Aurora - Kim Stanley Robinson

Aurora is KSR's latest novel, published in summer 2015, and the only other book of his that I have read, other than the genius Mars trilogy. Aurora is just as delightful, and satisfyingly familiar in tone, with its hyper-detailed yet highly readable descriptions of technology, and the incisive and compelling character depictions, which elevate the book from tech porn to high literature.

Aurora is the story of a generation of families born on a spaceship in the middle of a 159+ year colonizing trip to Tau Ceti, led at this point in their journey by brilliant yet troubled scientist Devi, who keeps their aging vessel in working order through hundreds of daily repairs. Unlike Mars, with its numerous protagonists, this novel focuses primarily on Devi and her daughter, Freya. In a unique and engaging narrative twist, the tale's chronicler is the ship itself, an AI called simply "ship."

The action begins in Freya's youth and young adulthood, in the final years of the journey to Tau Ceti. A deeply interesting and moving tale, which I highly recommend to all sci-fi enthusiasts!

The Best Science and Nature Writing 2013

December Bookclub was The Best Science and Nature Writing 2013, a collection of articles hand-picked by Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of Emperor of all Maladies (reviewed by Dad here and Lauren here). 

The complete list of Mukherjee's selections is here.

Here are my thoughts on the articles I read:

MICHELLE NIJHUIS. Which Species Will Live? [log-in required]
From Scientific American
This was a bleak but interesting analysis of the techniques conservationists use to triage efforts to save different species from extinction.

BRETT FORREST. Shattered Genius
From Playboy
I was surprised this made it on the list, actually, since the topic was ostensibly the current activities of reclusive math genius Grigori Perelman, yet the interviewer only managed to exchange a few sentences with the man. More than others have achieved, but not much to go on. The discussion of the Poincaré conjecture's history was interesting, however. (Now you can say you "read Playboy for the articles"!)

DAVID OWEN. The Artificial Leaf
From The New Yorker
One man's quest to create artificial photosynthesis as a source of clean energy for the developing world. Moderately interesting.

GARETH COOK. Autism Inc.
From The New York Times
I loved this article. After Thorkil Sonne's child Lars was born with autism, Thorkil was saddened to learn that most research suggested Lars would lead a deficient life. In fact, however, Lars demonstrated impressive and unexpected talents (e.g., following a family trip at 7 years old, Lars was able to draw a perfect reproduction, from memory, of the entire highway network from Scotland to Germany). Thorkil was inspired by his son's talents to create a consulting agency specializing in matching autistic individuals with jobs for which they are uniquely suited. The agency has been a terrific success. An inspiring and very interesting story!

NATHANIEL RICH. Forever and Ever
From The New York Times Magazine
This was perhaps my favorite of the articles in this collection: the story of Shin Kubota, a marine biologist specializing in an immortal (seriously) species of jellyfish known as Turritopsis dohrnii. Dr. Kubota is unique worldwide in his ability to successfully breed and maintain the finicky Turritopsis in captivity, and has devoted his life to unlocking its secrets. He is also a minor celebrity in Japan (akin to Bill Nye in America), due to his second passion: writing and singing jellyfish-themed karaoke songs in the guise of his alter ego, Mr. Immortal Jellyfish Man (photo below). One of Kubota's charming songs is “I Am Shin Kubota":

My name is Shin Kubota
Associate professor of Kyoto University
At Shirahama, Wakayama Prefecture
I live next to an aquarium
Enjoying marine-biology research
Every day, I walk on the beach
Scooping up with a plankton net
Searching for wondrous creatures
Searching for unknown jellyfish.
Dedicate my life to small creatures
Patrolling the beaches every day
Hot spring sandals are always on
Necessary item to get in the sea
Scarlet medusa rejuvenates
Scarlet medusa is immortal

STEPHEN MARCHE. Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?
From The Atlantic 
An interesting (if depressing) analysis of loneliness in the modern world, in which we are always"connected" yet feel increasingly isolated.

KEVIN DUTTON. The Wisdom of Psychopaths
From Scientific American
I did not read this entire article (it was long and sort of pop-sciencey) but it was interesting enough. The thesis is that psychopaths can teach us valuable lessons (e.g., about self-confidence and navigating conflict) if we embrace their attitudes in moderation.

Zodiac - Neal Stephenson

Finished reading Stephenson's (1988) Zodiac this weekend. It was weird, to say the least, and definitely seemed less mature than other works of his that I've read (not surprising, it's his 2nd book, written before Snow Crash). It's the tale of S.T., a nonviolent ecoterrorist who brings polluting companies to justice by zipping around on his Zodiac (high-powered motored raft) plugging up waste pipes in the Boston Harbor and exposing the offenders to media ridicule. A quick and easy read, not one I'd necessarily recommend.

Book Challenge 2014 stats: 15/65 (23%), 11 books behind schedule. (Although I've now read 2 more books thus far in 2014 than I did in all of 2013!)

Stephenson's Novels

• The Big U (1984)
• Zodiac (1988)
• Snow Crash (1992)
• Interface (1994) 
• The Diamond Age: or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (1995)
• The Cobweb (1996) 
• Cryptonomicon (1999)
• The Baroque Cycle
• Quicksilver (2003), volume I
• The Confusion (2004), volume II
• The System of the World (2004), volume III
• Anathem (2008)
• The Mongoliad (2010–2012)
• Reamde + Colin's review (2011)

An Edible History of Humanity - Tom Standage

An Edible History of Humanity was sort of entertaining, as it contains lots of colorful anecdotes, but much of it felt like a less substantive (and very derivative) version of Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemna (cf the discussion of corn). Moreover, I came away feeling like behind his pseudo-intellectualism, Standage is either really ignorant, or sort of a schmuck. His political beliefs, when they show through, are disturbing.

For example, Standage describes several instances of famines in which the native community starved, while exporting their food for consumption by wealthy foreigners.* However, evidently without realizing the irony in his position, Standage remains shockingly, unabashedly colonialist - he explains the danger of the current popularity of "local food" by stating that, "an exclusive focus on local foods would harm the prospects of farmers in developing countries who grow high-value crops for export to foreign markets. To argue that they should concentrate on growing staple foods for themselves, rather than more valuable crops for wealthy farmers, is tantamount to denying them the opportunity for economic development." I was dumbfounded when I read this... Below I have excerpted only 2 of several passages where Standage plainly describes the misery that results when poor farmers grow crops for wealthy foreigners, but this does not seem to have shaken his ideology.

He also extensively lauds the virtues of nitrogen farming while devoting exactly 1 paragraph to its dangers, trivializes the organic movement, and is a bit over-the-top in his rah-rah Capitalist, anti-Communist jingoism ("Is it a coincidence that the worst famine in history occurred in a Communist state?"). He's the business editor at the Economist, so maybe that explains it?

Anyway, I wish he would take some time out from copying Pollan's rhetoric to read a little Chomsky.

Sigh!

* On p.135, he states that "by the early 1840s, imports from Ireland were supplying one sixth of England's food. This food was produced by men who worked on the best, most easily cultivated land and were typically given small patches of inferior land on which they grew potatoes to support themselves and their families. The English could only keep eating bread, in short, because the Irish were eating potatoes." He later describes, on p.188, how under Mao in China, "the main cause of the famine was not inadequate food production so much as the farmers' lack of entitlement to it. The food they produced went to feed people in the cities, Party officials, and foreigners."

S.A.S. Survival Handbook

Thank you very much, Mark, for this wonderful Christmas present! I had read about this some time ago as being the "definitive guide" to wilderness survival, a topic of great interest to me. This book is fantastic - based on a lifetime serving in the Special Air Service (SAS), an elite British army unit, Wiseman packs this invaluable book full of comprehensive, clear, practical information about building shelter, finding food and water, and staying safe and healthy in all emergency scenarios and situations. The diagrams are very clear, and his writing style is quaint. Very enjoyable to read, and who knows, one day it could save your life!!

On a related note, check out the CDC's fun and educational illustrated narrative on emergency preparedness, zombie style.

Ernest Callenbach’s Ecotopia

A recent choice for my book club was Ecotopia. Written in 1975, Ecotopia depicts a vision of the United States in 1999, in which the Pacific Northwest has seceded from the union and been completely isolated from America for the past two decades. The motivation behind this split, led by the women-directed Survivalist Party, was the desire to entirely reform society on egalitarian and ecological grounds – achieving equality for all people, eliminating cars and other pollutants through strict regulation, and creating a “stable state,” sustainable society, which emphasizes recycling and a return to nature. In the (optimistically brief) period since its inception, the nation has largely achieved these goals, unbeknownst to America, which has continued on its wasteful decent into widespread pollution and overpopulation – alas, much like the America we know today.

The story of Ecotopia is from the perspective of William Weston, a journalist who becomes the first American emissary to visit the new country since its founding. Weston is a hard-nosed reporter, and the novel is divided into personal reflections written in his diary and his largely fact-based articles, which he posts back to America to be published. Fairly predictably, Weston’s initial prejudices are softened by the month+ he spends in the new country, and we see him open up to the nation’s “strange” and “barbaric” practices and “surprisingly” brilliant inventions.

Although at times a little heavy-handed, pat, and unrealistically utopian, I found the novel to be very well-imagined and articulated, and the tone believable. Moreover, I was happy to realize that Callenbach’s vision has in some ways been realized – Seattle recently instituted a ban on plastic bags, and all homes and apartments (and most businesses) are equipped with bins to divide “garbage” into recycling, compost, and (thus much reduced) waste. (Although I was horrified to see how inconsistently this is practiced in Ohio!)

It was depressing to finish the novel and remember that I cannot emigrate to Ecotopia, but even so I would definitely recommend this book.

SCAT

In the days leading out of the Ohio JO Champs, I have read SCAT by Carl Hiaasen. I found this to be a very good book and had the urge to flatly refuse putting it down to do jobs. The narration (Third person) switches around between characters which helps drive the book forward and keeps you reading. SCAT is the third novel in a series of books set in Florida about preserving wildlife. This book deals with a mix of plots and goals including: Returning a baby panther to its mother, successfully and secretly drilling oil on state property, learning to live left handed, finding a missing teacher, and escaping from jail when framed. There is so much going on that this becomes a very interesting and worthwhile read. I highly recommend it.