My Library Thing

I decided to make a librarything page to keep track of all the books I have read. I entered everything I could off the top of my head, and I think I've got most of the recent ones. I can't believe how small a number it is. It's sad how many great books out there that I may never have enough time to read. If nothing else, this is why we need to find out a way to live forever.

Greg Egan: Best Sci-Fi Writer of Recent Times?

Greg Egan is the man. So far I've had the pleasure of reading Permutation City, Diaspora, and just recently, Distress. These books are full of so many mind-bending ideas each that it makes most other books you read a bore. Very few authors that I've read have the ability to take advanced (and pretty accurate) math and physics and mold them into genuine stories with deep character development. So many times I'll be reading a book and I'll think, "Come on man just take this idea to the extreme. What do you have to lose?" Greg Egan takes ideas to the extreme and makes them work. If you are interested in math, physics, technology, computing, and the far future, pick up some Greg Egan and thank me later.

Slaughterhouse-Five

I finished reading Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five yesterday. I enjoyed it very much, covering the 224 pages in two sittings. I try to give my reading rotation a variety of selections. I enjoy sci-fi the most, but I throw in non-fiction, educational, and out of my norm books as much as possible. This book satisfied what I will call my classic requirement.

It was absolutely depressing as hell while at the same time it had me laughing hysterically. I guess you are supposed to walk away from the book with an anti-war, anti-violence, things happen for a reason and you can't change it type of message. While I agree to some degree with the anti-war and anti-violence, at least in the main context of the book which is unnecessary war and violence, I couldn't help but feel frustrated with Billy's lack of motivation to try and change the negative things in his life. The only action he took to try and do something useful with his situation was to tell other people about it. He does spin it off in a positive light, stating that even when a person dies, they are still alive at some other point in time and always will be. That just doesn't cut it for me. I would have tried to change things every time I could for the better. Instead, Billy shrugs and goes on in his indifferent sort of way. I suppose this shows how much war can break a man's spirit.

Anyhow, it was a good read, very different and entertaining. I'll certainly be giving some more of Mr. Vonnegut's works a go. I leave you with a quote from the book, the scene is Billy being given a female to mate with in his cage on an alien world where he is a zoo exhibit: "Montana was naked, and so was Billy, of course. He had a tremendous wang, incidentally. You never know who'll get one."


So it goes...

Singularity or Biological Life Extension?

I'm reading a book by the title, "Designer Evolution: A Transhumanist Manifesto." It is about transhumanism but solely from the philosophical side. It is a little bit preachy, but I just happen to agree with almost everything Young has to say. I generally focus on the technical side so it is a much needed change in perspective as well. Anyhow, it got me to thinking about biological life extension a la Aubrey De Grey and the singularity. There is no mention of the singularity in the book just yet and I wonder if the author is aware of and interested in it. It seems there is a bit of a dichotomy between those interested in biological life extension and those seeking let's call it silicon-human integration. Do these two camps meet up and talk? Do they share similar ideas? Are they really on the same page, but I just haven't read enough about them all yet?

I've also been thinking about which will come first. I wonder if humans will have achieved drastically increased biological lifespans before a singularity event occurs. A singularity may or may not bring about increased lifespans whether they be carbon or silicon is unknown. Would people rather live in a biological body but keep a backup of their mind a la Cory Doctorow? I'd wager it might be that way at first, but eventually people (beings) will migrate towards a fully virtual lifestyle.

And if someone blogs a blog on blogger but no one is around to read it, does it really exist on the interwebs? Oh well....

The Chronoliths

I just finished reading Robert Charles Wilson's, The Chronoliths. It's a sci-fi book about these huge monuments made of some exotic/frozen/indestructible substance that are violently appearing all across Asia. They are apparently shrines to a military leader named "Kuin" and they are inscribed with writing commemorating conquests 20 years in the future. More accurately the book is about a man, Scott, who finds his life intertwined in these events. It was a wonderful story. The characters were supremely developed and the plot moved along briskly. The physics of the time travel was kept at a "pop" level through the clever use of a first person POV from Scott in which he declared his understanding was only at that level. However, the book came up short in the end. I won't ruin the ending, but I just found the time travel logic way too faulty. It was almost as if Wilson hadn't thought it through, which is hard to believe when you see how much thought he puts into the characters.

I had essentially the same experience with his other work that I read not too long ago, Spin. The stories are quite similar in nature and both were beautifully written. I just need more resolution at the end. There is a huge sci-fi build up in both stories , and both leave you thinking, "Ehhh I dunno about that." Great reads certainly. A more human relationship-centric story than sci-fi, but slight let downs at the end.