Under Pressure

Here is an interesting survey and analysis of how the physical pressure on developing cells signals cascades associated with growth, differentiation, and variations that we have discovered from growing miniature organs (organoids) outside the body.

Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky (2024)

I sometimes enjoy science fiction stories where advanced AI and technology have agency, volition, purpose, and powerful capabilities.  Other times, I cannot suspend my disbelief and cannot enjoy the story.  For example, I find the Craig Alanson "skippy" series fun and entertaining and I don't mind the personalities and anthropomorphization of the AI systems.  However, I don't like the Vaughn Heppner books.  I did not like this Adrian Tchaikovsky book because the (unneeded) descriptions of the software and decision systems in all of the robots were so terrible. 2/5 Stars.

For which purpose?

People sometimes ask me why I prefer to answer surveys or take online training in German instead of English.  English is, after all, my first and best language.  My answer is that I find German more precise, much like the use of Latin in medicine and legal terminology, German is less ambiguous, especially in terminology associated with psychographics.  My buddy Michael recently wrote this fantastic analysis of the ambiguity in our English word "why," His short analysis illustrates issues with the popular Toyota root cause analysis "Five Whys," but also generalizes to many other contexts, especially in product requirements and definition.  Which business outcomes? Which result? To which end?  Go read Michael's entire blog post.  It is eye opening.

Der fremde Passagier (2023

Schreckliche Physik. Übertriebenes Melodrama, nicht gut. 2/5 Sterne.

One Fine Day by Matthew Parker (2024)

Here is another big (620 page), dense (hundreds of anecdotes, names & dates) history book.  The book describes in too much detail the phenomena that led to the fall. The stories take place on one day (48 hours, from New Zealand, around the world, and back) in September, 1923 when the empire was the largest it ever would be. 

The author explores the empire's desires to make the world "better" through paternalism, sometimes called "White Man's Burden."  I am always surprised how difficult it is for people, including this author, to get out of their own perceptions and see the world through the eyes of others with different perceptions. Nothing in international politics has changed in the last hundred years.  "Foreign Aid" is never about establishing local dirt farming and local low-tech industry to enable local infrastructure creation.  Philanthropy is destructive.  Parker concentrates on the exploitation and destruction of indigenous culture, moires, customs, & languages which appears inevitable among humans.  It is interesting and well-written but somewhat shallow. 3/5 Stars.

Caught by Harlan Coben (2010)

This book is extremely well-written. I enjoyed it and recommend it. I did not enjoy the ending as much as most of his books. 5/5 Stars.

Exultant by Stephen Baxter (2004)

The breadth, depth and crazy new ideas per word remind me a little of David Brin or Greg Bear.  It is similarly overwhelming to read. The time scale spans lifetimes of multiple universes.I still don't like the characters Baxter writes.  This story is great, though. 4/5 Stars. I look forward to the conclusion.

Fade Away by Harlan Coben (2010)

Tightly-scripted, well-crafted story with familiar, lovable characters, lots of drama, and good mystery. 5/5 Stars.  I am on a roll picking some good books recently.

Coalescent by Stephen Baxter (2003)

Well-crafted, fun story with interesting characters.  It covers a huge arc of time and develops a great theory of emergent behaviors. 5/5 Stars.

The End of Everything by Victor Davis Hanson (2024)

Interesting analysis of historical clashes of civilizations that had the most extreme and sudden (single-battle) outcomes.  Victor Davis Hanson (VDH), as a professor of classics, has chosen four examples he knows well.  He presents fantastic scholarly research to illustrate the phenomenon.  

There are dozens of other historical examples where the language, culture, and civilizations were wiped out by conquerors that were not as sudden, including the Meroitic civilization in Sudan (500K people), the Coptic civilization of Egypt (5M people), the Ge'ez language and culture in Eritrea (500K people).  Like VDH's example of Constantinople, these (and many other) African civilizations, cultures, languages were destroyed by the Muslim conquests. There are dozens in Asia, as well.  It's also interesting how genocides such as the murder of two thirds of the Jewish people by the Nazis sometimes don't destroy the language, culture, or civilization. It's a great history book and much-more approachable than most dense "phone book" accounts of names, dates, and esoteric details. 5/5 Stars.