Reading this book felt more like engaging in a long conversation about humanity with a very intelligent friend more than it felt like learning scientific fact. I enjoyed the book more when I let go of trying to analyze whether Reese was stating facts that were absolutely proven to be true and embraced that the theories of his worldview are based on both fact and feeling. I'd argue that the "point" of this book was to lay out the foundation for an argument which opposes the doom and gloom narrative of the future and also the nihilistic view that human existence has absolutely no meaning. The author references the fictional world of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek multiple times throughout the text, so I can only assume that he would be amiable to being described as a "trekkie". And, as someone who was raised by a trekkie, this allows me to better understand Reese's worldview.

Like any good philosophical, moral, or scientific debate (this book could be argued to contain all three and more), two parties will find they have quite a few disagreements, but that there are some concepts they agree one. This was my experience of reading Stories, Dice and Rocks that think. Reese's inferences about animal behavior and capabilities was difficult for me accept, as I take the view that we barely know enough about how our own species work and that we generally ascribe what little we know to animals and judge them based on those characteristics. However, after Act I of this book, I found myself able to more easily follow along Reese's logic. This does not mean that I agreed with every point, but the logic seemed sound.

If you're interested in arguments over what makes humanity special (if anything), determinism vs. free will, the development of language and it's ramifications on our development, the advent of artificial intelligence, and so much more, give this book a read.

This book has a very interesting concept and a very interesting idea behind it, however it wasn’t really some thing that I enjoyed reading as much as I had expected I would. There are a lot of large claims in this book that make me feel very weary because the author doesn’t have an academic degree to support these things and it isn’t clear where the information is coming from. I would be curious to see the authors research and what sources and resources the author was using to make and write these claims as they aren’t very clear in the book itself. I also felt that this book didn’t have a clear thesis, for the subject I feel like it should be very clear what this book is seeking to say and that should be said very quickly in the beginning when you start reading.

In this book, the author shows how the ability to imagine the future helped human society to transform the world. Storytelling, probability theory, and computers have helped us escape the limitations of our individual minds. It's a fascinating, informative, and entertaining read.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

I loved this book. The writing is conversational with some cute wording and puns, making this a fun read. The story-telling is great and the section on statistics is well explained with very little math. The footnotes are also well worth reading. I also loved the pop culture references. It helps create a relationship between the author and the reader. Indeed, Byron Reese is the type of writer I would like to have coffee with. Overall this is a great read. Thank you to Netgalley and BenBella Books for the digital review copy. .

Just the book for non-fiction readers like me who do not want to pick up a very "serious" non-fiction book but also want to read a fun, informative one.

And this is the one for me. For the life of me, I couldn't finish up read Sapiens, but this one grabbed my attention right from the very first page (I forgot! The blurb got me first!).

I find the contents very accessible for everyone young and old. The presentation of the contents is very easy to the eyes and so it gives the "oh I can read this book very easily" kind of vibes. And so it did too!

I find the division of the main contents into three main sections under fun headings a clever way of keeping the attention of the readers. They deal with the past, the present and the futuristic concepts/ideas what we would most possibly make happen in the very near future.

A good read which is informative, fun and unique.

Thank you, BenBella Books, for the advance reading copy.