Does anyone really know what time it is?

The countdown to the "Epochalypse" has started.

https://slideshare.net/slideshow/epochalypse-now-the-coming-collapse-of-time-integrity-brucon-2025-umbelino-darley/283533877



See also TAI: https://mitchwyle.blogspot.com/2022/08/i-feel-earth-move-under-my-feet.html

( Thank you, "Chicago" for the title: https://youtube.com/watch?v=jgF_ycCmF18&t=67s )

Moon Rising by Ian McDonald (2019)

McDonald concludes the Luna trilogy by converging every narrative arc with space-opera optimism. The novel's lunar dynasties, shattered by betrayal and war, persist in a final contest for survival and autonomy. Character trajectories—Lucas Corta's persistence, Wagner's loyalty, and the Suns' political calculation—unfold through fun and credible transformations. McDonald sharpens genre conventions, anchoring personal stakes to wider systemic change and broader scope. Tension between familial ambition and social order drives the series to its conclusion, elevating the outcome beyond melodrama 5/5 stars.

Into the impossible: Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner by Brian Keating (2021)

I rarely make time for long-form podcasts, but I often watch Brian Keating's short YouTube videos. They condense physics and astronomy insights into compact, accessible commentary. Keating's strength lies in his engagement with unconventional thinkers—Avi Loeb, Eric Weinstein, Sabine Hossenfelder—and in his defense of rational inquiry: curiosity, the scientific method, collaboration, Humanist Enlightenment values, and ethical responsibility in research.

The book distills conversations with Nobel laureates into a framework for creative thought and scientific curiosity. Keating extends his interest in physics toward a broader philosophy of how discovery unfolds. Into the Impossible blends scientific reflection with the rhetoric of self-improvement, urging readers to test assumptions, question orthodoxy, and cultivate purposeful collaboration.

The result is engaging and coherent, though familiar. The book reiterates themes Keating has already articulated across his public work. For readers accustomed to his "snackable" videos, the content will feel like a polished synthesis rather than new terrain. Still, its clarity and intellectual warmth make the repetition worthwhile. 4/5 stars

Deep Space by Ian Douglas (2013)

In Deep Space, the fourth installment of Ian Douglas's military science fiction series, the familiar blend of vast interstellar conflict, political intrigue, and alien mystery continues with impressive energy. Douglas expands his universe with new technologies, additional alien species, and a steady escalation of fleet-scale battles that retain both tactical realism and emotional resonance.

The novel balances the spectacle of large-scale combat with evolving character arcs that add substance to the action. Several returning figures grow in depth, and for once, their personal stakes feel genuinely earned amid the chaos of war. The author handles his shifting perspectives and complex geopolitics with clarity, keeping the pacing brisk even as the strategic layers multiply.

While the grand themes of sacrifice and duty remain constant, Douglas injects enough unpredictability into the plot to keep readers engaged. A few turns arrive unexpectedly yet feel natural within the larger narrative structure.

Deep Space is classic Ian Douglas: hard-edged, cinematic, and unapologetically patriotic, with enough speculative science and spacefaring wonder to satisfy serious fans of the genre. 4/5 stars

The sword of freedom by Yossi Cohen (2025)

This book is equal parts memoir, political manifesto, and strategic reflection. While the text is saturated with self-promotion and at times descends into outright boasting, Cohen nevertheless delivers an unusually candid account of the inner workings of a modern intelligence service and its entanglement with statecraft. His personal ambition—to position himself as a plausible future prime minister—is barely concealed, and readers seeking a detached or modest narrative will not find it here.

Despite the political grandstanding, the book offers genuine rewards. Cohen's biographical vignettes and his recounting of espionage operations are both entertaining and instructive. More importantly, his discussion of the mission of a national intelligence service, the role of the individual spy, and the necessity of engaging with one's adversaries on their own terms is striking. He shows rare empathy for the values and goals of opponents, and from this vantage point explains the effectiveness of disinformation, deception, "big lies," and ideological campaigns waged against the West.

Perhaps the book's greatest contribution lies in its critique of the West's chronic diplomatic failures. Cohen highlights the disjunction between Western nations' reliance on Enlightenment humanist assumptions and the fundamentally different axioms guiding most political powers in the world today. By revealing how this mismatch enables adversaries to manipulate and outmaneuver liberal democracies, he forces readers to rethink not only intelligence but the philosophical underpinnings of Western diplomacy.

Ambitious, self-serving, yet ultimately illuminating, The Sword of Freedom succeeds in balancing flawed authorial ego with valuable insight into intelligence, power, and the limits of Western ideals. 4/5 stars

Wie Krankheiten Geschichte Machen von Ronald D. Gerste (2019)

Gerste hat mit „Wie Krankheiten Geschichte Machen" ein Buch geschrieben, das leider nicht an die Qualität von „Wie das Wetter Geschichte macht" heranreicht. Einige Anekdoten und Details sind zwar unterhaltsam, wirken aber eher wie Klatschgeschichten ohne echten Einfluss auf Politik oder historische Entwicklungen der großen Persönlichkeiten, über die er schreibt.

Spannender waren oft die beiläufig erwähnten Entwicklungen in der Medizin – Methoden, Therapien und diagnostische Fortschritte, die sich im Lauf der Zeit durchgesetzt haben. Gerade hier hätte man sich mehr Tiefgang gewünscht. Dagegen bleiben die Kapitel zu wirklich weltbewegenden Krankheiten wie der Schwarzen Pest, der Cholera oder den alltäglichen Belastungen durch endemische Leiden blass und oberflächlich.

Am Ende bleibt der Eindruck eines Buches, das zwar stellenweise nett zu lesen ist, aber sein Potenzial nicht ausschöpft. Wer sich ernsthaft für die Rolle von Krankheiten in der Menschheitsgeschichte interessiert, wird enttäuscht. 2/5 Sterne – keine Empfehlung.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (1985)

As part of revisiting top-rated works of science fiction, I read Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, a novel I had deliberately avoided upon its release in the 1980s. My reservations proved justified. The text is less a plausible work of speculative fiction than a polemical outburst against misogyny in human society.

Atwood's imagined dystopia in "Gilead," set implausibly in Maine, mirrors elements of life under repressive regimes in Somalia, Uganda, or Mali, where women today face forced subjugation, violence, sexual exploitation, and ritual mutilation. Yet Atwood's fictional setting fails as credible social critique because its economics, military structure, and theocratic politics collapse under even minimal consideration. The "world-building" is poorly constructed, driven more by ideological hostility than by disciplined extrapolation of political or social trends.

As a lifelong advocate for women's rights and careers, I find Atwood's mode of attack counterproductive. Shallow caricature and theatrical dystopianism do not advance feminist or humanist thought; they trivialize serious injustices by surrounding them with absurd scaffolding. The result is a deeply unconvincing vision that masquerades as insight. 1/5 stars.

Luna 2: Wolf Moon by Ian McDonald (2017)

The narrative heightens its melodrama, with lethal confrontations arriving so relentlessly that they dull their own impact. Curiosity persists in the overarching story arcs and the enigmatic forces moving behind the scenes, but the individual revenge plots feel hollow because the surviving characters inspire little sympathy. As the middle volume of the trilogy, the novel bears the burden of transition—bridging the audacity of New Moon with the resolution still to come—yet the emotional stakes erode under repetition. 3/5 stars.

Wreck Jumpers 2 by Jason Anspach and Nick Cole (2025)

The second novel extends the arcs of the original rescue team as they confront the same shadowed adversaries—formidable in political reach, skill, and intrigue. The Warsh aliens dominate this installment, endowed with powers beyond even the Galaxy's Edge mythos, reshaping the scale of combat. The narrative broadens with sharper personalities, including robots that now carry voice, wit, and purpose absent in the first volume. Battles accelerate, characters evolve, and the stakes rise without dilution. The story probes how authority, whether political or military, mutates when opposed by loyalty forged under pressure. It also suggests that technology gains meaning only through the values projected onto it by those who wield it. A concise and vigorous continuation. 5/5 stars

Co-Intelligence by Ethan Mollick (2024)

My work centers on researching and building AI applications, and I manage a broad software team. Some of my colleagues dive headlong into "vibe coding" with generative AI assistants and agentic workflows, while others resist or adopt slowly. Outside of work, I experiment with chatbots and occasionally use them for personal coding, writing, and evaluation tasks. One of my team members recommended Co-Intelligence, so I began with the audiobook on a long flight. I retained little from that attempt. Reading the ebook with notes proved more effective, and I extracted the key insights.

I approach most AI commentary with skepticism. The hype bubble, inflated by the trillion-dollar "magnificent seven," resembles many earlier cycles. Still, just as calculators, GPS, and spell-checkers raised the floor of productivity, generative AI is now advancing the Gartner "plateau of productivity."

Mollick's enthusiasm is obvious, but his "four principles" are sound: (1) treat AI as a partner, not a tool; (2) use it often to learn its strengths and limits; (3) be transparent about when and how you employ it; and (4) expect disruption as norms shift. His prompt-design examples are pragmatic, too. Roughly one-third of the book delivers practical value; the rest dissolves into speculation and fanboy exuberance. Even so, the book is worth reading. 4/5 stars.