Happier, No Matter What: Cultivating Hope, Resilience, and Purpose in Hard Times by Tal Ben-Shahar 

Everybody’s favorite positive psychology professor Tal Ben-Shahar breaks down the science of happiness into five checklist items abbreviated as SPIRE: Spiritual (I am experiencing meaning), Physical (my body’s needs are met), Intellectual (I am learning), Relational (my friends support me) and Emotional (I am allowed to feel).

The book explains how these five elements of wellbeing help us build the resilience to get through anything, from a personal loss, to a global pandemic or an economic recession.

Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI by Yuval Noah Harari

Israeli historian, philosopher and bestselling author Yuval Noah Harari is back with a new blockbuster: Nexus, which looks through the long lens of human history to consider how the flow of information has shaped our world and how different political systems have wielded information to achieve their goals. 

Taking us from the Stone Age, through the canonization of the Bible, early modern witch-hunts, Stalinism, Nazism, and populism, Harari considers the complex relationship between information and truth, bureaucracy and mythology, wisdom and power. And he addresses the choices we face as machine intelligence threatens our very existence.

The Human Test: How Predictability, Creativity, and the Quantum Mind Will Redefine Life in the Age of AI by Ron Folman

What makes us human and how we can remain so in a world that increasingly treats us as data points to be predicted and controlled? 

Drawing on quantum physics, cognitive science, philosophy and emerging technologies that can predict our behavior with increasing precision, The Human Test explores how AI and big data force us to confront uncomfortable truths about human nature. 

Folman, an Israeli quantum physicist and social activist, argues that the uniquely human capacity for creativity might be the key to maintaining our humanity in an age of algorithmic predictability. 

Relationships 5.0: How AI, VR, and Robots Will Reshape Our Emotional Lives by Elyakim Kislev

Elyakim Kislev, head of the Honors Program at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s School of Public Policy and Governance, writes that interactive technologies — like AI therapists, avatar friends and robot assistants — signal the beginning of a new epoch in human history, and it’s not necessarily a bad thing. 

Guiding readers away from fear toward embracing this new reality, Relationships 5.0 explores fundamental questions about companionship, trust and love, proposing fascinating ideas about what the future may look like.

Brain Imaging: An Illustrated Guide to the Future of Neuroscience by Moran Cerf

Can we improve relationships, sex and intimacy using cross-brain communication? Can we “download” our consciousness and store the backup somewhere in the brain? What senses would we add if we could expand our powers of perception? How can the business world prepare for a world of mind reading? 

These and other issues at the forefront of current neuroscience research are addressed in comical and thought-provoking illustrations by award-winning neuroscientist Moran Cerf for readers of all ages.

Misbelief: What Makes Rational People Believe Irrational Things by Dan Ariely

Renowned behavioral economist Dan Ariely has written several bestselling books on decision-making and irrationality that are popular in the global business community. 

In Misbelief, Ariely probes the emotional, cognitive, personality, and social drivers that lead ordinary people to adopt deeply irrational beliefs such as conspiracy theories. 

Is there anything we can do, especially given AI’s capability of generating convincing fake news? Ariely writes that awareness of the forces fueling misbelief can make us more resilient to its allure. 

Mediated Matter: Design and Invention in the New Biological Age by Neri Oxman

Former MIT Associate Prof. Neri Oxman studied medicine and architecture in her native Israel before earning a PhD in architectural design at MIT. She’s won multiple awards in her self-established field of material ecology – a combination of computer science, material science, synthetic biology and digital fabrication. On November 18, MIT Press will release Mediated Matter (now available on pre-order), Oxman’s comprehensive overview of her groundbreaking work. In words and images, she outlines her future-forward approach to materials for the built environment, from silkworm thread to automated microrobots to a water-based fabrication platform that prints biopolymer structures.