visual Complex Analysis]], Needham
rlm@117:     - ISBN: 0198534469
rlm@101:     - Easy reading, well written
rlm@117:     - Wonderful use of graphics!
rlm@101: 
rlm@117:   - [[http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/solid-shape][Solid Shape]], Jan Koenderink
rlm@117:     - ISBN: 026211139X
rlm@117:     - Just good!
rlm@101: 
rlm@117:   - [[http://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/physics/theoretical-physics-and-mathematical-physics/probability-theory-logic-science][Probability: the Logic of Science]], by E.T. Jaynes
rlm@117:     - ISBN: 9780521592710
rlm@117:     - OMG just read this already!
rlm@117:     - Here's [[http://www-biba.inrialpes.fr/Jaynes/prob.html][some]] [[http://omega.albany.edu:8008/JaynesBook.html][links]] to the book.
rlm@117:     - This book will change your life, and make probability make
rlm@117:       sense. Truly excellent book.
rlm@117:     - Why aren't you reading this!?
rlm@101: 
rlm@117:   - [[http://www.perseusacademic.com/book.php?isbn=0805390219][Calculus on Manifolds]], Spivak
rlm@117:     - ISBN: 9780805390216
rlm@117:     - Great Mathematical notation!
rlm@117:     - Was an inspiration for [[http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/gjs/6946/sicm-html/book.html][SICM]].
rlm@117:     - Book contains a great flame!
rlm@101: 
rlm@118:   - [[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1258635.The_Variational_Principles_of_Mechanics][The Variational Principles of Mechanics]], by Cornelius Lanczos 
rlm@118:     - ISBN: 0486650677
rlm@118:     - Very philosophic; deep.
rlm@117:     - You could read it 100 times and learn something new each time!
rlm@103: 
rlm@119:   - [[http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/computers-and-thought][Computers and Thought]], by Edward A. Feigenbaum (Editor), Julian
rlm@119:     Feldman (Editor).
rlm@113:     - ISBN: 0262560925
rlm@124:     - This book includes some of the very interesting early papers in
rlm@124:       AI, and is overall a great book. Of course, some of the included
rlm@124:       papers are not very interesting.
rlm@113: 
rlm@119:   - [[http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/configuration-space-method-kinematic-design-mechanisms][The Configuration Space Method for Kinematic Design of Mechanisms]],
rlm@113:     by Elisha Sacks and Leo Joskowicz
rlm@119:     - ISBN: 9780262013895
rlm@113:     - I learned a lot reading this. (RLM should read this!)
rlm@113: 
rlm@119:   - [[http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199549078.do][Principles of Development]], by Wolpert
rlm@119:     - ISBN: 0199554285
rlm@113: 
rlm@119:   - [[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1547380.A_Genetic_Switch][A Genetic Switch]], by Mark Ptashne
rlm@119:     - ISBN: 0865423156
rlm@119:     - Such clarity!
rlm@119:     - [[http://www.mskcc.org/research/lab/mark-ptashne/genetic-switch-lecture-series][Lecture Series Based on the book!]]
rlm@103: 
rlm@119:   - [[http://making-of-a-fly.me/][The Making of a Fly]], by Peter A. Lawrence
rlm@119:     - ISBN: 0632030488
rlm@119:     - Probably out of date already, but very well written!  
rlm@119:     
rlm@119:   - [[http://www.amazon.com/Pattern-Formation-Ciliate-Studies-Models/dp/0195048903][Pattern Formation: Ciliate Studies and Models]], by Joseph Frankel
rlm@119:     - ISBN: 0195048903
rlm@119:     - My type of book!
rlm@119: 
rlm@119:   - [[http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/harmonic-mind][The Harmonic Mind]], Volumes 1 and 2, by Smolenck and Legendre
rlm@119:     - ISBN: 9780262516198
rlm@119:     - I'm very interested in the amazing latency of the human
rlm@119:       brain. This book presents a way by which multiple stages of
rlm@119:       computation can be folded together into a single computation,
rlm@119:       and is an interesting hypothesis about how the mind might work!
rlm@119: 
rlm@119:   - [[http://www.arrl.org/shop/ARRL-Handbook-2013-Hardcover-Edition][The Radio Amateur's Handbook]], [[http://www.arrl.org/][ARRL]]
rlm@118:     - /practical/ electronics book
rlm@119:     - They've been making this book for about 100 years!
rlm@118: 
rlm@119:   - [[http://www.amazon.com/Radiotron-Langford-Smith-Reproduced-Distributed-Corporation/dp/B000JILVH4][Radiotron Designer's Handbook, 4th edition, RCA]]
rlm@119:     - ASIN: B000JILVH4
rlm@119:     - I'm very interested in hi-fi.
rlm@118: 
rlm@103: * Marvin Minsky 
rlm@122:   Minsky really made me as a person. He was my adviser when I was a
rlm@122:   student at MIT, and he got me my first job. He had the "magnetism"
rlm@103:   to attract the most talented people to MIT to work on AI, and the
rlm@122:   right amount of negligence and delegation to create an environment
rlm@103:   where people could thrive. He is certainly the reason that I was
rlm@103:   seduced into working on AI. Minsky has vast and deep Scientific
rlm@103:   knowledge -- he could walk into almost any class: Chemistry,
rlm@103:   Physics, Math, Computer Science, and teach the class without
rlm@103:   preparation!
rlm@103: 
rlm@112:   - http://web.media.mit.edu/~minsky/ Much of Minsky's work is here,
rlm@111:     including his book, /The Emotion Machine/, and several essays and
rlm@111:     papers. Check it out!
rlm@103:   
rlm@111:   - [[http://aurellem.org/society-of-mind/][Society of Mind]] Read it online! Each chapter of this book is a
rlm@111:     short, self-contained essay about the various
rlm@103: 
rlm@112:   - [[https://web.media.mit.edu/~minsky/papers/MusicMindMeaning.html][Music, Mind, and Meaning]] Minsky is one of a few living people who
rlm@112:     can /improvise/ complicated Baroque era fugues. You can hear one
rlm@112:     of these improvisations [[http://aurellem.org/mmm/][here]].
rlm@103: 
rlm@103:   - [[http://web.media.mit.edu/~minsky/papers/steps.html][Steps towards Artificial Intelligence]] Here, Minsky outlines how we
rlm@103:     might begin to build an AI. This is considered to be one of the
rlm@103:     founding papers of the field, along with Turing's "Computing
rlm@103:     Machinery and Intelligence" [[http://www.loebner.net/Prizef/TuringArticle.html][paper]].
rlm@103: 
rlm@103:   - Perceptrons, by Marvin Minsky
rlm@103:     - [[http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/perceptrons][MIT Press]], ISBN: 9780262631112
rlm@103:     - Really good for "Math types."
rlm@103:     - Uses geometry for proving things. 
rlm@122:     - People unwisely considered it to kill off Neural Nets; In fact,
rlm@103:       it only shows the limitations of certain simple kinds of Neural
rlm@103:       Nets.
rlm@104: 
rlm@123: * For Fun
rlm@123:   - [[http://prce.hu/w/TAAP.html][Time's Arrow and Archimedes' Point]], by Huw Price
rlm@123:     - ISBN: 0195117980
rlm@123:     - A reasonable philosopher!
rlm@104: 
rlm@123:   - [[http://www.phys.ufl.edu/~cmw/wer.html][Was Einstein Right? : Putting General Relativity To The Test]], by
rlm@123:     Clifford M. Will
rlm@123:     - ISBN: 0465090869
rlm@104: 
rlm@123:   - [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranger_in_a_Strange_Land][Stranger in a Strange Land]], by Robert A. Heinlein
rlm@123:     - ISBN: 0441790348
rlm@104: 
rlm@123:   - [[http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/729][Hackers, Heroes of the Computer Revolution]], by Steven Levy
rlm@123:     - ISBN: 1449388396
rlm@123:     - Accuracy is not too good - people's names are spelled wrong, for
rlm@123:       example.
rlm@123:     - But the /feelings/ are exactly right! This book really captures
rlm@123:       what it was like to be in the AI lab back in the good old days.
rlm@120: * Selected works by Sussman
rlm@120:   
rlm@122:   - [[http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/gjs/6946/sicm-html/book.html][SICM (Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics)]] This is
rlm@120:     the textbook of [[http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/gjs/6946/][6.946]], a class in Classical Mechanics that Sussman
rlm@120:     generally teaches in the Fall.
rlm@120:     - ISBN: 9780262194556
rlm@120:     - [[http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/structure-and-interpretation-classical-mechanics][MIT Press]]
rlm@120: 
rlm@120:   - [[http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/][SICP (Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs)]] This is
rlm@120:     the textbook of the (no longer offered) [[http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-001-structure-and-interpretation-of-computer-programs-spring-2005/][6.001]] introductory
rlm@120:     Computer Science class at MIT. It's a classic!
rlm@120:     - ISBN: 0-262-01077-1
rlm@120: 
rlm@120:   - [[http://www.schemers.org/Documents/Standards/R5RS/HTML/][R5RS (Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme)]]
rlm@120:     Spec. for the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheme_%28programming_language%29][scheme]] computer language. Sussman is very proud of
rlm@122:     the short length of this document compared to the specifications
rlm@120:     for most other computer languages. It's based on the [[http://www.masswerk.at/algol60/report.htm][Revised
rlm@120:     Report on the Revised Report on the Algorithmic Language Algol 60]]
rlm@120: 
rlm@120:   - [[http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/gjs/6946/calculus-indexed.pdf][Functional Differential Geometry]] Treatment of functional
rlm@120:     differential geometry in the classic SIC[M/P] style.
rlm@120: 
rlm@115: