原文：https://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/Holiday-Books-2021When I was a kid, I was obsessed with science fiction. Paul Allen and I would spend countless hours discussing Isaac Asimov’s original Foundation trilogy. I read every book by Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert Heinlein. (The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress was a particular favorite.) There was something so thrilling to me about these stories that pushed the limits of what was possible. As I got older, I started reading a lot more non-fiction. I was still interested in books that explored the implications of innovation, but it felt more important to learn something about our real world along the way. Lately, though, I’ve found myself drawn back to the kinds of books I would’ve loved as a kid.My holiday reading list this year includes two terrific science fiction stories. One takes place nearly 12 light-years away from our sun, and the other is set right here in the United States—but both made me think about how people can use technology to respond to challenges. I’ve also included a pair of non-fiction books about cutting-edge science and a novel that made me look at one of history’s most famous figures in a new light.I read a lot of great books this year—including John Doerr’s latest about climate change—but these were some of my favorites.A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence, by Jeff Hawkins. Few subjects have captured the imaginations of science fiction writers like artificial intelligence. If you’re interested in learning more about what it might take to create a true AI, this book offers a fascinating theory. Hawkins may be best known as the co-inventor of the PalmPilot, but he’s spent decades thinking about the connections between neuroscience and machine learning, and there’s no better introduction to his thinking than this book.The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race, by Walter Isaacson. The CRISPR gene editing system is one of the coolest and perhaps most consequential scientific breakthroughs of the last decade. I’m familiar with it because of my work at the foundation—we’re funding a number of projects that use the technology—but I still learned a lot from this comprehensive and accessible book about its discovery by Nobel Prize-winning biochemist Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues. Isaacson does a good job highlighting the most important ethical questions around gene editing.Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro. I love a good robot story, and Ishiguro’s novel about an “artificial friend” to a sick young girl is no exception. Although it takes place in a dystopian future, the robots aren’t a force for evil. Instead, they serve as companions to keep people company. This book made me think about what life with super intelligent robots might look like—and whether we’ll treat these kinds of machines as pieces of technology or as something more.Hamnet, by Maggie O’Farrell. If you’re a Shakespeare fan, you’ll love this moving novel about how his personal life might’ve influenced the writing of one of his most famous plays. O’Farrell has built her story on two facts we know to be true about “The Bard”: his son Hamnet died at the age of 11, and a couple years later, Shakespeare wrote a tragedy called Hamlet. I especially enjoyed reading about his wife, Anne, who is imagined here as an almost supernatural figure.Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir. Like most people, I was first introduced to Weir’s writing through The Martian. His latest novel is a wild tale about a high school science teacher who wakes up in a different star system with no memory of how he got there. The rest of the story is all about how he uses science and engineering to save the day. It’s a fun read, and I finished the whole thing in one weekend.小时候，我最喜欢阅读科幻小说。我和保罗·艾伦（Paul Allen，微软联合创始人）总是喜欢花很多时间来讨论知名科幻小说家艾萨克·阿西莫夫（Isaac Asimov）原创的经典科幻小说系列——基地系列（The Foundation Series），具体包括《基地》（Foundation）、《基地与帝国》（Foundation and Empire）以及《第二基地》（Second Foundation）这三部小说。埃德加·赖斯·巴勒斯（Edgar Rice Burroughs）和罗伯特·安森·海因莱因（Robert Anson Heinlein）这两位科幻小说代表人物的所有著作，我基本上都阅读过。其中，我尤其喜欢的是海因莱因著作的《怒月》（The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress）。这些书中的故事内容扣人心弦，令人兴奋不已，也进一步拓宽了人们的想象力边界。随着年龄的增长，我的阅读重点开始向非小说类书籍倾斜。我仍然对那些探索创新意义的书籍保持着浓厚的兴趣，但我也意识到，我应该通过阅读，进一步了解这个不断变化的世界。最近，我发现自己又开始喜欢阅读小时候最爱阅读的书籍类型。在今年推荐的年度阅读书单中，有两本都是非常优秀的科幻小说。其中，有一部小说讲述的故事，发生于离太阳约12光年的地方，而另一部小说的故事背景就在美国。读完这两本科幻小说后，我都在思考同样一个问题：人们应该如何利用科技来应对各种挑战？除了这两本小说，今年推荐的年度书单中，还有两本关于前沿科学的非小说类书籍。另外还有一本小说，也让我得以从全新的视角来认识历史上一位非常著名的人物。在过去的这一年，我阅读的书籍实际上远不止这五本。另外让我值得一提的书，是风险投资家约翰·杜尔（John Doerr）最新著作的一本关于气候变化的书籍——《速度与规模》（Speed & Scale）。下面，我将跟大家分享今年我最喜欢阅读的五本书籍。《A thousand brains: a new theory of intelligence》 by Jeff Hawkins. 《千脑理论》一本探索神经科学和机器学习的关系的科普读物。《the code breaker》by Walter Isaacson. 《密码破解者》从诺贝尔化学奖得主的学术生涯出发，探索基因技术的过去，现在和未来。《Klara and the sun》by kazuo ishiguro. 《克拉拉与太阳》诺贝尔文学奖得主石黑一雄的新作，从人工智能机器人的视角，看这个世界，以及爱。《Hamnet》by Maggie O'Farrell. 《哈木奈特》，讲述莎士比亚的个人生活是如何影响他的戏剧创作的故事。《Project Hail Mary》by Andy Weir. 《挽救计划》，安迪•威尔的新作，比《火星救援》更加引人入胜。关注 码中人点赞、转发、广告，更多优质资源等你来... 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