Ponderings of science, philosophy, history, society, and many other topics
In a somewhat whimsical podcast episode, Sean Carroll explores the physics and "rules" of time travel. Probably the first two thirds explore the physics. Carroll notes that if time travel under general relativity is at all possible, it would more likely involve a spaceship attempting to navigate some kind of closed timelike curve than stepping … Continue reading The rules of time travel?
First, I like this model where movies are released for streaming concurrently with the theater release. As someone who rarely goes to the theater anymore, and usually just waits for the movie to come out on streaming anyway, it's a very cool change. I know Warner Brothers is taking a lot of heat from people … Continue reading Wonder Woman 1984
The first few episodes of season 5 of the Expanse dropped last week so I watched them yesterday. It looks like the rest of the episodes are going to be released on a weekly basis. The production values remain top notch. And while I'm not sure about some of the visuals in these episodes, it … Continue reading The Expanse, season 5
Last night I finished reading Ada Hoffmann's The Outside, a pretty strange but interesting space opera. In the far future, humanity is ruled by AI gods. Humans invented the gods, although there are hints it was more complicated than that, like maybe there was a singularity event or process of some kind. The gods now … Continue reading The Outside
I just finished watching the first three episodes of the new HBO Max series: Raised by Wolves. Lamentably, HBO made this difficult since they've been in a dispute with Roku, my preferred steaming platform, on getting an app into their environment. I had to watch it on as ASUS Chromebook mini I keep connected to … Continue reading Raised by Wolves
The Human is the third and final book in Neal Asher's most recent series, The Rise of the Jain, which I've discussed before. The series takes place in Asher's Polity universe, one where humans have expanded into an interstellar community ruled by AIs, and have interactions with numerous alien species. It's also a universe where … Continue reading The Human
I've seen the TV show Devs come up in a number of conversations on social media, and several people recommended it. But it was JamesOfSeattle's recommendation that finally got me to check it out. The result was, as usual for a show I really enjoy, a weekend binge. As the show starts, we find Lily … Continue reading Devs
I noticed today that it had been released for streaming, so I went ahead and watched. (I missed it in the theaters.) Based on everything that had been said about it, it was better than I expected. It was entertaining and Abrams managed to get the emotional high points right. It felt like a decent … Continue reading Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
I just finished reading J. T. Nicholas' Re-coil, a space opera novel. It takes place in the solar system, so it's not an interstellar story, although there are hints the series might go there eventually. It involves a future where everyone's mind can be backed up and instantiated in a new body if they die. … Continue reading Re-coil
Netflix dropped the second season of Altered Carbon on Thursday, so naturally I had to binge through it. This show is based on the novels by Richard K. Morgan. While the first season (which I reviewed) broadly followed the plot of the first book, albeit with a lot of additions and enhancements to the storyline, … Continue reading Altered Carbon, season two
