What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

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Sean Hayden
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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by Sean Hayden » Thu Nov 26, 2020 10:37 pm

Brian Peacock wrote:
Thu Nov 26, 2020 8:53 am
'Entangled Life' Jim, by Merlin Sheldrake (good druid name there). It's about fungi.
It is a kickass name innit?

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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by Sean Hayden » Thu Dec 10, 2020 3:16 am

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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by pErvinalia » Sat Jan 02, 2021 8:05 am

Reading Isaac Asimov's I Robot.

Sometime around the year 2030...
"Destroy all sixty-three [robots]," said the robopsychologist coldly and flatly, "and make an end of it."
Bogart drew back a corner of his mouth. "You mean destroy thirty thousand dollars per robot?"
Whoah there, that's some serious money! :hehe:
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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by JimC » Thu Jan 14, 2021 4:31 am

I'm re-reading an SF series by Julian May called the Saga of the Exiles, and a companion series, The Galactic Milieu. It's been a long time since I read them - they are still very interesting...
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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by Svartalf » Thu Jan 14, 2021 5:49 am

Don't have the pics, but my current reads are some collections of stories by Ramsey Cambell, likely best known for creating Goatswood and Brichester, and giving the Cthulhu mythos a country home in the Severn valley.
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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by Brian Peacock » Thu Jan 14, 2021 6:37 pm

JimC wrote:I'm re-reading an SF series by Julian May called the Saga of the Exiles, and a companion series, The Galactic Milieu. It's been a long time since I read them - they are still very interesting...
I read that in the 80s about the same time I read the Thomas Covenant series. Ah, thems were the days...
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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by JimC » Thu Jan 14, 2021 8:06 pm

Both series are big and lush, somewhat overblown perhaps, but still of the first rank, IMO...
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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by Woodbutcher » Fri Jan 15, 2021 12:28 am

Calvin and Hobbes.
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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by Tero » Fri Jan 15, 2021 2:44 am

Woodbutcher wrote:
Fri Jan 15, 2021 12:28 am
Calvin and Hobbes.
Image
https://esapolitics.blogspot.com
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Said Peter...what you're requesting just isn't my bag
Said Daemon, who's sorry too, but y'see we didn't have no choice
And our hands they are many and we'd be of one voice
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Our case for survival before it's too late

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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by pErvinalia » Fri Jan 15, 2021 3:13 am

Weeeeirrrrd Laannguaagge
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"The Western world is fucking awesome because of mostly white men" - DaveDodo007.
"Socialized medicine is just exactly as morally defensible as gassing and cooking Jews" - Seth. Yes, he really did say that..
"Seth you are a boon to this community" - Cunt.
"I am seriously thinking of going on a spree killing" - Svartalf.

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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by Tero » Fri Jan 15, 2021 3:41 am

We are not stingy with vowels. When you have long vowel you write 2. Same with consonants.
https://esapolitics.blogspot.com
http://esabirdsne.blogspot.com/
Said Peter...what you're requesting just isn't my bag
Said Daemon, who's sorry too, but y'see we didn't have no choice
And our hands they are many and we'd be of one voice
We've come all the way from Wigan to get up and state
Our case for survival before it's too late

Turn stone to bread, said Daemon Duncetan
Turn stone to bread right away...

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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by Tero » Fri Jan 15, 2021 2:51 pm

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143110373?ps ... ct_details

BOOK REVIEW:
A rather "soft" review of technology and how it affects your life

On page 170 Kevin Kelly gets to echo chambers. We are currently experiencing a bit of a shake up with righ-wingers and libertarians, the militant type, having no place to scream their loss of a leader who expressed the outrage they had for the left, or even the mainstream of politics.

This sort of negative stuff about the Internet is mainly left out of the book. The chapters are well thought out, so you will find this sort of tracking by those who track (gov't et al) listed in the chapter titled Tracking.

Technology has reached most of the world, though we in the developed world have a much bigger quantity available to us. The farmer in India, as mentioned in the book, may not have running water, but he does have a cell phone.

Crowd sourcing in promoted in the book, as is free software. The communities in the world are connected and are creating a lot of this stuff you borrow from the internet. You do not own much of it, you share.

Examples of crowd sourcing and everyday life are listed, connecting the on-line world to the real world. We are experiencing some of it as we pick up groceries during the pandemic, after ordering it on line. I hope my vaccination will be similarly organized, as we drive though to get vaccinated. If the pandemic drags on, band will start giving concerts on line, with you donating a few dollars of your choosing to hear the concert. Some bands already give out free music, with you deciding what

I said the book is light on the hardware part. It explain what is possible, how servers are connected to give you a streaming feed without interruption. But little is explained about technical side and its vulnerabilities. As independent as we are, we are still dependent on internet providers and our phone provider to keep in touch with the world.

I use an iPhone and I use Windows computers. I still pay for those. I am even stuck using them, as I cannot stand how the cursor and typing works on Android devices. So the free stuff in the book may or may not arrive. We may even see the lower income people lose some services as the rest of us keep paying for our instant news and entertainment.

The future is not really mapped out that well in the book. The fact that you could carry all the music ever produced in your pocket 20 years later may be true (he says to keep it in the cloud) but other aspects of the real world will rule what we get in ten years. You would need an economist as well as a biologist to flesh out the physical world a little better. What happens to homelessness, food supply and all that?

Still, it did help for him to focus on the positive. it will be necessary to just go along with these changes. Otherwise you will be stuck in some resistance echo chamber and will not be able to keep up with the world and interact in a normal way.
https://esapolitics.blogspot.com
http://esabirdsne.blogspot.com/
Said Peter...what you're requesting just isn't my bag
Said Daemon, who's sorry too, but y'see we didn't have no choice
And our hands they are many and we'd be of one voice
We've come all the way from Wigan to get up and state
Our case for survival before it's too late

Turn stone to bread, said Daemon Duncetan
Turn stone to bread right away...

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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by Tero » Fri Jan 15, 2021 3:10 pm

Agree with other reviewer:
Mr. Cliff P. Harris
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but the author lives in a tech elite bubble.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 30, 2016
Verified Purchase
Its an interesting read, but nothing ground-breaking. The real problem is that its written entirely in the bubble of a silicon valley member of the tech elite. So its INEVITABLE that we will have cheaper technology, more sensors, fastyer communications, more data. There is apparently no downside or no limit. This takes zero consideration of environmental and economic factors. Increasing inequality, resource constraints and climate change mean that the tech-paradise the author suggests is inevitable may be inevitable for a tiny tiny percentage of the worlds population.

An interesting book if you want to know the future of palo alto, but I'd recommend al gores 'the future' if you want a more global and less rose-tinted view of real future developments.
https://esapolitics.blogspot.com
http://esabirdsne.blogspot.com/
Said Peter...what you're requesting just isn't my bag
Said Daemon, who's sorry too, but y'see we didn't have no choice
And our hands they are many and we'd be of one voice
We've come all the way from Wigan to get up and state
Our case for survival before it's too late

Turn stone to bread, said Daemon Duncetan
Turn stone to bread right away...

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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by macdoc » Thu Jan 21, 2021 10:00 am

Image

and

Image

Sometimes the winners don't always write the history... :coffee:
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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by Tero » Thu Jan 21, 2021 12:03 pm

Jeez, that Hämäläinen book is a brick. I gave it to my son one Christmas. I think he read the introduction and traded it back after Christmas.

Here is a brief history of native americans.
https://www.amazon.com/North-American-I ... 896&sr=8-1
https://esapolitics.blogspot.com
http://esabirdsne.blogspot.com/
Said Peter...what you're requesting just isn't my bag
Said Daemon, who's sorry too, but y'see we didn't have no choice
And our hands they are many and we'd be of one voice
We've come all the way from Wigan to get up and state
Our case for survival before it's too late

Turn stone to bread, said Daemon Duncetan
Turn stone to bread right away...

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