Finding out Mars had life on the day we found out it was better than us was painful. Like meeting a long lost brother by walking in on him doing a commendable job screwing your wife.

As the authors say: “the Singularity, ruined by lawyers”

see here via Artur Ventura

Isaac Asimov – Nightfall

My Review: The premise behind this plot is as simple as it is brilliant: a society living in a planet that is surrounded by several suns doesn’t know darkness, until a rare orbital effect causes a total eclipse every 2000 years. It is with this simple plot line that Asimov presents a brilliant story about a society that has to face its biggest fear, which, in fact, serves as a metaphor for any kind of catastrophic event that can launch a society into a primitive state and, therefore, is a great way of making the reader think about their own reality. However, I can’t help but feel that Asimov was a bit lazy about this novel. He does make a point about that in the foreword in which he states that the novel is based on a short story he had previously wrote and that he has made certain choices regarding the characterization of the people in that planet that were meant to simplify the reading process. But what he did was simply think of Earth, add a few suns to it and then describe what would happen if Earth’s population had to face darkness. But a society that never faced darkness would be completely different than our society. There simply wouldn’t be the concept of day as we know it, hence, there wouldn’t be a circadian rhythm. I just think it could have been developed into a full-blown sci-fi novel (probably his best) if only he had extended the idea a bit further. Also, the ending (which, obviously, I won’t discuss here) felt a bit rushed… as if the inspiration ran out or a deadline with the publisher was approaching.

My Rating: 4/5

Suzanne Collins – Catching Fire (The Hunger Games #2)

My Review: In my opinion, this is the best of the 3 books. It still suffers from the same problem as in the first book where some of the twists can be easily predicted but less so. But in any case I like the main idea of the plot (which I can’t reveal as it would be somehow a spoiler) and I think it’s quite well written. I also like the way it ends and how it leaves the reader eager to read the next book.

My Rating: 4/5

Suzanne Collins – Mockingjay (The Hunger Games #3)

My Review: Sadly, the last book of the Hunger Games trilogy is also, in my opinion, the worst. I don’t know if the intention of the author was to use the book as a personal manifesto against war (by implicitly stating that no one actually wins in a war and most of the times, nothing changes afterwards, in which case I think the book is actually perfect to convey that message) but the story is too depressing and completely different from the other two, in which hope was the main message. Perhaps that is a good thing, it just wasn’t what I was expecting. And I’m not sure that it’ll work as a movie to end a trilogy. Maybe they’ll change the plot a bit to conform more to the other two.

My Rating: 3/5

William Gibson – Neuromancer

My Review: This book was part of my quest to fill in my gaps in sci-fi classics. It is a well known and critically-aclaimed book that defined a new genre in science-fiction about a futuristic society where people have brain-computer interfaces to access a global network system called the Matrix (that rings a bell, doesn’t it?). The story is mind-blowing (yay for artificial intelligence) but a bit confusing and far-fetched at some points, but overall I totally understand why it is considered a classic. To have had the opportunity to read this in 1984 would have simply been a life-changing event. At the age of 33 in 2012 not so much so.

My Rating: 4/5

Isaac Asimov – Foundation #1

My Review: I love Asimov’s writing style and this book isn’t any different. He simply lays the plot’s premise at the beginning and then the reader just follows the story while mixing it with its own thoughts about that premise. That’s what I love about sci-fi, it’s the way it makes you think about those things you’ve never thought about before. In this case, it’s all about the use of knowledge and the power that comes with it, including predicting future events by making use of Psychohistory, a science that can predict the future but only in the large scale of a society, not at the individual scale. However, the book didn’t feel exciting enough to me, which perhaps makes sense because it was not meant to be read as a single book, it is part of a larger story. When I get the time, I’ll read the entire Foundation series.

My Rating: 4/5

Related: What I’ve been reading, Vol. I, II, III, IV and V

In the story, a friend of his (an executive in a well-known technology company) was approached by two developers that were looking for funding to create an app. This was their pitch to the executive: ”Imagine you’re in a bar and you see a girl that you fancy. You (sneakily) take a picture of her. Then, the app, using facial recognition and public information from social networks, will quickly create a simplified profile of the girl, which will then help you make a smooth approach.”

You can easily see how creepy this is: “Hi Jenna! Don’t remember me? We both had Mr. Roberts as our History teacher! How’s your little brother Steve? Oh, and do you still have that small cat?“. But the interesting part is that this will only go as far as your public information will allow it. The more you put out there, the more it can be used against you.

In the story, Taplin’s friend found the idea outrageous and refused to even consider funding their idea. But you know other potential investors won’t have the same approach and will see that this kind of app can be lucrative. Some creepy apps are even starting to pop up. And this is only the beginning.

This video is part of a visually-stunning series of videos based on Carl Sagan‘s texts on the humankind and space exploration. Do yourself a favor and watch these videos. They are surprisingly relaxing and awe-inspiring.

via 1/0

That’s right, soon, real soon, robotic drivers will be able to drive in actual roads. Well, at least in Nevada. But it’s just the first step until you get your very own automated car to drive you around.

Via 1/0

If you want to travel to Mars, it’ll take you 200+ days^[2] and that is one of our nearest neighboring planets. If you want to find “nearby” planets that are habitable and, thus, most likely to be able to sustain life, then you’ll have to travel for 20+ years^[3]. Performing this kind of traveling demands hibernating technology that has yet to be invented (or really entertaining games that could keep the crew busy for years).

I’m sure you can find several other obstacles for space traveling or other reasons to justify the fact that we haven’t made contact with an alien race from another planet, but that is not the purpose of this rambling. For the sake of argument, let’s assume that all these obstacles were surpassed by an advanced alien society^[4] and that these aliens are actively exploring the Universe searching for other habitable planets and alien races. What if we haven’t made contact with them because we’re not interesting enough?

Imagine that you’re exploring a yet-unkown part of the planet and you come across an ant colony. You may give in to your curiosity and give a bit more attention to the colony than to other surrounding elements. But, unless you’re studying stigmergy, you’ll probably lose interest after a few minutes and carry on. What if we are like “ants” to a visiting alien race? What if to the eyes of an advanced space-traveling alien we are so primitive that we don’t even deserve a second look? Sure, the alien would peek, (as anyone would) but soon enough it’d realize that we’re not worth the expending of resources that further study would require and be on its way towards the search for more advanced societies.

This possibility troubles me more than any other reason for the fact that we haven’t met any aliens yet. It’s just sad to think that an alien would travel such great distances, come across our planet, have a peek and then say:

Meh!^[5]

1. Sure, some people may argue that we’ve already been visited by aliens. But I’m talking about a massive scale contact with another culture from outer space, so bare with me.
2. With current day technology
3. Assuming you can travel at the speed of light, you can reach Gliese 581 in just 20 or so years.
4. If you really think about it, most of these obstacles are technological, which means sooner or later any society is able to solve them, given enough time.
5. Meh!