Now Reading

Reading the 6th in the James Patterson Women's Murder Club series at the moment. I've enjoyed them all and will probably continue with the whole ongoing series, but there's just one think that irks me. There's quite a few instances where everything just gets too cheesy for a few minutes. Just the things colleagues or friends say to each other; people don't talk like that. A guy just ran around shooting people including a kid in the face, then some cheesy conversation happens. Ergh.

Patterson is pretty shit mate.

Just finished John King's White Trash. Really really terrible, but amusingly so I guess.

Spoonfed, simplistic, agenda grinding stuff.

Working class Nurse in her mid-twenties = SALT OF THE EARTH, ALWAYS SEES THE GOOD IN PEOPLE, JUST SO LOVELY

Born Wealthy, middle-aged, NHS Budget Assessor = ENGLISH PATRICK BATEMAN/LITERALLY A SERIAL KILLER

Halfway through Matheson's The Shrinking Man now. Even better than I expected it to be.

Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq by George Packer

Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices From the Afghan War by Svetlana Alexievich

Had a busy semester with little time to read but managed to get through a couple books that were suggested in this thread. First was In the Approaches by Nicola Barker, which to start with i wasn't too sure about, but ended up enjoying it. There's something about the writing style that kind of annoyed me for some reason, reckon it's just probably not my cup of tea, but the plot had me intrigued and very british humor was fun.

Then read Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies by Nick Bostrom, which was fascinating and terrifying at the same time. So many factors to ai that i'd never even begun to consider. Great book, would recommend to anyone who wants to be left deeply paranoid about the future.

Now the holiday's started i've finally got around to Mason & Dixon by Pynchon. Loving it so far and seems like the perfect time of year to be reading it. Plus, the first song of the book is sung by a talking dog, what more could you want.

Dan Falk - Universe On A T-Shirt 

Thomas Pynchon - Gravity's Rainbow (mind-bender)

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

kazuo ishiguro - the buried giant

i've liked the two previous books I read by him but this one was a slog - not a fan of the allegorical approach, the stilted/affected arthurian language, or the straining at profundity. A big let down

joseph roth - the radetsky march (trans michael hofmann)

its always hard to know how much is lost in translation but I can recommend this, sad and funny and well written

Been reading Mason & Dixon for a few weeks now and it's so wonderful, easy to call it a favourite of mine already. It also fits the season perfectly…don't think anything could ever reach the level of cosiness Pynchon is delivering in those Rvd. Cherrycoke narration breaks. Also, how wildly funny is this? A talking dog? An UFO abduction? Smoking pot on the Washington estate? The Iliad of Inconvenience?

Then again, it has these enchantingly beautiful moments, like when John Harland left his farm and wife to tag along with the two stargazers…and later stood in the sunflower field, having romantic thoughts for the first time in his life. 

Ten outta ten. 

Going to read Against the Day next I think, just for that historical continuity. Has anyone here read it? 

  On 12/18/2016 at 2:23 PM, misc said:

Then read Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies by Nick Bostrom, which was fascinating and terrifying at the same time. So many factors to ai that i'd never even begun to consider. Great book, would recommend to anyone who wants to be left deeply paranoid about the future.

 

 

Great book by a great thinker

However, the general AI conversation is rife with blind spots

Everyone seems to assume that if you just create a smart brain and give it some senses, all of its beliefs about the world will naturally be 100% true, and it will thus act like economists used to think humans acted pre-Behavioral Economics (i.e. with perfect and complete information, perfect rationality, perfect self-control and perfect regard for their future)

Well, no

AI will be susceptible to superstition and mental illness

Because those things aren't uniquely human

Rather, they emerge as a result of limited information about the environment

Coupled with preferences/motivational states and personality

Why did Skinner's pigeon exhibit superstition when you punished (or rewarded) it in random intervals?

Well, it's not because pigeons are stupid

Imagine what it would require for the pigeon to have accurate beliefs about its situation: it would have to understand Skinner's mind, and whatever randomness generator he was using to dole out random punishments

This probably sounds daft, but AIs will suffer trauma

(The potential for trauma emerges simply from having preferences)

AIs will have delusions (delusions are simply 'pigeon superstition' in the face of limited information about the environment)

AIs will display OCD and PTSD

Because these things are not uniquely human

They are emergent properties of simply having preferences

  On 12/20/2016 at 12:47 AM, romanticdude said:

Been reading Mason & Dixon for a few weeks now and it's so wonderful, easy to call it a favourite of mine already. It also fits the season perfectly…don't think anything could ever reach the level of cosiness Pynchon is delivering in those Rvd. Cherrycoke narration breaks. Also, how wildly funny is this? A talking dog? An UFO abduction? Smoking pot on the Washington estate? The Iliad of Inconvenience?

Then again, it has these enchantingly beautiful moments, like when John Harland left his farm and wife to tag along with the two stargazers…and later stood in the sunflower field, having romantic thoughts for the first time in his life. 

Ten outta ten. 

 

Going to read Against the Day next I think, just for that historical continuity. Has anyone here read it? 

Well timed, I just started Mason & Dixon and intend to do Against The Day immediately after.

Been rereading Pynchon in chronological order this year after reading V for the first time.

Just snatched up a copy of Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany by Norman Ohler

Cannae wait to dive in 

  On 12/20/2016 at 3:10 PM, hello spiral said:

 

  On 12/20/2016 at 12:47 AM, romanticdude said:

Been reading Mason & Dixon for a few weeks now and it's so wonderful, easy to call it a favourite of mine already. It also fits the season perfectly…don't think anything could ever reach the level of cosiness Pynchon is delivering in those Rvd. Cherrycoke narration breaks. Also, how wildly funny is this? A talking dog? An UFO abduction? Smoking pot on the Washington estate? The Iliad of Inconvenience?

Then again, it has these enchantingly beautiful moments, like when John Harland left his farm and wife to tag along with the two stargazers…and later stood in the sunflower field, having romantic thoughts for the first time in his life. 

Ten outta ten. 

 

Going to read Against the Day next I think, just for that historical continuity. Has anyone here read it? 

 

Well timed, I just started Mason & Dixon and intend to do Against The Day immediately after.

Been rereading Pynchon in chronological order this year after reading V for the first time.

 

Fuck yea, M&D squad in the house! How far are tha through? I'm in chapter 16, with The Octuple Gloucester. 

I only started it on the train to work this morning so only 20+ pages. Which is why I skipped most of romanticdude's post. Spoilers in my peripheral vision lol.

Read "Last Night in Montreal" by Emily St. John Mandel on the plane back from DFN. Her prose was good but it was a bit on the melodramatic side and one character in particular felt very MPDG-esque. Looking forward to reading more from her in the future.

  On 12/20/2016 at 12:47 AM, romanticdude said:

Been reading Mason & Dixon for a few weeks now and it's so wonderful, easy to call it a favourite of mine already. It also fits the season perfectly…don't think anything could ever reach the level of cosiness Pynchon is delivering in those Rvd. Cherrycoke narration breaks. Also, how wildly funny is this? A talking dog? An UFO abduction? Smoking pot on the Washington estate? The Iliad of Inconvenience?

Then again, it has these enchantingly beautiful moments, like when John Harland left his farm and wife to tag along with the two stargazers…and later stood in the sunflower field, having romantic thoughts for the first time in his life. 

Ten outta ten. 

 

Going to read Against the Day next I think, just for that historical continuity. Has anyone here read it? 

I finished AtD this year. I liked it but don't think it's quite on the same level as Mason & Dixon, although it has plenty of moments worth reading it for (all those Pynchon feels & allusions to other works of his...). My crit of it is that it feels like a much longer book that has been cut down, which makes certain sections feel rushed or not quite explanatory enough. Undone by his own methods I reckon.

Overall I liked either Mason & Dixon or Vineland the most out of his works. M&D felt just right in terms of difficulty and cosiness reading wise, plus Mason & Dixon are just swell to hang around with. Sort of sad when you have to let them go.

  On 12/20/2016 at 1:58 AM, LimpyLoo said:

 

  On 12/18/2016 at 2:23 PM, misc said:

Then read Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies by Nick Bostrom, which was fascinating and terrifying at the same time. So many factors to ai that i'd never even begun to consider. Great book, would recommend to anyone who wants to be left deeply paranoid about the future.

 

Great book by a great thinker

 

However, the general AI conversation is rife with blind spots

Everyone seems to assume that if you just create a smart brain and give it some senses, all of its beliefs about the world will naturally be 100% true, and it will thus act like economists used to think humans acted pre-Behavioral Economics (i.e. with perfect and complete information, perfect rationality, perfect self-control and perfect regard for their future)

 

Well, no

AI will be susceptible to superstition and mental illness

Because those things aren't uniquely human

Rather, they emerge as a result of limited information about the environment

Coupled with preferences/motivational states and personality

 

Why did Skinner's pigeon exhibit superstition when you punished (or rewarded) it in random intervals?

Well, it's not because pigeons are stupid

Imagine what it would require for the pigeon to have accurate beliefs about its situation: it would have to understand Skinner's mind, and whatever randomness generator he was using to dole out random punishments

 

This probably sounds daft, but AIs will suffer trauma

(The potential for trauma emerges simply from having preferences)

AIs will have delusions (delusions are simply 'pigeon superstition' in the face of limited information about the environment)

AIs will display OCD and PTSD

 

Because these things are not uniquely human

They are emergent properties of simply having preferences

 

Read Ted Chiang's story The Lifecycle of Software Objects, which is about the accidental creation of pet AIs and the traumas / lives they live. I suspect this will be right up your alley: http://subterraneanpress.com/magazine/fall_2010/fiction_the_lifecycle_of_software_objects_by_ted_chiang/

  On 10/24/2016 at 2:39 PM, caze said:

 

  On 10/23/2016 at 2:54 AM, doorjamb said:

one of you sci fi geeks please advise: having read Neuromancer, would I be foolish to skip the middle one before reading Mona Lisa Overdrive?

 

coincidentally I just started reading Count Zero last week, seems ok so far.

 

I just finished this the other day, was terrible in the end, took me ages to read because it was so dull. nothing happens until the last few pages, and even then nothing particularly exciting happens. reading the third one now just to get it over with.

Picked up Superintelligence today after reading on it here, sounds very interesting (and terrifying) and I haven't read anything about AI so far – perhaps I'll postpone AtD for it and make it my next read. Thanks again for mentioning it. 

  On 12/20/2016 at 4:48 PM, misc said:

 

  On 12/20/2016 at 3:10 PM, hello spiral said:

 

  On 12/20/2016 at 12:47 AM, romanticdude said:

Been reading Mason & Dixon for a few weeks now and it's so wonderful, easy to call it a favourite of mine already. It also fits the season perfectly…don't think anything could ever reach the level of cosiness Pynchon is delivering in those Rvd. Cherrycoke narration breaks. Also, how wildly funny is this? A talking dog? An UFO abduction? Smoking pot on the Washington estate? The Iliad of Inconvenience?

Then again, it has these enchantingly beautiful moments, like when John Harland left his farm and wife to tag along with the two stargazers…and later stood in the sunflower field, having romantic thoughts for the first time in his life. 

Ten outta ten. 

 

Going to read Against the Day next I think, just for that historical continuity. Has anyone here read it? 

 

Well timed, I just started Mason & Dixon and intend to do Against The Day immediately after.

Been rereading Pynchon in chronological order this year after reading V for the first time.

 

 

Fuck yea, M&D squad in the house! How far are tha through? I'm in chapter 16, with The Octuple Gloucester. 

 

Woah, didn't realize M&D was so popular here, but this is cool. I reached chapter 41 on the bus yesterday, though process kind of stalled as I have an exam phase right now. It is getting better and better though, you lads need to let me know what tha' think of chapter 33, as it is my favourite by far, so far.

I'll be on a short winter break after today and I think I'll wrap it up by the end of it, though I really don't want to finish it. As Bechuga pointed out, both Mason and Dixon are just great company and it'll be sad to let them go. 

  On 12/21/2016 at 12:32 AM, Bechuga said:

 

  On 12/20/2016 at 12:47 AM, romanticdude said:

Been reading Mason & Dixon for a few weeks now and it's so wonderful, easy to call it a favourite of mine already. It also fits the season perfectly…don't think anything could ever reach the level of cosiness Pynchon is delivering in those Rvd. Cherrycoke narration breaks. Also, how wildly funny is this? A talking dog? An UFO abduction? Smoking pot on the Washington estate? The Iliad of Inconvenience?

Then again, it has these enchantingly beautiful moments, like when John Harland left his farm and wife to tag along with the two stargazers…and later stood in the sunflower field, having romantic thoughts for the first time in his life. 

Ten outta ten. 

 

Going to read Against the Day next I think, just for that historical continuity. Has anyone here read it? 

 

I finished AtD this year. I liked it but don't think it's quite on the same level as Mason & Dixon, although it has plenty of moments worth reading it for (all those Pynchon feels & allusions to other works of his...). My crit of it is that it feels like a much longer book that has been cut down, which makes certain sections feel rushed or not quite explanatory enough. Undone by his own methods I reckon.

 

Overall I liked either Mason & Dixon or Vineland the most out of his works. M&D felt just right in terms of difficulty and cosiness reading wise, plus Mason & Dixon are just swell to hang around with. Sort of sad when you have to let them go.

 

Interesting how you liked Vineland best as it often gets a really bad rep (alongside AtD), any particular reason for that? I've had in on my shelf for ages without opening it but obviously I will at some point. 

  On 12/20/2016 at 5:11 PM, hello spiral said:

I only started it on the train to work this morning so only 20+ pages. Which is why I skipped most of romanticdude's post. Spoilers in my peripheral vision lol.

I'm sorry, didn't mean to! Hope they remained in peripheral sight. 

http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Dinn's_Notes

This is a great resource by the way, adds some valuable annotations to the book that often helped me understand some of the more obscure references.

Somewhat spoiling, watch out:

The most fascinating thing is how well-researched the book is, despite being outlandishly fictional in parts. Some of the characters (such as John Harland) existed irl, and are mentioned in Mason's journal, which can be read here:

http://www.mdlpp.org/pdf/library/JournalofMasonandDixon.pdf

All in all, reading M&D really just cements my respect for Pynchon, and now it annoys me even more that they passed the nobel onto Dylan. 

Robert Heinlein - Stranger in a Strange Land

I pretty much only ever imagine the main characters of any science fiction novel a Kyle McLachlan. 

Up next is either a continuation of my burning through A Thousand and One Nights or tackle Gravity's Rainbow, which I just picked up a copy of while in Houston. The audiobook wasn't really doing it for me. 

  On 12/21/2016 at 1:57 PM, romanticdude said:

 

  On 12/21/2016 at 12:32 AM, Bechuga said:

 

  On 12/20/2016 at 12:47 AM, romanticdude said:

Been reading Mason & Dixon for a few weeks now and it's so wonderful, easy to call it a favourite of mine already. It also fits the season perfectly…don't think anything could ever reach the level of cosiness Pynchon is delivering in those Rvd. Cherrycoke narration breaks. Also, how wildly funny is this? A talking dog? An UFO abduction? Smoking pot on the Washington estate? The Iliad of Inconvenience?

Then again, it has these enchantingly beautiful moments, like when John Harland left his farm and wife to tag along with the two stargazers…and later stood in the sunflower field, having romantic thoughts for the first time in his life. 

Ten outta ten. 

 

Going to read Against the Day next I think, just for that historical continuity. Has anyone here read it? 

 

I finished AtD this year. I liked it but don't think it's quite on the same level as Mason & Dixon, although it has plenty of moments worth reading it for (all those Pynchon feels & allusions to other works of his...). My crit of it is that it feels like a much longer book that has been cut down, which makes certain sections feel rushed or not quite explanatory enough. Undone by his own methods I reckon.

 

Overall I liked either Mason & Dixon or Vineland the most out of his works. M&D felt just right in terms of difficulty and cosiness reading wise, plus Mason & Dixon are just swell to hang around with. Sort of sad when you have to let them go.

 

 

 

 

Interesting how you liked Vineland best as it often gets a really bad rep (alongside AtD), any particular reason for that? I've had in on my shelf for ages without opening it but obviously I will at some point. 

 

It has all the familiar density of his other work but more concise and easier to approach, along with just as crazy scenes as his other books (insurance investigator on the trail of Godzilla?! sky pirates boarding planes in mid-air?!) along with a strange book structure that isn't normal for his work. Seems somewhat different to his other books, in a way I really enjoyed.

I do find it sad Vineland gets such a bad rep, which I suspect is due to the 17 year wait between that and Rainbow, and all those critics disappointed it wasn't Rainbow 2. In my opinion, it's everything Pynchon can be in a tighter package (shorter than V.). If you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend you start! Critics don't know shit.

Trying to read Philosophy, Psychiatry and Neuroscience (Hundert)

Verso is having a 90% off sale on all their eBooks, so, like, fill yer head. http://www.versobooks.com/blogs/3014-90-off-all-our-ebooks-until-january-1st?discount_code=endofyear2016

They All Love Jack - the bloke who wrote Withnail and I is fucking angry taking on the Ripper, loving it so far.

Finished Dark Matter yesterday, I can't say I've read a thriller as enthralling as this. One minor criticism or irk for me was that it wasn't fleshed out as maybe it could have been. I understand the reasoning that goes with that, it's just some of the prose was to be assumed that X action made Y outcome and so forth. Not a massive chink in it's armour at all though as the story was really captivating and exhilarating throughout. Short and action packed with enough of a story to engage and think about.

Starting Norwegian Wood, my first delve into Murakami!