Existential Physics: A Scientist’s Guide to Life’s Biggest Questions by Sabine Hossenfelder (2022, Atlantic Books, 248 pages pbk.) Bursting with opinions Dr Hossenfelder is a German theoretical physicist and highly accomplished science communicator. She writes popular science books and creates a strong presence on her YouTube channel, with her trademark combative opinions. In this book… Continue reading Cutting the Fringe
Tag: Philosophy
No Regrets
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig Published by Cannongate Books, 2020, 288 pp. I love this book. Simple as that. I was amused, interested and in the end really moved by this story. To the extent that I nearly missed my stop on the train, and had to hurry onto the platform with tears on… Continue reading No Regrets
Our Past is in the Stars
Beneath the Night: How the stars have shaped the history of humankind By Stuart Clark (2020, Guardian Faber), 290 pp. Starry night Why do we look at the stars? We are interested in the nature of the Universe, a drive to understand and interpret what we see. Equally valid is an appreciation of the beauty… Continue reading Our Past is in the Stars
Arguing with teabags
I only wanted a fruit tea, not a transcendent experience In the Old Days (think black-and-white 405 lines TV) PG Tips never tried to sell us a lifestyle, unless it was the prospect of the chaos of a chimps’ tea party. But increasingly the groceries are trying to make me a better person. Don’t get… Continue reading Arguing with teabags
Picture This
Welcome to my brain! It’s dark in here (apparently),
Icons of Ideas
“… not caring about understanding the Second Law of Thermodynamics is equivalent to someone boasting that they have never read anything by Shakespeare.”
You know it makes sense
Rationality: what it is, why it seems scarce, why it matters by Steven Pinker (Allen Lane, 2021) A logical argument in favour of logic? Pinker often writes with such clarity and energy that ones can be swept up in the flow and not stand back to say “hand on a minute! It’s not as simple… Continue reading You know it makes sense
Am I a robot?
12 Bytes: How artificial intelligence will change the way we live and love by Jeanette Winterson (Vintage, 2021/2022) This was Love(lace) at first byte. The book begins with a lively survey of the history of AI. This is no dry chronology but a tale bursting with brilliant personalities, none greater than Ada Lovelace, the Countess… Continue reading Am I a robot?
At the Cutting Edge
This is the history of an idea that was once revolutionary and that continues to shape the modern world.
So what do you know?
Or rather, what can we know? Donald Rumsfeld is wrongly mocked for a “misunderstimated” quote when he served under President George Dubbya Bush. There may have been many things in his political career for which he deserved ridicule, but not for this: as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we… Continue reading So what do you know?