Useful Synapses

Internet links and recommended reading. Web links listed first, then books...

Cognitive Science / Artificial Intelligence

• Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI)
• KurweilAI.net Ray Kurzweil's AI site
• Revised Computer Science Resource Center: Artificial Intelligence general AI concepts site (part of a commercial company site)
• Indiana University Cognitive Science Program my Ph.D. alma mater
• UCSD Cognitive Science Department my M.S. alma mater
• Principia Cybernetica Web

Futurism

• The Singularity is Near: Ray Kurzweil—an optimistic view on our technological future in which exponential progress leads to revolutions in biology, nanotechnology, and robotics in the next 2 or 3 decades

Music

• The Gibraltar Encyclopedia of Progressive Rock
• Teoria a music theory site
• Syntactic Structures in Music: Tom Suttcliffe an interesting book precis on harmonic progressions
• Lied and Art Song Texts Page lots of translations of German Lieder and even medieval English songs

Religion / Mythology

• Internet Sacred Text Archive astounding number of religious texts/translations free online; also classical literature (including Homer, Ovid, Plato's dialogues)
• Theoi Greek Mythology
• BibleGateway.com handy online Bible reference; many translations
• Folklore and Mythology Resource Guide
• The Masks of God (4 vols.): Joseph Campbell—a grand view of origin, evolution, and diffusion of the great world religions, West and East
• The Hero With a Thousand Faces: Joseph Campbell—an analysis of the archetype of The Hero

Skepticism

• The Skeptic's Dictionary a general site devoted to debunking all matters doubtful
• The Jesus Puzzle: Earl Doherty mythological theory of Jesus (i.e., Jesus as urban legend)
• The Skeptic's Annotated Bible also includes sites for Koran and Book of Mormon; translation annotated is King James Version

Text Adventure Gaming

• TADS Home Site Text Adventure Development System: freeware programming system for Zork-style text adventures
• The Interactive Fiction Archive

Politics

• The Cato Institute Libertarian organization

Economics

• Ludwig von Mises Institute Austrian economics site

Health

• Quackwatch guide to health fraud
• TRANSCEND: Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman, M.D.—comprehensive health guide to trying to survive long enough for the aging problem to be cracked (website for book here)

Career / Job Search

• LinkedIn.com professional networking site
• O*Net OnLine occupation information site
• What Color is Your Parachute?: Richard Bolles—comprehensive guide to job search; the career choices part of the book is good, also: I found his "Flower Exercise" useful

Favorite Novels

• The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever: Stephen R. Donaldson
• Lord of the Rings: J.R.R. Tolkien—Peter Jackson did a good job with the movies, too!
• The Odyssey: Homer—actually an epic poem, but it reads like a fantasy novel
• Atlas Shrugged: Ayn Rand

Friend Blogs / Sites

• The Complacency Chronicles humor blog of Shane Brown
• Christy-Lyn's Music Christy-Lyn is a soprano from Cape Town, South Africa who sings Celtic and other folk music
• Short Questions, Long Answers blog of Doug Lundquist

Miscellaneous

• Wikipedia who hasn't heard of this online, constantly-revised, free encyclopedia, but it's so good it deserves a link anyway
• YouTube free videos uploaded and viewable by the whole world
• The Mathematical Atlas map of modern mathematics
• Project Gutenberg free eBooks