Ponderings of science, philosophy, history, society, and many other topics
There's been some attention lately to a contest on designing an interstellar generation ship, a large scale ship that humans live in for generations while it crosses interstellar space to another solar system. As Paul Gilster at Centauri Dreams notes, generation ships are a long time staple in science fiction, albeit with the common trope … Continue reading Optimism for interstellar exploration
In the last post I said I'd get back to Robert Reed's Greatship series. This week I read the main story collection for that series: The Greatship. This is a collection of novellas and novelettes, which seems to be the format Reed really shines in. These are all separate stories, but they take place in … Continue reading The Greatship
Multiple people have recommended Robert Reed's books over the years. I started to read his Greatship stories many years ago, but got distracted and never made it back. Recently I came across a recommendation for his book, Sister Alice, as an example of hard science fiction space opera, and decided to check it out. Published … Continue reading Sister Alice
It's been a while since I've read a Greg Egan book. I often love the ideas he explores, particularly in Diaspora. But I sometimes find his stories difficult to get through. That was definitely true of a previous book I read, Incandescence, which takes place in the setting of an interesting interstellar civilization. But the … Continue reading Schild’s Ladder
When I was young I read a lot of Arthur C. Clarke's books. With one of them, I remember having a strong sense of deja vu. It seemed like I knew the story already, sort of. It was very familiar, yet surprising in many details. I don't remember which one I read first, Against the … Continue reading Against the Fall of Night and its progeny
A few years ago David Bourget and David Chalmers did a follow up survey to the 2009 one polling philosophers on what they believe about various questions. One of them was quantum mechanics, particularly the measurement problem and its various interpretations. Over the decades there have been surveys of physicists themselves on this question, but … Continue reading What physicists believe about quantum mechanics
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