Ponderings of science, philosophy, history, society, and many other topics
The new Doctor Who season is starting off with maximum silliness, and an emphasis on fantasy over science fiction. One nice benefit of Doctor Who moving to Disney+ (at least in the US) and being available for streaming first, even in the UK, is that the episodes now drop for me on Friday evenings, a … Continue reading Doctor Who, science fiction and fantasy
The New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness has been making a lot of headlines. The declaration itself has somewhat careful language in terms of what it's asserting, but many of the headlines don't. The declaration is short, so it's easy to quote in full. Which animals have the capacity for conscious experience? While much uncertainty … Continue reading Consciousness must be adaptive
Yesterday Daniel Dennett died. He was 82, about the same age as my father when he died a few years ago. I think I've mentioned before that the first writer I read on consciousness was Susan Blackmore. But I know Dennett wasn't far behind, likely based on Blackmore's positive discussions of his work, but also … Continue reading Some thoughts on Daniel Dennett’s ideas
Fallout, like many recent TV shows, demonstrates the old rule, of video game adaptations always being awful, is obsolete. At first Fallout seems similar to a lot of other post-apocalyptic shows. There's been a nuclear war and the world is a wasteland. Life on the surface is a brutal battle for survival, even two hundred … Continue reading Fallout
Shows based on video games have gotten better in recent years, and Halo seems to fit this trend. I never got into the games, so my knowledge of the premise only comes from the show. Humanity is at war with an alien civilization known as the "Covenant". The Covenant seems determined to eradicate humanity for … Continue reading Halo
The TV show, 3 Body Problem, is an adaptation of Liu Cixin's novel, The Three Body Problem. I read Cixin's book several years ago, back when it was up for the Hugo Award, which it eventually won. The book explores a lot of ideas, such as the difficulty in making predictions with inherently chaotic systems, … Continue reading 3 Body Problem
Blade is the penultimate book in Linda Nagata's Inverted Frontier series. I've written about this series many times. It's a sequel to her earlier series: The Nanotech Succession. These books describe a civilization that has mastered nanotechnology, to the extent that mind uploading and new bodies on demand are possible, so everyone is essentially immortal. … Continue reading Blade (Inverted Frontier Book 4)
This week I saw the second part of Denis Villeneuve's adaptation of Dune. You've probably seen the glowing recommendations. I'll confirm that the movie is very good, a visually stunning experience. I certainly think it cements Villeneuve's adaptation as the definitive cinematic treatment of Frank Herbert's novel. I recommend seeing it, although it's worth first … Continue reading Dune: Part Two
Yesterday I watched the live action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Live action remakes of anime (or anime inspired) shows has been a dodgy proposition over the years, with the 2010 attempt for this franchise being a stark example. I actually enjoy most of them, but historically I'm an outlier. (I should note that … Continue reading Avatar: The Last Airbender: the live actioning
SMBC on how to get access to the secrets of reality. Click through for source and red button caption: https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/secrets-2 I guess this is philosophical comic sharing week for me. Somewhat related, I've been slowly working my way through Sean Carroll's The Biggest Ideas in the Universe: space, time, and motion. I know a lot … Continue reading How to study reality
SelfAwarePatterns 