Sunday Morning Book Thread - 08-13-2023 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

(HT: Iris)

Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading. Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material. As always, pants are required, unless you are wearing these pants...

So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

PIC NOTE

Not much to say other than this is a cake made to look like a library. It's almost a shame to eat it. Thanks to 'ette Iris for sending it in!

FROM THE NONFICTION PILE--Physics of the Future

I've spent the past several weeks discussing series of fictional stories. Let's switch over to nonfiction for a bit. In a way, this is just putting into practice that C.S. Lewis quote posted on the wall of a used bookstore in Arkansas:

"It is a good rule after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between."

I've been reading new (well, new to me, at least) books, so in preparation for today's little commentary, I went back and read an old book: Physics of the Future: How Science will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100 by physicist and futurist Michio Kaku. It's what I would classify as a "popular science" book written for people who know little about science, but are interested in learning more. There are no complex equations or formulas involved. Mostly, Kaku is just extrapolating future applications of technology from how it existed in 2010-2011, when the book was written. Seeing as we are now over a decade into the future of the book, it's interesting to see which, if any, of Kaku's predictions are starting to come true.

Each chapter covers a different area of science, such as the future of computers, of medicine, of nanotechnology, of energy, and so on. Within each chapter, he breaks down the future outlook of each area into three phases: the near future (up through 2030), the mid-future (2030-2070), and the distant future, which in this case means only up to the year 2100.

In his chapter on computers, for example, he mentions that Moore's Law, which dictates the increase in computing power over time will begin to slow down around 2030, as there are physical limitations to how small current fabrication techniques can manufacture transistors, the primary component of integrated circuits. Once the transistors reach atomic scales, quantum mechanical effects take over, causing a number of issues as electrons start leaking all over the place. If you've been paying attention to Pixy's daily Tech Threads, he's mentioned that engineers are beginning to fabricate 2-nanometer scale circuits. Note that this only about 20 times bigger than a hydrogen atom. So we may be closing in on the end of Moore's Law as we know it in the next few years. Other technologies, such as quantum computing, or optical computing, or even holographic computing, will need to be developed in order to make significant leaps in computing power in the future.

Kaku has gone all in on global warming, even as far back as 2010, so he does spend some time discussing how it's a problem that needs to be addressed with new technologies. However, he is at least realistic enough to admit that any proposed solutions, such as blocking out the sun with nanoparticles, might lead to unpleasant unintended consequences, so great care should be used in distributing this technology to "save the planet." Kaku, a physicist, is pretty gung-ho on the future of fusion power and believes we will eventually make it work. There have been recent articles about the National Ignition Facility's attempts to generate fusion power using laser beams. Apparently there have been a couple of instances where more energy was released than was required to start the fusion cycle, if only for a very brief instant.

Michio Kaku is very optimistic about the future and believes humanity will make it to the year 2100 more or less intact, though maybe enhanced by genetic, nanotech, or computational factors. In the end, once all of humanity's main problems are solved, we will crave wisdom more than anything. He says that "wisdom comes from reasoned and informed democratic debate from opposing sides" (350) As we see today, that state of society no longer exists in America, so the prediction that we will become a more reasoned, rational and wise society with technological advances has not yet proven true. If anything, the global elites are hell-bent on taking us backward to a nineteenth- or early twentieth-century standard of living.

Physics of the Future is a thought-provoking look at the state of the technology in the world today, especially when you can see how some of it is already starting to come true, both good and bad.

Kaku, M. (2011). Physics of the future: How science will shape human destiny in our daily lives by the year 2100. Doubleday.

(HT: Peter Zah)

MORON WRITERS GROUP!

OrangeEnt is willing to set up an AoSHQ Writers' Group! Anyone interested in participating can drop him a line at maildrop62 -at- proton -dot- me.

He's not quite sure how this will be set up, but I'm sure y'all can work out the details. I've only participated in writers' groups during graduate school a few years ago. I will admit they did help. It's always nice to have a different perspective read one's writing. If nothing else, they can help you find the stupid mistakes that we all tend to gloss over in our own writing projects.

BOOKS BY MORONS

Moron Author Blaine McCants has a series out now that may be of interest to some of you...

[W]hen Covid hit, and I found myself bored and retired and housebound, I finally wrote a trilogy firmly in the H. Beam Piper Paratime tradition. The first volume [The Hands that Rock the Triggers - PS] is now out, on Kindle Unlimited. I have pasted a link below. Tolstoy it ain't, or even Goncharov, but I think it's competently crafted. The other two volumes in the trilogy are A Switch in Times and The Scum also Rises.

The Hand that Rocks the Triggers

Comment: This sounds like a fun series. It's an alternate history story where George III choked to death in 1767, meaning the next couple of hundred years played out very differently in America. Blaine McCants has had a very colorful career in the intelligence community, which no doubt influences the stories in surprising ways.

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

I am reading The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell, which is a novel set in India at the time of the Great Mutiny and told from the POV of the British residents living in an isolated outpost in Northern India. I'm not far into it so haven't yet formed an opinion, but Farrell is very good at invoking the desolation and boredom in these colonial outposts. And the heat - all these Brits sweltering in their uniforms, frock coats and long dresses. And no deodorant or AC.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&&V at August 06, 2023 09:18 AM (HabA/)

Comment: From what I can tell by reading other stories involving British colonialism, the British were very keen on bringing their "Britishness" with them to their colonies. They were also keen on bringing the latest fashions from Britain with them. Yes, it was no doubt horrible, but if the natives saw Britishness and were impressed by it, then the colonists considered that a good thing. It wasn't entirely a bad thing, either, as the famous story involving General Napier demonstrates. He helped put a stop to the ugly practice of suttee in India, where widows were expected to throw themselves on the funeral pyre of their dead husbands.

"Best of all, the [Kwajalein] locals were used to things being blown up and were perhaps more accepting of a group of unproven twentysomethings and a dot-com millionaire appearing on the scene with a big metal tube full of liquid explosives and crossed fingers." -- When the Heavens Went On Sale by Ashlee Vance

The book begins with SpaceX's string of failures before its successful launch of the Falcon 1 in 2008. But it isn't about Elon Musk, it's about the small players who fill in the gap left by Musk when he decided to focus on heavy rocketry and human space flight. Small companies like Planet Labs, Rocket Lab, Astra, and Firefly are fighting against the trends of decades-old zero-defects culture and the elephantine bulk of regulations, codes, and procedures that grew every time something went wrong.

There's a big chunk on Pete Worden, the Air Force general and general gadfly who refashioned NASA Ames into Silicon Valley scientific hotspot.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at August 06, 2023 09:16 AM (i4tOF)

Comment: The commercialization of space exploration is a massive game changer for the human race, even though NASA and other government entities don't like it. Too bad, so sad. Musk's efforts remind me of a character from Stephen Baxtern's Manifold series, named Reid Malenfant. Malenfant also used his considerable talents to open up space travel and exploration because he, too, saw humanities future among the stars. Malenfant then goes on extraordinary adventures to the ends of time and space.

I just finished Radio's Greatest of All Time: Rush Limbaugh, transcripts from his show and testimonials compiled by his wife and his brother David. It made me sad because I miss Rush, but I was struck by what a kind, generous person he was. I remembered a lot of the segments, even ones from decades ago, which is also a testament to the MahaRushie.

Posted by: Norrin Radd at August 06, 2023 10:30 AM (PD6x0)

Comment: There's no question that Rush Limbaugh was a transformative personality. He was highly charismatic and a gifted communicator, able to distill complicated politics into terms that anyone could understand. And yes, he was a very generous man as well. I believe he was humbled by the tremendous opportunities he had received, so he felt obligated to "pay it forward" through numerous charities and gifts to those less fortunate. We shall never see his like again.

More Moron-recommended reading material can be found HERE! (914 Moron-recommended books so far!)

WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:

• Gideon's Corpse by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child -- Gideon Crew must stop a nuclear weapon from detonating in ten days. Or millions of Americans will die.
• Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100 by Michio Kaku -- Dr. Kaku attempts to project current technology (2011) well into the future. Now that we are decade past the time when it was written, it's interesting to see what predictions, if any, are starting to come true or have already materialized.
• The Lost Island by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child -- Apparently taking inspiration from the movie National Treasure, Gideon Crew must steal a page from Ireland's greatest national treasure, The Book of Kells, and discovers a hidden treasure map that takes him to the Mosquito Coast, where he finds a revelation that may change human history.
• Beyond the Ice Limit by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child -- Gideon Crew must dive two miles beneath the Antarctic Ocean to destroy the meteorite discovered in The Ice Limit. It's a bit surreal reading this in light of the recent undersea disaster of OceanGate.
• The Pharaoh Key by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child -- Gideon Crew must travel to the remotest region of Egypt to discover an artifact that threatens to alter the course of human destiny.
• The Changing Land by Roger Zelazny -- Exactly what it says on the cover. Weirdness galore. A mad god's dream.

That's about all I have for this week. Thank you for all of your kind words regarding the Sunday Morning Book Thread. This is a very special place. You are very special people (in all the best ways!). The kindness, generosity, and wisdom of the Moron Horde knows no bounds. Let's keep reading!

If you have any suggestions for improvement, reading recommendations, or discussion topics that you'd like to see on the Sunday Morning Book Thread, you can send them to perfessor dot squirrel at-sign gmail dot com. Your feedback is always appreciated! You can also take a virtual tour of OUR library at libib.com/u/perfessorsquirrel. Since I added sections for AoSHQ, I now consider it OUR library, rather than my own personal fiefdom...

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