Analyzes all the various flavors of Darwinist evolution and some competing theories Richard Dawkins is a very lucid and intelligent proponent of evolutAnalyzes all the various flavors of Darwinist evolution and some competing theories Richard Dawkins is a very lucid and intelligent proponent of evolutionary theory and biology when he isn't getting into vitriolic debates with Creationists, which is an exercise in futility for both sides I'd say. I admire him for trying, but frankly trying to use logic and scientific reasoning with people who think the world is 6,000 years old, was created by an all-powerful being who somehow still tolerates Donald Trump's existence, explain the fossil record and dinosaurs as just tests of faith, and really think the universe is centered around planet Earth is truly a tase of time.
So it's good to listen to a book that focuses on evolution, but as this book explores some of the subtle variants of evolutionary theory, like gradualists vs punctuationalists, dismantles Lamarkism and Lysenko, it feels a bit turgid at times, and I thought his much later book The Greatest Show on Earth was more interesting and focused on explaining what non-random natural selection means rather than debunking some other "weak" theories....more
A Neuroscientist Traces the Development of Complex Organisms, Animals, Primates, and Humans, and then Dives Deep into the Functioning of the Brain andA Neuroscientist Traces the Development of Complex Organisms, Animals, Primates, and Humans, and then Dives Deep into the Functioning of the Brain and the Conscious/Subconscious Mind Basically this is a pretty technical read, and as I did it via audiobook it was pretty hard to grasp a lot of the scientific details, especially the final third of the book that discusses the complex working of the brain and which parts are responsible for projecting our unconscious and conscious minds, giving birth to "consciousness", which he argues is unique to humans.
The early parts are quite interesting, and if you are a student of evolutionary biology, medicine, or neuroscience, this might be a very interesting book (though actually not detailed enough for a serious student), but pitched a bit too difficult for the lay reader or science enthusiast. I don't blame the book for being too difficult - just too difficult for me to grasp and appreciate other than in a very broad sense. I did learn a lot about how early inorganic life and single cell organisms gradually evolved into multicellular organisms and eukaryotes and fungi and a host of other creatures. It is pretty mind-expanding stuff, so if you are keen to know more about these things, it's not a bad book to read....more
An excellent study of the evolution of consciousness and the limitations of deterministic thinking Having read several books on evolutional biology, huAn excellent study of the evolution of consciousness and the limitations of deterministic thinking Having read several books on evolutional biology, human prehistory, and the development of consciousness, I found think book to be one of the best discussions of the debate over a purely deterministic view of evolutionary biology and how much it can explain human social behavior, along with a very nuanced and intelligent examination of exactly at what point our minds developed to the point that they were able to support consciousness, and whether this is purely contained within the brain or whether it occupies a separate spiritual plane, and whether free will is just a human conceit or not. The author writes convincingly that we are not just following evolutionary behavior to further our progeny in our pursuit of art, literature, music, scholarship, and self examination of our own human condition. Just bursting with interesting and controversial topics, it's like the most erudite and yet interesting dinner conversation you'll ever have. I recommend reading in this specific order of thematic progression:
1. The Selfish, The Blind Watchmaker, The Ancestor's Tale, The Greatest Show on Earth - Richard Dawkins 2. The Third Chimpanzee, Guns, Germs, and Steel - Jared Diamond 3. Sapiens: A Brief History of Mankind - Yuval Noah Harari 4. Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors - Nicholas Wade 5. The Human Instinct - Kenneth R. Miller...more
Extremely annoying philosophizing that fails to deliver on any of the title's promises Having listened to a series of theoretical physics books explainExtremely annoying philosophizing that fails to deliver on any of the title's promises Having listened to a series of theoretical physics books explaining quantum physics, relativity, the expanding universe, and the emergence of string theory, including Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe, Michio Kaku's Parallel Worlds, Lee Smolin's The Trouble With Physics, and Jim Baggott's Farewell to Reality, I picked up this audiobook based on positive reviews on Goodreads and Audible, but discovered it is impossible to listen to without my mind wandering to other things, as it spends the first dozen chapters just discussing how we can understand that we exist and how we observe the world, narrated in a cloyingly conversational tone but with such esoteric and aimless philosophizing that I thought this book should be shelved in the philosophy section rather than the science section. There is very little evidence, based on the initial dozen chapters, that Sean Carroll really is a theoretical physicist at Cal Tech. While he most likely is, this book is just an unlistenable mess that I started skipping through after a few chapters, and then gave up on about halfway through. ...more
A more balanced critique of string theory than the title suggests Judging from the title, you'd think this would be strident polemic against string theA more balanced critique of string theory than the title suggests Judging from the title, you'd think this would be strident polemic against string theory, but actually the first half of the book is focused on showing the developments in theoretical and quantum physics in the 20th century, grounded by the scientific method - experimentation, making testable hypotheses, tweaking of these to reflect the experiment's results, and repeating ad infinitum.
And then suddenly along comes String Theory, Multi-Verses, Holographic Universes, Membranes, P-Branes, Six-Dimensional curled up Calabi-Yau spaces, and more. Absolutely none of it is testable using current scientific experiments, since even the Hadron Large Collider at CERN is focused on smashing sub-atomic particles to find things liked the Higg's Boson, etc. How do you test to see if every minute event in the universe creates another universe, such as scratching your none, to there are infinitely splitting universes and none are the "real" one. Or the strong anthropic principle that suggests that the universe's natural laws are optimized for life because only a universe that has conscious beings could create an observer capable of recognizing this. It feels very much a tautology, to me at least.
I think Jim Baggott does a good job of pointing out why String Theory and its offshoots are essentially unprovable and a product of theoretical mathematics that suggest that we need 11 dimensions to explain the universe's natural laws. He wants a return to more experimental science and not "fairy-tale" science. Much like Lee Smolin's The Trouble with Physics, but with less complaining about how the physics academic community is so dominated by string theorists that all other theories get pushed to the side, however true that may be....more
My first foray into Michio Kaku's world Having just listened to Brian Green's The Elegant Universe and his case for String Theory and M-Theory, the bolMy first foray into Michio Kaku's world Having just listened to Brian Green's The Elegant Universe and his case for String Theory and M-Theory, the bold theoretical attempts to integrate Einstein's general/special relativity with quantum physics while also incorporating gravity, my occasional urge to understand the macro and micro principles of the universe, from quarks to blackholes, multiple dimensions, boson particles, Plank distances, and everything in between, his name has hit the radar many times as a physicist and futurist who writes popular science books for the general but scientifically-curious reader.
He covers much of the same territory as The Elegant Universe, but with far less technical depth than that book, but with a more approachable style as he drops loads of science-fiction cultural references and he does excel at making the difficult subject matter a bit less intimidating. His enthusiasm for the various topics he covers is also infectious, so if the title sounds like something you'd like to read about without needing a theoretical physics PhD, by all means give it a try. It does stray pretty far into highly speculative territory such as sentient beings fleeing the heat death of our universe billions of years in the future, but if you're an avid hard SF reader this won't feel so far-fetched. Rather it's exciting to hear a respected physicist take such outlandish ideas seriously....more
This book has all the right elements to be popular - A fast-paced SF mystery thriller with supernatural elements and an engaging narrator named Mike EThis book has all the right elements to be popular - A fast-paced SF mystery thriller with supernatural elements and an engaging narrator named Mike Erikson with a unique ability, an eidetic (photographic) memory that allows him to recall all the minutest details of any event or moment in his life. He lives his life as an unremarkable high-school teacher, hiding his incredible ability and rejecting repeated invitations from his friend Reggie working for DARPA to use his abilities for the government. Mike has his reasons for avoiding using his skills, which are revealed over time.
However, he is finally lured into helping out by a top-secret government project in CA to develop a portal to allow instantaneous transportation from one point to another via an portal called the Albuquerque Door by folding space. Although the project scientists claim to have succeeded using the portal hundreds of time, they refuse to disclose the details until the project is ready for unveiling to the public, so Reggie suspects something is fishy, and when Mike arrives, he can immediately tell that the scientists are hiding something as they continue to assure him "nothing is wrong."
This type of mystery-thriller is build around the big reveal, and I find that such stories are often more interesting before we find out the big twist than afterward. The story written so efficiently and filled with clever pop-references and a host of lightly-sketched characters that are there to forward the plot that Peter Cline's background as a screenwriter comes as no surprise.
I can sometimes enjoy writers like Michael Crichton, Robert J. Sawyer, or John Scalzi that are adept at taking an intriguing concept, creating an exciting page-turning thriller, and making things so cinematic that it must be a breeze to adapt it to the big screen. However, in the same process they give up the biggest advantage that books have over films - in-depth world-building and more opportunity to create and get to know in-depth three-dimensional characters. Films have the advantage of visual artistry and kinetic action, but books can have greater depth of story. That's why I always come away from SF thrillers feeling like I was at the movies for a couple hours watching a fun spectacle and eating popcorn but come away a bit empty.
So while I did like the unique nature of the main character, the surrounding cast was very forgettable and the action that ensued once the true nature of the portal was revealed actually went in a fairly predictable direction and the fast-paced action of the final third didn't hold my attention. The ending in particular was a disappointment, especially the blatant signal that this could become a series. Even the pop-references were not nearly as much fun as those in Ernest Cline's Ready Player One, which was really just an 80s gamer/geek nostalgia trip, but was also a pretty exciting story and fairly original as well, though his follow up Armada was pretty terrible and revealed you can't plumb the same materials twice and hope for similar results.
In any case, while The Fold is a fun "summer read", I consider that a back-handed compliment. Why do we prefer our summer or beach reading to be lacking in depth? Just so we don't have to think too deeply? And who really reads a book at the beach in the hot sun anyway? I do like looking over the beach or poolside if I have a nice shady spot in a comfy chair in Waikiki for example. But I will reserve greater praise for books that explore their characters, ideas, or themes in greater depth....more
Quarantine: Cool quantum mechanics, pedestrian plot Originally posted at Fantasy Literature Greg Egan is an Australian writer of hard science fiction whQuarantine: Cool quantum mechanics, pedestrian plot Originally posted at Fantasy Literature Greg Egan is an Australian writer of hard science fiction who specializes in mathematics, epistemology, quantum theory, posthumanism, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, etc. When you pick up one of his books, you know you will be getting a fairly dense crash course in some pretty outlandish scientific and mathematical ideas, with the plot and characters coming second.
The cover blurb advertises Quarantine as “A Novel of Quantum Catastrophe,” and the back describes “an impenetrable gray shield that slid into place around the solar system on the night of November 15, 2034” causing riots and chaos. However, the book mainly takes place in Perth and New Hong Kong, which was relocated to Australia after the Chinese took over. So don’t expect too much galaxy-spanning space travel or conventional aliens. This book is about quantum physics, simultaneous ‘eigenstates’ when humans use neural ‘mods’ to ‘smear’ themselves before collapsing back into a single state of existence, erasing those infinite possibilities.
The story centers on private investigator Nick Stavrianos, who is asked by an anonymous client to investigate the disappearance of Linda Andrews, a brain damaged patient at the Hilgemann Institute who, one day, disappeared from her room without a trace. It’s a fairly typical scenario, designed to reveal elements of the plot as his investigation progresses. Surprise, surprise, this is not just a random disappearance, but the tip of a much more elaborate conspiracy by shadowy organizations to exploit the neural ‘mods’ that could blow the lid off our conventional reality quicker than you can say ‘cookie-cutter private-eye story about collapsing wave functions and reality-altering nanotech mods.’
The early part of Quarantine establishes the nanotech-filled world of the 21st century, brimming with technological wonders but also with religious mania and terrorism inspired by the Bubble that surrounds the solar system. It’s not a pleasant world, and technological espionage is commonplace. Once Nick and Linda’s backstories are established, the book delves into its main subject matter, a revolutionary new mod that could allow the user (the ‘observer’ in the Schrodinger’s Cat experiment) to choose from an infinite number of quantum probabilities while ‘smeared’ when the wave function collapses back into a single reality. If this can be controlled, the possibilities are unlimited — pursuing personal profit, improving the lot of society, or perhaps something much more radical.
Nick gets deeply embroiled in the conflicting factions seeking to control this mod, and the mechanism by which his loyalties are controlled is quite fascinating — one of the better ideas in the story. It’s not until things get extremely technical and complicated that we discover the connection between this reality-bending mod and the Bubble that mysteriously appeared at the beginning of the book.
I’ve always been interested in quantum mechanics, Multiple Worlds Theory, nanotech, etc., and all the mind-bending possibilities that these ideas entail. Egan spends enough pages explaining quantum ‘smearing’ and ‘collapsing’ that even a complete layman like myself, who loves hard science fiction ideas but hates differential equations and complex calculations, to understand the basics. As Egan explains in a very illustrative article on his blog (Quantum Mechanics and Quarantine), he chose a very unlikely interpretation of quantum mechanics and wave function collapse in order to make an exciting and imaginative science fiction novel. In general, I think he succeeds at this, though at the expense of in-depth characterization. If that appeals to you, by all means give Quarantine a try. Out of all the possible quantum probabilities, this is probably one of the better iterations.
Notes on the Audible Studios version:
When I discovered that you can get many of Egan’s books in Kindle and Audible versions for the COMBINED price of $4.98, I figured that was just too good to pass up. In particular I snapped up Quarantine, Permutation City, and Diaspora as promising titles. Then I noticed the ratings on Audible were surprisingly low (the low 3s), and discovered that most of the audiobook readers liked the books but pilloried the narrator Adam Epstein for being completely inept — boring, bad accents, painfully slow, mispronouncing words. No wonder its so cheap, I thought. Maybe this was a mistake. But I knew I could at least fix one thing, the overly-slow narration speed, by simply selecting 1.5x speed, my normal pace. Perhaps some listeners aren’t aware of that option.
Long story short, they were right that Adam Epstein is NOT a particularly good narrator, especially his atrocious Australian and Chinese accents and mispronouncing of words like Taoist (he read it as “T” rather than “D”) or ASEAN (he read it as “A-Shawn” instead of “As-ee-an”), which suggests he doesn’t listen to financial news at all. Surprisingly, I thought he soldiered through the technical parts fairly well, though they inevitably sounded like a textbook at times. However, I decided to forgive this since I am getting Greg Egan’s audiobooks for just $1.99 each....more
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