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ZorbaTHut  1yr ago (text post)   4905 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for September 11, 2022

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?

I'm starting Laslett's The World We Have Lost. The only thing I know about it is that Yarvin suggested reading it. Seems to be about English life before the Industrial Revolution.

I am currently reading 'Aristotle's Revenge: The Metaphysical Foundation of Physical and Biological Science' by Edward Feser. It basically argues that modern science implies Aristotelian metaphysics, rather than the mechanistic worldview which has become dominant in the West since the 18th century.

I don't really know what to expect from this book to be honest. I came across Edward Feser's blog some time ago and enjoyed some of the stuff he wrote and bought this book on a whim because the subject interests me. So far I'm in the first chapter where he outlines Aristotelian metaphysics, going into Hylemorphism and all that jazz, and he does a fairly good job of explaining some pretty abstract stuff. So far I'm enjoying the book but I a still have to get to the core part where he probably starts arguing for some more controversial stuff.

I just started deathworlders. It's fun, easy, and the right amount of thought provoking for my current situation in life.

Dandelion is the guys behind deathworlders actually trying for a book and positively fight the culture war, if you want something else.

Any thoughts on deathworlders BTW?

I'm in chapter 8 and I don't think I'll keep reading it. It tries to be a big picture sci-fi, but big picture sci-fi works better when it's hard, and Deathworlders is a space opera.

Mainly that it's fun and easy. I'm reading a chapter before bed every night. I'm currently in a place where I have extremely limited mental energy and time, so I'm not tackling anything demanding at the moment.

I'm reading The Road to Dien Bien Phu, essentially a chronicle of the First Indochinese War from the perspective of Vietnamese state-building. Essentially the thesis is that Vietnam differed heavily from other post-colonial wars in that the Democratic Republic of Vietnam tried to build a centralized state with the capacity to wage conventional war (what the author refers to as "war communism") rather than relying on a non-centralized guerilla resistance.

I'm reading Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies by Nick Bostrom. From what I've read so far it argues that existential catastrophe is the default outcome of an intelligence explosion, and there's a huge focus on AI failures as well as potential methods of mitigating the danger by either containing or better aligning the AI with our values.

Less excitingly, I'm reading APRA's (the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority's) liquidity reporting standards.

I'll have to check that out! I just finished The Road to Wigan Pier, an account by George Orwell of the working class life in north england. The book's pretty dry and not as interesting as Orwell's other nonfiction imo but description of coal mining is horrifying and bleak

I really think that coal-mining chapter is one of the finest pieces of journalism there is. It's one of those texts I wish that everyone would read.

Making my way through the Wheel of Time: I read many of the books as a child but had difficulty finding them in order at the library, and as a result feel like I missed out. With the Amazon series coming out, felt it was a good time to go through them start to finish. I'm just a little bit into A Crown of Swords now.

Judging by the reread, something happened after the first two books: I mostly remember those events, but everything else is disjointed, I think there were characters I didn't care about as a kid and so wasn't really paying attention to.

Honestly holds up well, and I'm impressed by how many "main" characters they can keep going, and how willing they are to move characters in and out of viewpoint status, as their importance to the story changes. The magic system is also very good, keeping a good balance between standard fantasy tropes and weird creative stuff that characters can innovate with.

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