Cormac McCarthy's postapocalyptic world

I picked up Cormac McCarthy's new novel The Road and could not put it down. I can't remember the last time I read a novel in one sitting. It is dark, haunting, and brutal, just like all his fiction, and beautiful, just like all his fiction. When the world is destroyed by nuclear weapons and all is ash, humanity becomes simply a quest for survival. McCarthy has always been good at raw human nature, and so this scenario is ideal for him, and I think it yielded a masterpiece. The message is simple: life, in and of itself, is valuable. Even in an insane scenario, it is worth fighting for. It is the breath of God. The last two paragraphs are pure poetry, and worth the price of the book. But you should earn the right to read them by reading the rest of the novel first.

Nanotechnology must read

If you read only one book on nanotechnology, it should definitely be Drexler's Engines of Creation. It is well written, rational, persuasive, and overwhelmingly interesting. Most people who write about new technologies seem to do so either out of fear or naive utopianism; Drexler walks the line between these positions. He's not afraid of nanotech but he knows that Bill Joy is right: it could render life as we know it extinct if we are not careful. I think all policy makers should read this book.