Books
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“Reading” We Are Legion: We Are Bob by Dennis E Taylor, read by the incomparable Ray Porter, who also breathed incredible life into Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir.
This is a similarly nerdy piece of hard sci fi and while the book would read well, the voice performance on Audible is absolutely brilliant.
The premise of this series is a man has his brain cryogenically frozen in today’s time and place to be reawakened as an intelligence to drive a von Neumann machine in the future. It is very funny and an excellent story so far in book 1. A fascinating take on one of the more plausible ways an advanced civilization might colonize the galaxy, with a swarm of self-replicating probes.
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@SKT for sure one of my favorite books I've read this year. Inventive, enlightening, funny, terrifying, and heartbreaking in equal measures. I definitely would recommend that one and Babel by R.F. Kuang for anyone willing to give their perceptions of history a proper wallop.
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@SKT it's a cool one! It's sort of alternate history along the lines of a book like Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, in the sense that it's actual events that are peppered throughout with a bit of fantasy. Overall it's about colonialism, and opened my eyes in a lot of ways.
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@popvulture I put a hold on it…only 13 weeks out, ha! Will give me time to catch up on my list. Currently reading “The Secret History” by Donna Tartt
And @mclaincausey that book sounds interesting . I just skimmed “A City on Mars” by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith (there’s a blurb by Andy Weir which reminded me) My son is obsessed with human travel to Mars and I wanted to become more knowledgeable about the subject. After reading this book I think the proposition is dicey at best. Anyway it was a fun skim.
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@SKT The Secret History is one of my very, very favorite books! Absolutely brilliant. The Goldfinch is also beautiful.
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@popvulture ahh…did you recommend it to me? Can’t remember where I heard about it. Enjoying it so far!
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@SKT hm don’t think so but it’s possible!
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I just completed a trilogy (that actually has two more volumes I’ll get to, but the first three stand well alone) by Dennis E Taylor that started with “We Are Legion (We Are Bob).” Particularly, the Ray Porter narrated Audible version, which makes the trilogy which already would stand among my favorite sci fi even better.
A little bit of Douglas Adams, a little bit of Andy Weir, a little bit of Gene Roddenberry. Excellent hard sci fi that has some nerd humor interspersed with some cosmic horror within its considerable breadth. I can’t recommend enough. Intellectually and emotionally stimulating and endlessly entertaining. It would make a good film or TV series.
The basic premise is that a software engineer sells his company and uses some of his funds to cryogenically preserve his brain, ultimately to wind up being the controlling intelligence for a von Neumann probe, which is to say a self-replicating swarm of drones, spaceships, and space stations.
The title may seem too whimsical, but don’t let it push you away: they get into some extremely deep topics as it pertains to futurism and colonizing the solar system and galaxy.
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@mclaincausey I’ve been consciously avoiding reading this article. Doesn’t make it any less real I suppose. Huge bummer
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@mclaincausey Avoided reading too much on this topic, too.
'Kill your idols' is another way to put it... -
About to jump into Praiseworthy by Alexis Wright. Seems interesting and won a bunch of awards and was shortlisted for others.
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I‘m currently reading Peter Fröberg Idling‘s „Pol Ponts leende“ (well, the German version). Very interesting book on how western leftist (here Swedish, but certainly transferable) intellectuals in the 70s tried to idealize the Khmer Rouge reign despite the growing information about the horrors actually happening. And how we (probably all) see and hear what we want to. An intelligent and beautifully written essay on travelling, history and Cambodia, for whom it may interest.
There are several translations, but I‘m not sure if there‘s a published english version. However, there is this excerpt online.
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@endo fascinating. We certainly had some embarrassing support voiced for KR here in America, even after the atrocities were exposed.
The problem I think is that people get hung up on political alignment and defensive because of it, where they should be thinking about the dangers of dogmatism, authoritarianism, and state violence regardless of under which banner they occur.
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@mclaincausey said in Books:
they should be thinking about the dangers of dogmatism, authoritarianism, and state violence regardless of under which banner they occur.
Exactly, and in addition the author (born 1972) puts up the question which blind spots he (or our generation) might have.
