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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   5412 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 22, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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So, what are you reading? (Also, see another good book thread here in the Fun Thread)

I'm picking up Alan Watts' The Way of Zen. Watts has often been in the back of my mind, but I never read him deeply. Extremely vague links to Korzybski has stirred my interest.

Finished Anathem by Neal Stephenson, my first Stephenson read since dropping out halfway through the Baroque cycle. Set in another world suspiciously analogous to our own except that most intellectuals live in cloistered atheist monasteries, with a gimmick where different subgroups only communicate with the outside world every 1/10/100/1000 years. Conceptually it's basically (concept spoilers) Asimov's Foundation meets Egan's Quarantine, but with actual character development.

The book combines fun world-building at the start with gripping thriller action towards the end, enough that I got through the 900+ pages in a week despite a sagging middle devoted to lectures on a tired mix of real and fake/pop science (quantum computers don't work like that!).

Published in 2008 it already feels a bit dated, especially the parts expressing a Bush-era fear and disdain of ~Protestant fundamentalists. Still I really enjoyed it overall and unlike Stephenson's earlier works it even features a proper denouement.

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