The tunnel under the world by Frederik Pohl

Long flight from Frankfurt to Seattle.  Another very-old story that stands the test of time, 3/5 stars.

Bullshit Jobs, A Theory by David Graeber

I really enjoyed this (audio) book while flying back from Zurich.  The data are terrible and many of the assumptions are silly.  The politics are, of course, uninformed, wonderfully idealistic, and naive.  Despite these fatal flaws Graeber's concepts are fantastic.  The anthropological analysis and social insights are very interesting and in many cases spot-on.  The microeconomics are also good.  Most summaries of the book gloss over or fail to mention the strong anthropological analysis the author makes and therefore the concepts sound stupid.  Read the original. The phenomenon is real.  The book is worth reading, 4/5 stars.

Survival Kit by Frederik Pohl

Another great story that holds up after all this time, 4/5 stars.

The Big Nine by Amy Webb

A kind of weird, but interesting take on the current and near future state of data and machine learning (AI) from a political perspective.  It is great to be reminded of the insular, tribal perspectives by AI development communities as well as the political and social implications of current abuses of personal information that continue to increase exponentially.  The prescriptive suggestions are also quirky and completely impractical, of course.  But it's worth a read, 3/5 Stars.

Der Trick von Emanuel Bergmann

Eines der besten Bücher, die ich dieses Jahr gelesen habe! Ich habe buchstäblich laut gelacht und am Ende geweint. Fantastisches Schreiben, 5/5 Sterne.

three laws lethal by David Walton

Great premise, setting, beginning and story-telling, cardboard characters; the end was weak, cramming too much action into too few pages. 2/5 Stars.  Disappointed.

Zukunfts-Chroniken La Mancha von Hoerspielproject Deutschland

Interessante Ideen über kryogenen Schlaf und Gesellschaft, aber keine großartige Produktion. 2/5 Sterne.

Let the Ants Try by Frederik Pohl

interesting concept, not a great story, 2/5 stars.

The Midas Plague by Frederik Pohl

Really good, holds up extremely well! 4/5 stars.

practical, useful AI in everyday use

At the exact time and place this information appeared in my gmail, I needed it most and acted upon it.   When AI knows us better than we know ourselves, subtle changes will radically affect our lives and we won't notice.

How To . . . by Randall Munroe

Fantastic!  Randall's writing is improving.  The percentage of silly ideas I find appealing increased in this book compared to the last one.  .  I may buy copies as gifts for nieces, nephews, other kids again, as I did with Thing Explainer a few years ago.  4/5 Stars.

Dark Space Invisible War by Jasper T Scott

Terrible, 0/5 stars.  I put it down and did not finish.

The Empire Duet book 2, Hidden Empire by Orson Scott Card

Great continuation of the story and fantastic drama, 5/5 stars.

The Empire Duet 1, Empire by Orson Scott Card

A little dated but great writing and characters. 4/5 stars.

interesting take on the national basketball association's imbroglio with the Chinese government

The story of immediate outrage from Chinese basketball fans over the Houston Rockets basketball team General Manager Morey's tweet suffers from the inconvenient truth that Twitter is banned in China.  Hmm.

And Ben Thompson's article gets better.  

Chinese companies like Baidu, Tencent (WeChat, etc.)  Alibaba, et. al. are, of course, allowed into the U.S. while U.S. companies remain locked out of China. Chinese attacks on U.S. tech companies are allowed, encouraged, and augmented by China's censors.  The attacks are assisted by the Chinese military and by the "Great Firewall."

But Ben tells us much more.

Xi Jinping and the Communist Party does not hesitate to use state power to tell the Chinese people how they should think. Displays of patriotism, especially from young people, shows that the party's propaganda machine has mastered the power of symbol and symbolism in the mass media and social media. While imposing very tight censorship, the Communist Party has also learned to force the most popular artists and the most experienced internet companies to help Xi Jinping instill Chinese with patriotic zeal. All Chinese "influencers" are part of the propaganda machine, enforcing "correct" thoughts.

China Central Television (CCTV) wrote, "we oppose [NBA commissioner] Silver's claim to support [Houston General Manager] Morey's right of free expression. We believe that any speech that challenges national sovereignty and social stability is not within the scope of freedom of speech," Think about that a few seconds.  What does "freedom" mean?

And, of course, TikTok, the popular Chinese-owned social network, instructs its moderators to censor videos that mention Tiananmen Square, Tibetan independence, Hong Kong protests, or the banned religious group Falun Gong, as one might expect.

So the question is:  will more companies, like Silver and the NBA give up all the money and stand by their values?  Or will they sell out and impose Chinese censorship?  I think it depends.  Microsoft and eBay will sell out for sure.  We already have.  Will Amazon?  Walmart?  It's hard to say.

Read Ben Thompson's entire analysis.

Nassim Taleb's attacks on our definition and use of intelligence quotient (IQ) assessments and measurements

Nassim Taleb has written an interesting draft paper attacking our current institutional definitions, measures, and applications of an "intelligence quotient," based on his earlier philosophical observations in his Incerto books.  His rants in medium are a little over-the-top and distract somewhat from the arguments he is making.  However many of the points are well-taken.  

ProzessBasis: Artikeln und Podcasts

Ich habe angefangen Artikel von dieser WWW-Seite zu lesen und mir einige der Podcasts anzuhören. Die englischen Artikel haben viele, schlimme eklatante Fehler, aber das Material, das sie behandeln, ist interessant. In diesem Artikel sind insbesondere einige gängige kognitions-psychologische Ideen einiger meiner Lieblingsautoren zusammengefasst.

Dauntless: Blood on the Stars 6 by Jay Allan

The story line continues and I am more willing to suspend disbelief. 3/5 stars.

Blood World by B. V. Larson

Larson's writing is improving; the characters are good; the mysteries and plot twists are fun, 3/5 stars.