Sometimes I don't feel like writing up
full posts on books. Sometimes I want to write short notes about
things that aren't books. Here are a few things I came across
recently:
Physics of the Future
by Michio Kaku
So
recently I decided I wanted to try reading more pop science books to
bolster my sf reading. I have to stick to pop science because my
education in any practical science is decades old at this point and I
don't know how to read actual science writing. I may wade into
reading science journalism if I get the chance. I happened across
two books by Michio Kaku in the local used book store near the house
where I used to live and thought that these may be a good intro.
This book is basically a
prediction of what the next 100ish years might look like. I kinda
liked it for what it is except for three things. Kaku keeps using
the phrase “the push of a button” throughout the book to show how
easy it will be to do or obtain things. It just struck me that this
is an odd turn of phrase for a futurist to use because it seems
almost archaic already. There may be a more apt metaphor to use.
The second thing should not be so
surprising. It is his fixation on science as a means of solving all
of the worlds current and upcoming problems. He does point to some
serious problems that we will face, but it seems to me that many of
them will have social or political solutions rather than scientific
ones. He also tends to make broad historical generalizations (he
frequently praises innovations of antiquity that originate in the
West but not the East. He also credits Newton as the inventor of
calculus without mentioning Leibniz), and makes mistakes of
periodization.
Finally, he treats all scientific
progress as though it is inevitable and irreversible. In fact, he
specifically writes that there is no way to stop this progress. This
mainly wasn't a problem in the book as he wrote about potential
advances and their implications. However, he would editorialize from
time to time and it seemed to reduce the importance of nearly
everything except technological advancement and it placed us, now, at
an historical cusp. It put this generation at the center point of
human advancement and history. This seems misguidedly optimistic.
I liked the book in general and
found some interesting ideas in it. His speculations on the near,
and even mid-range future (the next 50-70 years-ish) seem accurate
and introduced me to a lot of existing tech that I did not know
about. The author evinces great credibility in scientific areas.
I'll reserve further judgment until I read the other book of his that
I bought.
Science Magazine podcast
After
listening to the great podcast Our Opinions are Correct ,
I decided to check out the Science Magazine
podcast that one of the hosts, Annalee Newitz, recommended. I really
like it. The episode that I listened to was about researching
Coronavirus vaccines and what might happen in the competition between
these different groups of scientists to develop one.
The
show is geared toward a general audience and brings in experts in the
field. The reporting is done by science writers who are good at
moderating the information and presenting it in an informative way.
Some of the content is follow up from the magazine such as interviews
with authors or other experts covered subject, and other content
seems independently driven. It is pretty good.
Red Moon
by Kim Stanley Robinson
KSR is
one of my favorite contemporary authors. His writing is crisp,
science is hard, and he always includes the political angles that are
left out by so many other authors. This is a great aspect of his
writing that I want to come back to later. (I intend to write a
series on his Mars
trilogy, maybe next year.) This book sorta fell to the background of
my reading this month. I enjoyed it and made my way through it but
didn't focus on it as much as I would have other work.
I had
originally hoped that this book would exist in the Mars
timeline based on the title, but it does not. The novel imagines a
near-future when the Moon is colonized and a lot of the international
tensions that currently exist on Earth are expanded/exported to the
Moon. It is a cool idea and, as always, the tech is really great.
Recommended read.
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