Ten books that will change the way you understand the mind

At io9 Annalee Newitz named ten books that might change the way you will understand the mind, including:

Sly Mongoose, by Tobias Buckell

With one character in this 2008 novel, Buckell shows us a social media hive mind that humans might actually embrace one day. Katerina is from a civilization where every decision is made by citizens voting over a sophisticated computer network that's wired into everybody's brains. No policy or political decision is ever made without consulting the hive mind of the whole democracy. In this vision of the hive mind, individuality isn't lost — but the brain networks allow people to make more democratic group decisions in the blink of an eye. Interestingly, Buckell contrasts Katerina's world with the menace caused by a zombie plague that turns its victims into a monstrous hive mind where selfhood is subsumed into a mass urge to kill and consume.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Page 99 Test: Sly Mongoose.

Writers Read: Tobias S. Buckell (March 2012).

--Marshal Zeringue