What Are You Currently Reading?

[SteveF]

Reading Schilds Ladder by Greg Egan. It involves oodles of quantum theory and makes my brain hurt.

[The Curtmudgeon]

... and makes my brain hurt.

And you do this for fun.

The (whatever floats your boat) Curtmudgeon

[SteveF]

And you do this for fun.

The (whatever floats your boat) Curtmudgeon

Not usually no. I love Sci-Fi and am generally don't mind "hard Sci-Fi", but this is hard, hard, hard Sci Fi. He has an accompanying webpage for the book, with some associated technical notes linked to at the bottom:

http://gregegan.customer.netspace.ne...LD/SCHILD.html

I've read some layman level quantum theory stuff, but this has been a bit of a struggle at times. Still, I'm glad I've persisted as it's got some really cool mind-expanding stuff in it and the pace has really started to pick up.

[One Bad Pig]

Reading Schilds Ladder by Greg Egan. It involves oodles of quantum theory and makes my brain hurt.

Ooh, I might have to pick that one up.

[SteveF]

Ooh, I might have to pick that one up.

It's part of the future classics series; SciFi books released in the last decade or so, that are likely to be classics in the future:

http://www.orionbooks.co.uk/custom-l...uture_classics

I recommend it. From the series, I've also read Hyperion and Revelation Space, both of which are stunning and Altered Carbon, which is pretty good.

[One Bad Pig]

It's part of the future classics series; SciFi books released in the last decade or so, that are likely to be classics in the future:

http://www.orionbooks.co.uk/custom-l...uture_classics

I recommend it. From the series, I've also read Hyperion and Revelation Space, both of which are stunning and Altered Carbon, which is pretty good.

Hyperion and Revelation Space were good. I haven't come across Altered Carbon.

[NeilUnreal]

The Long Emergency by James Howard Kunstler, a novel set in a hypothetical post-peak oil America.

The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke

-Neil

[Mark F]

The Long Emergency by James Howard Kunstler, a novel set in a hypothetical post-peak oil America.

Maybe you're confusing The Long Emergency (nonfiction) with A World Made by Hand (novel), also by Kunstler? I've read TLE too, and think it should be mandatory reading for all adults. An excellent introduction to Peak Oil. I'm thinking about ordering AWMBH too, although I expect things will be somewhat different where I live.

[NeilUnreal]

Maybe you're confusing The Long Emergency (nonfiction) with A World Made by Hand (novel), also by Kunstler? I've read TLE too, and think it should be mandatory reading for all adults. An excellent introduction to Peak Oil. I'm thinking about ordering AWMBH too, although I expect things will be somewhat different where I live.

Oops! You're right; I was reading A World Made by Hand and was intending to buy The Long Emergency yesterday. I did finish A World Made by Hand yesterday, and I did buy The Long Emergency yesterday. So now yesterday's message is at least partially correct.

A World Made by Hand was very good, though a bit poignant and sad. I wish it had been longer, yet I think that would also have made it a less powerful novel in many ways. Part of its virtue lies in the fact that it is a kind of "snapshot" in time of a community in change. In some ways it reminded me of the film The Village -- of course not in subject matter, but in tone.

Kunstler is one of my favorite authors. I think his works on suburban geography are priceless; I've never looked at the world in the same way since reading them.

-Neil

[Mark F]

A World Made by Hand was very good, though a bit poignant and sad. I wish it had been longer, yet I think that would also have made it a less powerful novel in many ways. Part of its virtue lies in the fact that it is a kind of "snapshot" in time of a community in change. In some ways it reminded me of the film The Village -- of course not in subject matter, but in tone.

Kunstler is one of my favorite authors. I think his works on suburban geography are priceless; I've never looked at the world in the same way since reading them.

I like Kunstler too, partly because his visions of a post-industrial neo-rural society appeal to my romantic nature and he's quite gifted rhetorically. He makes me thank God for not living in the suburbs. But for fairness' sake, it should be noted that his back to small scale farming scenario is not expected by all peak oil experts; see for example this Oil Drum article.

One interesting aspect is that Kunstler seems to believe in a re-invigoration of traditional Christianity after the oil crash, unlike many doomers who appear to expect some kind of a revival for new age like "natural spiritualism". I think that will vary from region to region; in any case, many people will certainly seek more spiritual answers after materialism has let them down.

[Adrift]

Just got done reading 4 Gospels 1 Jesus. Now reading Jesus Under Fire by Michael J. Wilkins, and J.P. Moreland.

[NeilUnreal]

It was interesting to open The Long Emergency and find, facing chapter one, a quote by G. K. Chesterton which mirrors a thread running through all of Kunstler's works:

"The fatal metaphor of progress, which means leaving things behind us, has utterly obscured the real idea of growth, which means leaving things inside us."

Perhaps not surprisingly, I now notice that this same idea recurs in other authors I enjoy, among them Christopher Alexander and John McPhee. Rather than being stamped out of an ideal form, real things are grown and embody their own genesis and even eventual death. This is true whether they are “natural” things like plants or “artificial” things like livable towns and buildings.

In many ways this is what World Made by Hand is about: trading artificial highs and soma-numbed lows for genuine joy and the genuine pain which is its unavoidable companion in this world. A “world made by hand” implies a scarred and calloused hand, yet a hand that feels both the hard and soft edges of life for itself, and not at the remove of a pane of glass, be it in the glass in a television, an automobile, or an isolating window.

-Neil

[Mark F]

Just got done reading 4 Gospels 1 Jesus. Now reading Jesus Under Fire by Michael J. Wilkins, and J.P. Moreland.

Haven't read either, maybe one day I'll get to. While I haven't studied NT apologetics very extensively yet, I can't resist recommending Jesus Legend, by Greg Boyd and Paul Eddy, which I'm currently reading. It is very well researched (this admitted by none other than the Christ-skeptic par excellence, Robert M. Price) and builds a solid case for the historical reliability of the synoptic Jesus narratives, using e.g. the latest results of oral tradition studies.

[Adrift]

Haven't read either, maybe one day I'll get to. While I haven't studied NT apologetics very extensively yet, I can't resist recommending Jesus Legend, by Greg Boyd and Paul Eddy, which I'm currently reading. It is very well researched (this admitted by none other than the Christ-skeptic par excellence, Robert M. Price) and builds a solid case for the historical reliability of the synoptic Jesus narratives, using e.g. the latest results of oral tradition studies.

Awesome. I'll put it on my list. When was it published?

[nomad]

Just started _the myth of the rational voter_ by bryan caplan. His thesis is that voters don't vote in their own best interest, because the externalities of what they are voting for are felt to be borne mostly by others. An interesting thesis, but I haven't gotten far into it yet.