Ponderings of science, philosophy, history, society, and many other topics
For people looking to dip their toe in the sci-fi literary genre, John Scalzi is often a good place to start. A lot of sci-fi literature assumes certain knowledge from the reader (such as what "burning at two gees" means). Scalzi's fiction tends to only assume what you might pick up watching sci-fi TV shows … Continue reading The Shattering Peace, and aliens who have consciousness as an augmentation
I recently finished reading Peter F. Hamilton's book: Exodus: The Archimedes Engine. It takes place in a far future where humanity has fled the solar system in relativistic ark ships, looking for new homes. One group of arks discover a bounty of habitable worlds in the Centauri Cluster about 16,000 light years from Earth. Someone … Continue reading Exodus: The Archimedes Engine, and a different take on mind uploading
I've described Neal Asher's Polity universe many times. It's a future interstellar civilization ruled by AIs, who took over in a basically bloodless "Quiet War", but who seem to rule humanity more or less benignly, providing a society where everyone is immortal, if they choose to be. Although as anyone who's read the books knows, … Continue reading The Technician
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
When I picked up Iain M. Banks' book The Algebraist, I thought I was starting a Culture novel overlooked until now. (The way Amazon listed the book encouraged this belief.) However, while it is space opera on a grand scale similar to a typical Culture novel, it takes place in a different fictional universe, one … Continue reading The Algebraist
SelfAwarePatterns 