Finished Superorganism, am reading Fads and Fallacies
So, humble and puny readers, what are you reading these days? I finished E.O. Wilson's Superorganism the other day, and I have started reading Martin Gardner's classic Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science. I'm going to be teaching a class about science and pseudoscience in the near future (I have an awesome job), and I wanted to have this one under my belt before I taught it.
If the chapter "Flat and Hollow" is any indication (isn't that a great chapter title?), it's going to be a quick and enjoyable read. As you know, we lost Martin last month at the tender age of 453. I don't know if anyone else has done as much for the popularization of math as Martin did.
It's sort of interesting to see the cosmology of the 1950s. I recently heard Pamela Gay talking about how little old astronomers, the ones so old they fart dust, still think that galaxies are a pretty cool idea. (Truth be told, I do too, but I don't call it the "Andromeda Nebula.") The cosmic background radiation had not yet been discovered. And dark energy, fagettaboutit.
Penzias and Wilson detected the CBR using this Picassian sculpture.
So, what the hell are you reading?
HJ
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14 comments:
Currently reading the Wheel of Time series, and I'm on book 4 - The Shadow Rising. After I'm done with all of the books in the series, I'll be on the lookout for a history or science book of some sort. I tend to like to read about reality after reading so much fantasy.
just finished Carl Sagon's "The Demon-Haunted World"....absolutely fantastic book, wrapping conspiracies, pseudo science and religion into one nice big ball of shit with a bow tie on top.
Starting to read Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs and Steel". I've been wanting to read it mainly because I see so many references to from people I enjoy reading.
bing, you are a little lying idiot and are going to get a GOOD KICK to your head...
That one stays. Folks, if you would like to comment on DM, please do, but I warn you not to link back to your webpage (don't sign in), because he is herpes. Human fucking herpes.
HJ
bing, I am going to TORTURE you into a believer...
Wow DM, you're one giant cunt. How does it feel to wave around your impotent rage? Have you realized yet that you will accomplish nothing with your life?
Fine. I believe. Now will you fuck off and die?
HJ
add comment moderation to your BS, fucker...
So DM, do you do anything other than copy/paste bullshit? I mean I know it's hard, but have you ever had a single original thought? If not, would it be ok if I use my special brain wave modulator to give you some new thoughts?
your thoughts MEAN NOTHING and it would be better for all if they STOP, yourself included....
Really? If they mean nothing why are you answering to them? Oh that's right, you're answering them because I am using my brain wave modulator on you. So how does it feel to be my little puppet?
I'm having _The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_ (all 6 volumes) read to me at bedtime (courtesy of librivox.org and my $30 wal-mart mp3 cd player.)
Well worth the slog. (and usually puts me to sleep nicely too - not that it's boring by any means. Untapped material still in there to keep Hollywood going for a century.)
M. Gardner was a sorcerer to my 10-yr-old apprentice - there's the real magic, if any of you seekers are willing to put in only reasonable effort. (I can still twist a hexa-hexaflexagon from a netflix seal-strip, thanks to that guy (and, believe it or not, to Kookla, Fran, and Ollie.))
(PS, tempting as the alternative is, the silent treatment works best on Palin (and you-know-who.) These vermin feed on your negative attention...
I wish we would all just absolutely ignore it each time the latest ignorant filth from Phlegm Burp/limpball/biblespice/dim et. al squirts forth....)
I'm also revisiting the books of C. S. Lewis (_lives of a Cell_, _The Medusa and the Snail_). The best popular biology I've ever come across (and sadly almost forgotten now.) ('70s)
It's very uplifting the way he counters (future) arguments of 'it's all dog-eat-dog' pessimists like Dawkins, showing how cooperation/symbiosis is just as fundamental and pervasive in evolution - and just as enhancing of survival in the long run - as competition.
Agreed that self-advancement is a natural imperative. Dawkins fails to see that nature is still neutral about whether you do it by beating down your neighbor (<-Dawkins simply assumes this is essential) or by establishing good working business relations with him. Yet the latter relations are often of far more durable value than the benefits of any short-term pillage. Clearly, both competition and cooperation are forces in nature, with a complex interplay.
Also too, the way symbiotic relations begin to blur and redefine over eons what constitutes 'the organism' (mitochondria, lichen, ant colonies,... cities in 100,000,000 years?...) is the stuff that really interests us math/comp/physics mystic nerds ('cellular automata', 'emergent computation', 'self-organizing systems'...))
'Mystic Nerds'... good band name. :-)
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