Re: BOOKS: Recommendations

From: Anders Sandberg (nv91-asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Mon May 05 1997 - 11:30:30 MDT


On Mon, 5 May 1997, Chris Hibbert wrote:

> Anders only managed E-Prime in the first three words. I'll try to do
> better.

:-) I actually saw that I have failed almost directly just as I pressed
the 'send' command. Just goes to show how good memory I have...

> I enjoyed DA as well. It has a reasonably good description of an
> economy based on nanotech. I would have paid the price of the book
> for the scene in which we get introduced to the "young ladies primer"
> from the sub-title of the book, but on pedagogical, not
> nanotechnological grounds.

Several ideas were quite interesting, such as the descriptions of the
paper computers, tuple processing (quite natural in a nanotech world) and
CryptNet.

> I didn't like the ending at all, (actually
> the last third or so) as the story gets lost in meanderings about
> group minds and other miscellany.

I think it is a hard balance for a creative author to avoid getting lost
in all the interesting ideas and still provide a rich world. After all,
every single thing in the world is a potential story in itself. I think
Greg Egan's _Distress_ is a fine example of a story that doesn't get too
lost in its complex world; not all threads need to get neatly (or
worse, hurriedly) tied up.

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Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension!
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