Hacker News Books

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.
Free Will by Sam Harris.
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus by Ludwig Wittgenstein

Leaving aside fiction (but if I weren't I would put Hamlet at the top) to focus:

The stoic classics mentioned throughout these replies;

Reinventing the Sacred;

The Art of War;

Descarte's Error;

Free Will by Sam Harris

Introduction to Probability Theory

Free Will (Hacket Readings In Philosophy): https://www.amazon.com/Free-Will-Hackett-Readings-Philosophy...

It's a fantastic collection of contemporary views on the problem of free will.

Mostly related to mind/happiness/consciousness.

+ Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion - Sam Harris

+ Free Will - Sam Harris

+ Mindfulness in Plain English - Bhante Henepola Gunaratana

Nobody in the simulation you've described would actually make any choices; the choices are predetermined, baked into the heap of the CA/TM being used to drive the computation. Conway's Free Will concerns situations where the choices cannot be predetermined, as a consequence of the Kochen-Specker lemma.

Compatibilists redefine free will, similarly to those who redefine "god" as "nature" or "the universe". Sure, anyone can define any term the way they want, but it simply causes confusion to the majority of people who don't hold such definition. Rather, it's best to abandon some terms as fiction, and create new ones surrounding the concept you are looking to address. Better books on the topic are Sam's _Free Will_ or Trick's _Breaking the Free Will Illusion_.

http://www.samharris.org/free-will

http://breakingthefreewillillusion.com/

"Free Will" by Sam Harris. A buddy told me to read this after we got in a long debate about free will at a bar. Basically, he told me I wasn't even grasping what free will is, and that the hour to read the book would totally change everything for me. Lo and behold, he was right and the next conversation we had about free will was much deeper and largely framed by the insights in this book. It convinced me that the real question isn't "Do we have free will?" but rather "What is free will?"

"The Beginning of Infinity" by David Deutsch. It's difficult to pinpoint this book as being about a thing or a set of things, but my best attempt is to say it's about attaining knowledge and the non-existent limits to human knowledge. I've never felt more inspired than when I finished reading this book and reflected on the infinite lengths humankind has to go on technological progress. Overall, it's an incredible argument for optimism about what is possible.

Top 3 for the year for me below. All of these are completable in 2 or so hours and non-fiction. For me at least, this is notable since so many non-fiction reads take 400 pages to make a point that could be summarized in 150:

- Free Will, Sam Harris - one of my buddies strongly recommended this book after debating me on the subject for an hour plus. While some of the question of free will is semantics, Harris deeply changed my position on to what extent we determine our own actions. When someone can present an argument to you for an hour and a half uninterrupted, it also makes a difference - perhaps the best way to influence someone is to recommend a book.

- It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy At Work, DHH and Jason Fried - made me rethink the tradeoff between working harder and working smarter. This book strongly debates how most companies structure PTO, the work week, meetings and so much more and offers opinionated alternatives. Basecamp is clearly thinking independently from first principles here, and I really admire that.

- The Way to Love, Anthony de Mello - meditations on freeing yourself from attachment and your own programming. This book pairs really well with Free Will (I read them around the same time) because both offer unique perspectives on why we are the way we are and why change is possible (Free Will actually optimistically concludes change is possible without us being in control of our actions).

Shameless plugs - I blog on my favorite reads of the month at theconsider.com , which also is available as a monthly e-mail (https://theconsider.com/subscribe/).

Free Will by Sam Harris had a great affect on how I view the people and by proxy the world around me.

He argues that anyones decisions are a direct result of the physical structure of their respective brain, which in turn is moulded by their genes and experience so far, rather than a by an unexplainable free will.

The book made me reconsider how people treat each other because of their beliefs and actions - from harbouring negative feelings towards somebody due to their opinions to locking up people for committing crimes.

At the very least it has helped me in personal relationships and encouraged me to try to understand where another persons opposing viewpoint is coming from rather than feel negativity or superiority towards them because I feel they are wrong.

We respond to external stimuli in a unique way, true. I'm not saying free will does not exist, but YOU as an agent do not have that will. It's actually a combination of genes + historical feedback loop between environment and you. When you are asked to pick between a color (red or green), on what basis do you pick that color?

The recent book on Free Will by Sam Harris: http://www.amazon.com/Free-Will-Sam-Harris/dp/1451683405 is relevant here.

'I Am That' by Nisargadatta Maharaj

'The First and Last Freedom' by J. Krishnamurti: Mainly because of what he says regarding Free Will. Later I read 'Free Will' by Sam Harris, and I think Sam explains the same idea in more detail.
Citing 'The First and Last Freedom': "Thought is nothing else but reaction; thought is not creative."

'The Grapes of Wrath' by John Steinbeck

'The Little Prince' by A.S.Exupery: when I was a child it made me reflect about society.