5 ms·

I remember getting Semiology of Graphics from the Palo Alto library around 2006. At the time it was sort of legendary and out of print, but it looks like it's

by chubot 7y ago

I remember getting Semiology of Graphics from the Palo Alto library around 2006. At the time it was sort of legendary and out of print, but it looks like it's since been reprinted. I think you can get most of the ideas from newer books, but it's well done and clearly ahead of its time. https://www.amazon.com/Semiology-Graphics-Diagrams-Networks-Maps/dp/1589482611 https://www.amazon.com/Semiology-Graphics-Diagrams-Networks-... https://medium.com/@karlsluis/before-tufte-there-was-bertin-63af71ceaa62 https://medium.com/@karlsluis/before-tufte-there-was-bertin-... Interestingly another relatively unknown book I like (and bought/read 20 years ago) is also about harmony: https://www.amazon.com/Harmonic-Experience-Harmony-Natural-Expression/dp/0892815604 https://www.amazon.com/Harmonic-Experience-Harmony-Natural-E... I would say there's two kinds of harmony: harmony in equal temperament, and "alternative" harmonies based on physics, and this is about the latter. I can't tell from the link what the other harmony book is about. What's good about it? As far as computer books, I've read a lot of recommendations here over the years like "thinking forth", "Computer Lib" by Ted Nelson, etc. They are well known to some audiences but not others. ---- I also enjoy reading what people though the computing future would be like. I have "Superdistribution" by Brad Cox: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21833331 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21833331 And "Mirror Worlds" by Gelertner: https://www.amazon.com/Mirror-Worlds-Software-Universe-Shoebox/dp/019507906X https://www.amazon.com/Mirror-Worlds-Software-Universe-Shoeb... I'm pretty sure Gelertner claims that the Facebook feed is identical to his "life streams". I guess taken literally it's hard not to see the current Internet as a "mirror world" that's becoming the real world.

cannam 7y ago
> I also enjoy reading what people though the computing future would be like This prompts me to propose (although it's not obscure) "Artificial Intelligence: The Very Idea" by John Haugeland. It's an AI textbook that is extremely readable and inviting - the best I've seen as a purely readable text, though probably far too basic for most readers here - but that is entirely drawn from the realm of "good old-fashioned AI", i.e. things like logic systems that have very little in common with what is understood as practical AI nowadays. Combine the readability of the book with the apparent hopelessness of its premise, and you have a perfectly nostalgic experience.
bordercases 7y ago
I would recommend "Graphics and Graphic Information Processing" by Bertin over La Semiologie simply because the latter reads more like a reference book where Bertin is extremely thorough. But GGIP gets straight to the point and can frame your thinking while going through Semiologie such that you won't lose your way. Unfortunately GGIP is expensive so I would try to find it at your local library. (French copies are online).
bogoman 7y ago
Thanks for the recommendations. Many look interesting but are not books I would organically bump into, which is an alternative description of what I was looking for. As for a Sadai's book: it is an extremely thorough book about western harmony from first principles. It treats what is perceived - what we hear - as the anchor, and not what we see when we analyse the notes on paper. A good example of that is how we decide to give names to chords. We tend to name chords based on the notes in them, but this can sometime lead to misunderstandings because the context and how those notes are spread through the chord are also very important. Basics like which note is in the bass is taken into consideration, but otherwise these factors are often ignored. Sadai shows many examples for that throughout the book - as well as such "Mistakes" in other famous books. A quote from the book about the approach taken: "The conventional analytic approach as taught in academies is based primarily upon the depiction of the WRITTEN content of a composition by means of symbols and concepts inherent to the accepted analytic code. This analysis however, which describes mainly what is SEEN, does not always succeed in describing what is HEARD - the perceptual musical essence".

by chubot 7y ago

cannam 7y ago

> I also enjoy reading what people though the computing future would be like This prompts me to propose (although it's not obscure) "Artificial Intelligence: The Very Idea" by John Haugeland. It's an AI textbook that is extremely readable and inviting - the best I've seen as a purely readable text, though probably far too basic for most readers here - but that is entirely drawn from the realm of "good old-fashioned AI", i.e. things like logic systems that have very little in common with what is understood as practical AI nowadays. Combine the readability of the book with the apparent hopelessness of its premise, and you have a perfectly nostalgic experience.

bordercases 7y ago

I would recommend "Graphics and Graphic Information Processing" by Bertin over La Semiologie simply because the latter reads more like a reference book where Bertin is extremely thorough. But GGIP gets straight to the point and can frame your thinking while going through Semiologie such that you won't lose your way. Unfortunately GGIP is expensive so I would try to find it at your local library. (French copies are online).

bogoman 7y ago

Thanks for the recommendations. Many look interesting but are not books I would organically bump into, which is an alternative description of what I was looking for. As for a Sadai's book: it is an extremely thorough book about western harmony from first principles. It treats what is perceived - what we hear - as the anchor, and not what we see when we analyse the notes on paper. A good example of that is how we decide to give names to chords. We tend to name chords based on the notes in them, but this can sometime lead to misunderstandings because the context and how those notes are spread through the chord are also very important. Basics like which note is in the bass is taken into consideration, but otherwise these factors are often ignored. Sadai shows many examples for that throughout the book - as well as such "Mistakes" in other famous books. A quote from the book about the approach taken: "The conventional analytic approach as taught in academies is based primarily upon the depiction of the WRITTEN content of a composition by means of symbols and concepts inherent to the accepted analytic code. This analysis however, which describes mainly what is SEEN, does not always succeed in describing what is HEARD - the perceptual musical essence".