1886 réponses à ce sujet

[Swagger7]

I just came across an excellent short article by Isaac Asimov while I was looking for his account of this event:

"My favorite example [of silly literary criticism] is the one Isaac Asimov cited, where he attended a
class on one of his books and stood up at the end to explain to the
English Lit professor that his interpretation was not the one that he
(Asimov) had intended.  The English professor then proceded to tell
Asimov that he wasn't qualified to explain the meaning in his own work
because he hadn't had the proper training in literary criticism!"

Anyways, the article is called "The Relativity of Wrong" and deals with how science improves its understanding of things over time with the addition of new data.  It also addresses the common argument of "If science got x, y and z wrong in the past how do we know anything they say today is right?"  To get a taste of the prose just look at my sig.  I found one of the article's quotes amusing.  It's a very short read (5mins) and is interesting on a number of fronts.  I'd highly recommend that anyone who finds the subject at all interesting give it a shot:

http://chem.tufts.ed...vityofwrong.htm


(By the way if anyone knows where to find the account of Asimov and the English Lit prof I'd be much obliged.)

EDIT:  It's been a week, and I just realized that I typed his name as Isaac Simov in the first sentence. 

Modifié par Swagger7, 12 janvier 2013 - 11:31 .

[Lady Mortho]

Confessions of an accentidal Duchess

[Tiina]

Astronomica

[King_of_the_Apez]

Robert A. Heinlein - Methuselah`s Children
Anne Rice - Memnoch the Devil

[mousestalker]

David McCullough- Truman

[Cutlass Jack]

Just finished the Eli Monpress series by Rachel Aarron. It was incredibly good. If you like clever rogues, magic, and fantasy you might enjoy this series as much as I did. Was a real surprise to me since I grabbed it on a whim.

Currently reading The Rook by Daniel O'Malley. Its also turning out to be better than I anticipated. Its about a british agency that deals with supernatural threats. The overall premise to this book and its hero is spectacular, I'm hoping it ends up as good as it started.

[RinuCZ]

I'm reading GrounTies by Jane S. Fancher.
It was praised by C.J.Cherryh. I have read a couple of her books and liked how extensively she tends to describe things, so I gave it a try. It barks a lot of undefined terms and names at the beginning of book but I got used to it (a crib helped ). I'm not very impressed but I haven't gone too far (1/3) to judge it fairly.

My "read-books rate" has been terrible lately. I tend to spend a majority of time with weekly magazines; something I want to change in 2013.

Modifié par RinuCZ, 08 janvier 2013 - 12:55 .

[RinuCZ]

Swagger7 wrote...
I just came across an excellent short article by Isaac Simov while I was looking for his account of this event:
...

I so agree with that. I had a chat about this with a friend month ago. My stance was that there is nothing wrong if someone proves that a currently accepted theory is invalid and the goal of science should be to push such limits to test its discoveries. What we believe is what has been proven as the most plausible for now; it's not an absolute truth.
The problem was that she is the faithful and thinks that a revelation of shortcomings means it's a fake and it proves her belief. We ended our debate that we agree to disageee. It was an interesting argumentation exercise yet long and kind of exhausting .

Modifié par RinuCZ, 08 janvier 2013 - 01:03 .

[ThePinkFoxx]

Currently working my way through the Song of Ice and Fire Series.

[MASSEFFECTfanforlife101]

My Feed

[Fiddles dee dee]

L'Ingènu by Voltaire

[mousestalker]

Michael Tolle - What Killed Downtown?

[Fallstar]

A Memory of Light of course.

[Swagger7]

RinuCZ wrote...

Swagger7 wrote...
I just came across an excellent short article by Isaac Simov while I was looking for his account of this event:
...

I so agree with that. I had a chat about this with a friend month ago. My stance was that there is nothing wrong if someone proves that a currently accepted theory is invalid and the goal of science should be to push such limits to test its discoveries. What we believe is what has been proven as the most plausible for now; it's not an absolute truth.
The problem was that she is the faithful and thinks that a revelation of shortcomings means it's a fake and it proves her belief. We ended our debate that we agree to disageee. It was an interesting argumentation exercise yet long and kind of exhausting .

This is an argument I've had far too many times myself.  So many people associate personal assuredness with how true something is, and fail to realise that properly applied skepticism and doubt actually strengthen a position by cutting away the bull.

[Swagger7]

I'm currently reading Count to a Trillion by John C. Wright.  It's sort of a modern take on old school space opera.  Here's a short summary of what's happned so far:

A man grows up in post apocalyptic Texas (there were wars over religion that used bioweapons which got out of hand) and becomes a lawyer/pistol duelist.  He's some sort of prodigy and gets recruited to join a long interstellar sleeper flight arranged by some of the few governments remaining.  A robotic probe sent out in better times to investigate an antimatter star also found an ancient alien monolyth floating in space with symbols and writing on it.  the prupose of the trip is to study the monument and collect an enormous amount of antimatter.  The main character (Menelaus Montrose) believes that only a posthuman intelligence can decifer the monolyth, so he tries to augment his brain using untested research.  He goes crazy and spends the entire trip in cryostasis. 

Upon waking up back on Earth, Menelaus finds out that his friend (the ship's pilot) took over after the captain went mad and protected Menelaus's sleeping chamber from crewmen who wanted to steal parts off it when the ship was in a dire situation.  After returning to Earth they found it even more messed up than it had been in the years before they launched.  Menelaus's friend used the antimatter to make himself the ruler of Earth and bring an end to all the fighting and chaos. 

That's where I'm at right now.  It's a rather odd story so far, one of those where you kind of like it but can't really recommend it to anyone else, because you're not really sure why you like it.  I'll post my closing comments when I finish it, then it's on to Red Country by Joe Abercrombie.  It's been too long since I've read fantasy.

This is assuming I don't get sidelined by something else.  No reading list survives contact with the library, and I work at the library. 

[Addai]

For my light reading I just finished Exile by R.A. Salvatore. I never played D & D or NWN or Baldur's Gate, it's all new to me.



I'm going to try to go back to The Dwarves by Markus Heitz now.  I started it, but got daunted at the length and quit.

Modifié par Addai67, 13 janvier 2013 - 02:12 .

[mousestalker]

Pierre Pevel - The Cardinal's Blades

It has dragons and musketeers. What else does it need?

Edit: one fourth of the way in and I am hooked. No romances yet, but lots of intrigue.

Modifié par mousestalker, 13 janvier 2013 - 04:00 .

[TJPags]

DuskWarden wrote...

A Memory of Light of course.

Just finished it a few hours ago.

[mousestalker]

Markus Heitz - War of the Dwarves

I started on the series due to Addai67's reference above. What helped getting through the first book was skipping any and all references to women dwarves' facial hair, regardless of how downy it is supposed to be. Hopefully this one will have far fewer descriptions.

They do read as though they are straight out of Dungeons and Dragons. I may wind up putting this one down and reading the latest Sharon Shinn book instead.

[Hainkpe]

Finished Finding Nouf by Zoe Ferraris. Started Three Thousand Miles for a Wish by Safiya Hussain.

I love Arabic women writers.

Next will be What We Learned Along the Way by Nadirah Angail.

[Kaiser Arian XVII]

Three of books I'm in the middle of them:
Mencius
Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle
Da vita Caesarum by Suentius (translated)

And I'm noting important parts of a history book.

[TheRealJayDee]

Recently finished:

Hyperion - Dan Simmons
The Forever War - Joe Haldemann

Reading now:

Starship Troopers - Robert A. Heinlein

Up next:

The Fall of Hyperion - Dan Simmons
The Stars My Destination - Alfred Bester
Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke

Modifié par TheRealJayDee, 16 janvier 2013 - 07:06 .

[Polyhymnia]

I enjoyed the hyperion series but could not get into Ilium.
I've just started Ubik by Philip K. Dick. I am enjoying it so far.

Modifié par Polyhymnia, 16 janvier 2013 - 07:18 .

[Fiddles dee dee]

Currently critiquing a thesis on Lovecraft so dusting off the Mountains of Madness and generally terrifying myself.