The Light of All That Falls by James Islington is a great end to The Licanius Trilogy. I was in the mood for an immersive fantasy series and these delivered, each book weighing in at close to a thousand pages. Interesting mix of fantasy, politics, time travel & free will π
The long way to a small, angry planet by Becky Chambers is great. I really enjoyed the characters and the sense of family on the Wayfarer. Definitely a nice change of pace from some more typical hard sci-fi stories that are more focused on the physicsπ
Frustrating how everything goes haywire when updating AppleID passwords. HomePods become unresponsive, messages canβt be delivered, and other subtle errors arise. All this and it isnβt clear where you need to sign in again (having already done the obvious in AppleID settings)
If you’re interested in how algorithms are affecting us, Hello world by Hannah Fry is a great read. Rather than explain how algorithms work, Fry describes their opportunities and risks in different parts of society, such as health, justice, and art π
A fascinating, weird, and unsettling conversation about the differences between the right and left hemispheres of the brain on the Making Sense podcast
A great, long article on the use and development of COVID models. Plenty of lessons for modelling in general, especially when human behaviour is involved, which is relevant for transit planning
So Picard, really, is something I’d be judging on two entirely different levels: as a part of an existing Star Trek legacy, but also as a new addition to it. It’s a new show, and must be judged on its own merits, but it’s also a direct continuation of TNG, and must be judged on that basis, as well.
Blueprint by Nicholas Christakis is an interesting book about universal feature of our societies (the social suite) and how they are based on genetics, emergent properties, and complex network effects. The book has lots of interesting examples and makes clear connections between human societies and attributes of other animals.π