Some advanced readers were so excited about THE ZERO SIGNAL that they have nominated it for Best of the Year on Goodreads, where (at the time of writing) it is #2 on the list! Readers […]
Tag: science
(Sunday Thought) Two Temporal Paradoxes
The second installment of the SCIENCE CRIMES DIVISION series involves a murderer who remembers the future instead of the past. As I’ve been working through the plot, which is tricky, it occurred to me that […]
(Sunday Thought) That’s Not How It Works
This article from Nautilus on common myths about the brain is important enough that it’s worth it to summarize the three myths for those hesitant to read the whole thing. I also add a fourth. […]
(Sunday Thought) The Biology of Belonging
World historian William McNeill argued that humans had evolved for synchronous ritual: dancing, chanting, marching in time. The anthropological data seem to support this. For example, researchers recently found that Sufis engaged in the dhikr, […]
Cyberpunk I: Cyberpunk as Retrofuturism
Cyberpunk and its offshoots (biopunk, solarpunk, etc.) are still our significant cultural vision of the future. And yet, it hasn’t aged particularly well. This is the vid-phone from Blade Runner (1980), which was supposed to […]
The Shape of the Universe
The model described in this article — the “Big Bounce” instead of the Big Bang — is potentially a big deal. Quanta Magazine: Big Bounce Simulations Challenge the Big Bang This new simulation is merely […]
On Misanthropy
My buddy the engineer clings to the nobility of man, presumably because we invented mathematics. He accuses me of misanthropy. But I am not a misanthrope. A misanthrope hates mankind, which I do not. Neither […]
(Curiosity) The Planck length as a “pixel” of our universe
One of the chief characteristics of simulations is low information density compared to the phenomenon being simulated. Even very complex simulations with relatively high information density will still fall short of reality — in the […]
(Fiction) Cleaning Agent Blues
Nio adjusted the heavy bag on her shoulder as she paced around the bus stop, stepping carefully over an icy sidewalk pockmarked in frozen footprints, like the fossil of a prehistoric riverbed. It was […]
