davidbrin

davidbrin, 1 month ago to random

Noam Chomsky is a litmus for fecal nonsense. I can't recall once across 30 yrs when he said anything right or wise. Much like that vile gnome Yoda -and DTrump- he growls/grumps nonsense while fans nod, citing him in book quotes and mind-poison virals.

https://news.berkeley.edu/2022/05/19/open-letter-to-noam-chomsky-and-other-like-minded-intellectuals-on-the-russia-ukraine-war

davidbrin, 6 months ago to random

As a former solar astronomer… (well, I worked for them 3 summers, at Caltech)… and as author of SUNDIVER, I highly recommend this gorgeous episode of ASTRUM, giving breathtaking views of our star across the spectrum.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EbuAEagQj4

davidbrin, 4 months ago to random

Prisons banning "fantasy and SF materials" - A new PEN America report shows that the number of books banned in prisons by certain states outpace all other book censorship in school and public libraries.

https://pen.org/report/reading-between-the-bars/

davidbrin, 4 months ago to random

A great interview. My friend Roger Penrose rambles across many concepts, like an alternative theory of consciousness – a 'time-jumping, multiverse-killing notion of reality(!)' Notable: the savvy and cogency of host Andréa Morris, who Roger clearly enjoys.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itLIM38k2r0

davidbrin, 9 months ago to random

Murray Leinster's 1946 story “A Logic Named Joe” predicted a type of AI so similar to today’s ‘Gollems’ – generative Large Language Models – it’s creepy! All the way to helpfully answering “how to murder my wife?” and “How best to blackmail my boss?

”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YZuKOcXw-I

davidbrin, 1 month ago to random

Our planet faces many dangers (as shown in EARTH*). While much depends on restoring wisdom+sense to our present, there are also dangers farther ahead, like the sun's rising temperature across the next 100M years. Here's how our heirs might save our world!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai8x-ZqjXPc

davidbrin, 3 days ago to random

From the sublime to...the huh? Does putting Neosporin in your nose help fend off covid? Surprisingly, there’s preliminary evidence that it does.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/could-putting-neosporin-in-your-nose-fend-off-covid/

davidbrin, 5 months ago to random

Researchers spotted a dolphin with fins that appeared to have thumbs. Might they observe anything like independent movement of this ‘digit,’ as it does have its own thumb bone? If so, all the Uplift Institute? What did I call these in Startide Rising?

https://themessenger.com/tech/rare-dolphin-spotted-with-hooked-flippers-defies-scientists-expectations

davidbrin, 9 months ago to random

Tomorrow Friday the whole Uplift Storm Trilogy - BRIGHTNESS REEF, INFINITY'S SHORE & HEAVEN'S REACH - is on sale as an e-bundle for $3.99. That's a whole lot of fine, action and thought-packed SF for the price! On Kobo, B&B, Amazon... Try this link Friday! https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-uplift-storm-trilogy

davidbrin, 6 months ago to random

Weekend posting is about news from and about... SPACE! Plus the Fermi Paradox and... okay, sure... UFOs.

https://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2023/11/space-resources-and-advances-plus.html

davidbrin, 7 months ago to random

Tesla is building a drive-in movie theater EV charging station in Los Angles. As LAist reports, Tesla's permits allow for 30-some charging stalls, two outdoor movie screens and a restaurant with rooftop seating, to be built on Santa Monica Bl

https://laist.com/news/los-angeles-activities/a-tesla-supercharging-drive-in-restaurant-it-really-could-happen

davidbrin, 7 months ago to random

Here's the most sapient and clear-eyed political interview I have seen in a couple of years. Incredibly insightful and well-spoken. Of course one must read the book to get details on the '5 things'... or else just study 1933 Germany.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA0zAGGOfCg

davidbrin, 7 months ago to random

It's not just the lunacy and the stupidity... or the giggles of Kremlin basement trolls aiming - at command - to rile a McVeigh explosing in 2024. No. What bugs me is the role that cheap sci-fi play in all this. See VIVID TOMORROWS: Science Fiction and Hollywood - http://www.davidbrin.com/vividtomorrows.html

davidbrin, 6 months ago to random

“Nepotistically Trained Generative-AI Models Collapse” asserts that AI (artificial intelligence) image synthesis programs, when retrained on even small amounts of their own creation, produce highly distorted images https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.12202

davidbrin, 5 months ago to random

I hope this book is better than the chaotic and ignorant reviewer, who gets almost everything wrong in almost every paragraph. Including the absurd (if all too commonly held) notion that Adam Smith supported steep inequalities of wealth and power. Diametrically opposite to truth. Then there's his asserted notion that all of prehistory was a realm of fatuous agreement among pre-historians. That is a howler of unbelievable, credibility-damning hilarity.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/oct/23/the-dawn-of-everything-by-david-graeber-and-david-wengrow-review-inequality-is-not-the-price-of-civilisation

davidbrin, 7 days ago to random

Donation #104 today, completing gallon #13. It's not for everyone. But if you feel okay about it, well, it does some good. And I think it vitalizes the donor! (I use my local blood bank, not Red Cross, but it amounts to the same thing.)
www.redcrossblood.org

davidbrin, 6 months ago to random

One of my biggest failures! In 2019 I took 6 monthsto compile new tactics for politicians etc on the sane/Union/blue side of the 250 year U.S. Civil War. >100 ways to change a frozen political landscape. Result? Crickets. Alas.

http://www.davidbrin.com/polemicaljudo.html

davidbrin, 3 months ago to random

Anyone able to source this? Hint: it's by the 1960s Weird Al.
"My Zelda...
"My Zelda...
"My Zelda she took the money and ran to see Taylor!"

Okay, very slightly changed to fit today... 😉

davidbrin, 2 months ago to random

Peter Diamandis talks up "Dreaming Big." XPrize (I'm on the outer advisory board) uses contests and rivalry to propel many cool concepts. Great outcomes, like NASA's Innovative & Advanced Concepts program - (NIAC)*

https://www.diamandis.com/blog/fund-your-purpose-launch

*(I spent 12 years on that advisory council, too.)

davidbrin, 4 months ago to random

jeez seriously? I'll use this as an excuse to plug HEART OF THE COMET. And yes, my doctoral work was about this beast! But still, passing aphelion to begin the long (40+ year) swoop is not exactly "it's coming!"

https://en.softonic.com/articles/halleys-comet-returns-to-earth

davidbrin, 5 months ago to random

Midweek posting - the title tells all. There are reasons John Roberts might - or not - obey orders to dump Trump. Weigh them for yourself! And Cory D is both very right and very wrong about AI.

https://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2023/12/will-supremes-dump-donald-and-doctorow.html

davidbrin, 6 months ago to random

With the passing of Greg Bear and the sad debilitation of most other Killer Bs, I am reminded that age comes stalking us all. But it hurts - still - to get news about the passing of Michael Bishop, one of the finest writers I ever knew.

https://locusmag.com/2023/11/michael-bishop-1945-2023/

davidbrin, 1 month ago to random

The world's smallest language contains just 120 words
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY3Qe_b9ufI

davidbrin, 7 months ago to random

The asteroid-defense foundation, B612 – helping track potentially devastating rocks out there - has launched a Prize honoring Skylab astronaut Rusty Schweickart. $10,000 for grad students who advance planetary defense.

https://www.schweickartprize.org/

davidbrin, 1 month ago to random

This weekend's posting is 90% a draft I prepared in 2022 about economic inequality and what we can do about it. Then how the re-industrialization of America - going on right now(!!) has proved that Keynes was right and Laffer totally wrong.
https://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2024/03/do-rich-have-too-much-money-neglected.html