Reading List
Bruce Schneier
Security Technologist and Author
Bruce Schneier is an American cryptographer and security technologist whose work moved from the mathematics of ciphers to the social systems that security actually depends on.
Applied Cryptography (1994) became the standard practical reference for a generation of engineers. He then argued, in Secrets and Lies and Beyond Fear, that security is a trade-off and a process rather than a product, and coined the term security theatre for measures that reassure without protecting. Liars and Outliers (2012) treats trust as the thing security exists to enable, and Data and Goliath (2015) examines mass surveillance.
He designed the Blowfish and Twofish ciphers and writes the long-running newsletter Crypto-Gram.
Braintrust
What Neuroscience Tells Us About Morality
by Patricia S. Churchland
“Braintrust, by the neuroscientist Patricia Churchland. This book is about the neuroscience of morality. It was published in 2011. This is a brand new field of science, and new discoveries are happening all the time. Morality is the most basic of societal pressures, and Churchland explains how it works.” — via Interview, February 2012
The Better Angels of Our Nature
Why Violence Has Declined
by Steven Pinker · 2012 · History
“Of course it’s more complicated than that, and Pinker does an excellent job of leading the reader through his analysis and conclusions. First, he spends six chapters documenting the fact that violence has in fact declined. In the next two chapters, he does his best to figure out exactly what has caused the “better angels of our nature” to prevail over our more natural demons.” — via Interview, February 2012
The Murderer Next Door
Why the Mind Is Designed to Kill
by David M. Buss
“There have been a number of books about the violent nature of humans, particularly men. I chose The Murderer Next Door both because it is well-written and because it is relatively new, published in 2005. David M Buss is a psychologist, and he writes well about the natural murderousness of our species. There’s a lot of data to support natural human murderousness, and not just murder rates in modern societies.” — via Interview, February 2012
The Folly of Fools
The Logic of Deceit and Self-Deception in Human Life
by Robert Trivers
“The Folly of Fools, by the biologist Robert Trivers. Trivers has studied self-deception in humans, and asks how it evolved to be so pervasive. Humans are masters at self-deception. We regularly deceive ourselves in a variety of different circumstances. But why? How is it possible for self-deception – perceiving reality to be different than it really is – to have survival value?” — via Interview, February 2012
The Penguin and the Leviathan
How Cooperation Triumphs over Self-Interest
by Yochai Benkler
“I write from the perspective of security – how society induces cooperation. Benkler takes the opposite perspective – how does this cooperation work and what is its value? More specifically, what is its value in the 21st century information-age economy? He challenges the pervasive economic view that people are inherently selfish creatures, and shows that actually we are naturally cooperative.” — via Interview, February 2012