The Future of the mind

Author: Michio Kaku


Michio Kaku uses his physicist background to explore how the brain works. He starts out by describing the recent advances in mapping the inner workings of the human brain. While this is fascinating stuff, Michio uses it as a launch pad to get to his favorite pastime which is speculating on the future. Reading between the lines, I figured that Kaku has been paying close attention to all the gadgets and gizmos in Sci-Fi movies and a good portion of the book is dedicated to explaining how these might actually be realized with some advances in science and technology. Call me a glutton for punishment, but I continued on this rather strange trip only to find that the next stop was a treatise on the likelihood of finding life on other planets in the Universe. Kaku tackles interesting questions like whether there is an intelligent life form in outer space and if so, is it a good idea for us to contact them? Given the large number of planets that have similar conditions as Earth, the odds are heavily in favor of life evolving on some of them. This then begs the question of whether aliens will look like the life-forms that we are used to on earth or be wildly different?

While some of these questions are good ones, the book leaves a lot to be desired in terms of readability. Unless you are a big fan of Sci-Fi movies and want to understand how some of their cool gadgets might work, I would take a pass on this one.

The Little Demon in the City of Lights

Author: Steven Levingston


Who would have thought that in the late 19th century in Paris there was a thrilling crime drama that gripped the city. It wasn’t only the defendants who were being tried, but a much bigger principle was at stake. Could a crime be committed under a hypnotic spell, and would that absolve the perpetrator from being convicted ?  

The author, Steven Livingston tells a gripping tale set in Belle Epoque Paris. Gabrielle Bompard is a young petite girl who finds herself in the streets of Paris. Michel Eyraud is a middle-aged man who is up to no good. Gabrielle becomes his mistress and together they murder a prosperous acquaintance Toussaint-Augustin Gouffe with the intention of robbing him. They flee Paris and what follows is a very interesting chase — first to find the murder victim and then the culprits.  Livingston tells a gripping tale that culminates in a courtroom drama that evokes memories of the O.J. Simpson trial.

The book also uses the storyline to highlight the differing views of the Nancy School and Paris School on the impact of hypnosis on an individual. The Nancy School was a hypnosis centered school of psychotherapy led by Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault and the Paris School was based on the hysteria-centered research of Jean-Martin Charcot at the Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris. Mr Livingston goes to great lengths to present arguments from both sides and emphasizes the importance of the verdict of the murder trial in settling the score on this debate.