Of my two fav coffee table books, one fits all three qualifications: Japanese Swords and Armor by Paul Martin. Lots of history and even metallurgy. My other fav - The Art of The Wind Rises - is gorgeous but maybe not so enlightening. Although there's plenty to satisfy train and plane otakus :)

It's interesting to think how one can commit both to the type of illusionism mentioned here AND biological necessity. It at least means biology weakly emerges necessarily prior to consciousness, but is that all? What else does biology bring to the table? So much to chew on I love it!

The Wind Rises! A critic said Miyazaki sweeps hard ethical questions under the rug of beauty. But this is precisely the point: young engineers do this and will likely continue to do so. My young colleagues and I sadly included, but for "curiosity" not beauty; we wanted to push technical boundaries.

YES! Scrolled through the comments to find precisely this take ;)