Ponderings of science, philosophy, history, society, and many other topics
Frank Herbert's novel: Dune, is the epitome of classic science fiction. It's widely regarded as one of the best science fiction novels ever written, if not the best. The story takes place roughly 20,000 years in the future, in an interstellar feudal society. 10,000 years earlier, humanity underwent a religious movement that made computers and … Continue reading Dune: Part One
I've been watching the new Apple TV+ series Foundation, but wanted to get a few episodes in before commenting. This is an adaptation of Isaac Asimov's classic Foundation book series. In that series, set in the far future (20,000 years), a vast galactic empire rules the entire galaxy. Hari Seldon is a mathematician who has … Continue reading Foundation
I haven't been hugely impressed by Marvel's recent TV shows. I found WandaVision's first few episodes hard to get through, and the later action never really made up for it. And the first episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier didn't draw me in. So I was slow to watch Loki. But after hearing … Continue reading Loki
As I've gotten older, I've become increasingly weary of the alien invasion premise. The problem is the level of coincidence. Earth was a sitting duck for 4 billion years, but the aliens wait until the very century when humans are able to mount any kind of resistance. (To the credit of HG Wells, the originator … Continue reading Project Hail Mary
ID-0 is an interesting little series I stumbled across on Netflix. Like a lot of sci-fi anime, it's in the mecha genre (involving giant robots), but with a twist. The premise is that humans can copy their mind into a robot called an "I-machine" and essentially become the robot. A backup copy of the human's … Continue reading ID-0
For years Netflix dangled Knights of Sidonia in front of me as a recommended show to check out. But as I noted several posts back, I was generally resistant to anime for a long time. I did try to take up the show once, but remember struggling with the standard anime female tropes and the … Continue reading Knights of Sidonia
Tsutomu Nihei is a manga artist who specializes in science fiction. His stories tend to be dark cyberpunk in post apocalyptic settings. The more recent ones take place in space, which is checking a lot of the marks for the type of fiction I usually enjoy. His first series was Blame!, which was adopted a … Continue reading Blame!
My anime binge has expanded somewhat into a manga binge. A while back, I posted about the movie Alita: Battle Angel. I enjoyed it a great deal and was intrigued by the world that was presented, of a bifurcated society, with an elite living in the floating city of Zalem, and a hardscrabble lower class … Continue reading Battle Angel Alita
Yes, more anime. (For those concerned: no, I'm not turning this into an anime blog. Real life has been stressful lately, which hasn't left much mental energy for intellectual exploration. Rather than go completely dark, you're getting commentary on where my spare time is being spent. But I am slowly making my way through a … Continue reading Aldnoah.zero
The anime binge continues. The latest has been portions of the Gundam franchise. I was a little reluctant to even approach this collection, first because it's vast and it's not at all clear where the best place to start might be, and second because it looks like one of those superhero / toy adaptation series. … Continue reading Mobile Suit Gundam
