Category: Weblogs
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Godel Operation Interview by Paul Semel
As I mentioned in my last post, I've been doing a lot of interviews and soliciting plenty of reviews for the release week of The Godel Operation. This is to make sure that people who might like the book hear about it — and I think a lot of people will like the book. All…
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Godel Operation Minus One
Eight . . . seven . . . six . . . The promotional juggernaut for The Godel Operation rolls on with one day left before the official release date for the book. If you like you can read Marshal Zeringue's "Q & A" interview with me about it on the Campaign for the American…
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Godel Operation Minus Two
Counting down now to launch. One early promotional effort: my guest article at the 'blog My Book, The Movie — in which I discuss who would be best to play the characters in The Godel Operation if it ever makes it to the screen. You can read it here. Writing that piece was surprisingly difficult.…
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Godel Operation Minus 10
Ten days from now is the official publication date of The Godel Operation. The clocks are running, the pumps are powering up, and the gantry has been rolled back. Be sure to get a copy because this launch is going to be spectacular. If you want to read more about The Godel Operation, see my…
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Hanson on Fermi
I've posted at great length on the Fermi Paradox — the simple question "Where are they?" in regard to extraterrestrial civilizations. One element of that paradox is simply that the time it would take for an expanding civilization to spread across the Galaxy is relatively short in geological terms. Or so we assume. Now Robin…
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Son of Great Filters
Robin Hanson, who invented the term "Great Filter" in the first place, comes back to the topic in his own blog for a look at a couple of neglected aspects of the topic. You can read his whole post here. One of the key issues he raises is whether or not a given planet (for…
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A Prediction
If you read this article — "The Bias that Divides Us," by Keith Stanovich — you will nod sagely about the cognitive bias it describes. And then you will spend ten or fifteen minutes reassuring yourself that you aren't affected by it.
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Hanson Again
No, I don't have some kind of Internet stalker crush on Robin Hanson. I know I've spent six weeks writing 'blog posts about an idea he had a decade ago, but that doesn't prove anything. Posting a link to a recent piece by him about technological progress (or the lack thereof) doesn't prove anything either.…
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A Pirate’s Life for Me!
With the approach of Talk Like a Pirate day (Sept. 19) I'm pleased to be able to talk about pirates. In this case, space pirates. Baen Books has just released a new anthology of classic space-pirate yarns, called Cosmic Corsairs. It's edited by Hank Davis and Christopher Ruocchio, and features some excellent piratical science fiction…
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New Story at the Decameron Project
Seven centuries ago, the Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio wrote a series of stories, presented as tales told by a group of travelers seeking refuge from the Black Death in a house near Florence. The tale-telling takes place over ten nights, giving the work it's title: The Decameron. In the present era, our plague isn't quite…
The Cambias Digression 