Stories of Your Life and Others

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

This thought provoking science fiction collection deals more with philosophy than hard science. (Though mathematicians and linguists may beg to differ.) The story notes were rather short and placed at the end rather than after each story.

Story List (titles rom Wikipedia entry):

"Tower of Babylon" (originally published in Omni, November 1990) (Nebula Award winner)

This is an exploration of the Tower of Babel with a "literal" cosmology like the bible. It is fun, but not super insightful.

"Understand" (originally published in Asimov's, August 1991)

A man receives a medical treatment that gives him super-human intellect. The scientists are trying to study this, but he is always one step ahead of them due to his abilities. He later secretly obtains more of the treatment, making him even more intelligent. He eventually connects with another super-human. They fight with their capabilities, leading to one surviving. Could we have any control over "super-capabilities"? Part of super-smartness would be an understanding of what people are trying to test, making it difficult to measure. 

"Division by Zero" (originally published in Full Spectrum 3, June 1991)

What if math were not fixed and division by zero were possible? The woman who discovers this struggles with sanity and causes issues with her marriage. Her husband is both her support and falling out of love with her.

"Story of Your Life" (originally published in Starlight 2, November 1998) (Nebula Award and Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award winner)

How would we learn to communicate with aliens? A scientist is tasked with understanding the language of heptapods that have visited earth. Their language is structured different from ours, with a non-linear structure closely related to how they are. They also find some math "simple" that we find more advanced. It is an intriguing look at the challenges of communication when there are large differences. It also comes to an abrupt end when they decide it is time to leave.

"Seventy-Two Letters" (originally published in Vanishing Acts, June 2000) (Sidewise Award winner)

Names have power. While this was one of the reasons I read this collection, I was a bit lost in the story.

"The Evolution of Human Science" (originally published as "Catching Crumbs from the Table" in Nature, June 2000)

What would the role of humans be if we had "metahumans" with greater capacity?

"Hell Is the Absence of God" (originally published in Starlight 3, July 2001) (Hugo Award, Locus Award and Nebula Award winner)

In this world angelic visitations are common, but not worry free. Sometimes people are healed, while others may be injured by flying shrapnel. People may end up in heaven or hell depending on their behavior and everyone knows where they go. The story focuses on people with different faith journeys. It is portrayed as pure fantasy which allows it to better explore relationships between faith and knowledge. It has an interesting structure nearer to a documentary of intertwined people.

"Liking What You See: A Documentary"

People can get a special treatment that causes them to not notice people's looks. Thus they will not be lead astray by common concepts of beauty. Many parents would have their kids undergo this process. The central focus is a college where the students are voting to have this treatment mandatory so as not cause harm to people without good looks. It is an interesting exploration of equality gone to extremes, while also exploring how we often make bad decisions based on appearance. How would life be if we could have this treatment?

Cubed: A Secret History of the Workplace

Cubed: A Secret History of the Workplace by Nikil Saval

White-collar jobs were originally confined to proprietors that may have a clerk helping out. This began to change during the industrial revolution. Giant organizations and economies of scale led to many of these white collar workers becoming employees. Now employee is the norm, rather than entrepreneur. These workers see themselves as being closer to the management than to the blue collar workers. They identify with the middle class and are generally not unionized. This is an interesting exploration of how office work has changed over time.

The Most Dazzling Girl in Berlin

The Most Dazzling Girl in Berlin by Kip Wilson

In Weimar Germany, queer clubs were popular and somewhat accepted. This book paints Germany as an LGBT Utopia that was only brought down by the rise of Hitler and Nazis. The book paints a picture of revisionist history that was extremely black and white. It feels like a revisionist Germany painted to look like the modern world. It is pretty short.

The Body: A Guide for Occupants

The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson

This book explores the human body. There are many different "stories" talking about parts and systems of the body. It is not a complete reference, but it does provide interesting exploration of different topics, from the common to obscure.

The Girl With All the Gifts

The Girl with All the Gifts by M. R. Carey

A fungus wiped out most of the population and turned those in contact with it into zombies. A few other "off the grid" humans managed to survive, but would fight against other groups. There were also some military groups that survived and are studying it in a lab. They are studying some kids that have been exposed to the fungi, yet still function as normal humans. The lead researcher is portrayed in a negative light throughout the book. This sets up the conclusion where they realize the best course of action is to let the funga do a massage spore release that will wipe out the current state of humanity and lead to a future human/fungi symbiosis. The narrative flows very well and stays interesting, even as it presents a non-standard conclusion to the post-apocalyptic zombie tale.

When Prophecy Fails

When Prophecy Fails by Leon Festinger, Henry W. Riecken and Stanley Schachter

An alien cult predicted that they would be brought up by aliens. They were fairly secretive and did not actively proselytize. However, after the aliens failed to appear, the group become more open. Those close to the leaders stayed loyal. While those more distant and without close, regular contact with other members fell away. This seems similar to what happens in many other groups (even without the alien prophecies.) 

Family of Spies

Family of Spies: A World War II Story of Nazi Espionage, Betrayal, and the Secret History Behind Pearl Harbor by Christine Kuehn

Grandpa was Nazi spy with interesting history in Hawaii. There were rumors of "baby spy" in the family that would go try to get intel. This book is part memoir and part family history. The author explores the skeletons in his family's closet. They were raised as an all American family. However, Grandpa was executed as a spy. (Though the family gives other reasons for what happened.) The book is an interesting exploration of interrelated bits of World War II history.

Vigil: A Novel

Vigil: A Novel by George Saunders

Vigil is short. That is good because I was fairly lost as to what was happening. 

Superagency: What Could Possibly Go Right with Our AI Future

Superagency: What Could Possibly Go Right with Our AI Future by Reid Hoffman and Greg Beato

The authors think AI is the next great thing and will help out humanity. This piece focusses on the positives of AI with little attention to the negatives (like energy consumption).

Well Endowed: The Secrets to Strategic Spending, Building a Financial Foundation for You and Your Family, and Creating Lasting Generational Wealth

Well Endowed: The Secrets to Strategic Spending, Building a Financial Foundation for You and Your Family, and Creating Lasting Generational Wealth by Vivian Tu

The author came from an immigrant Chinese family who wanted what was best for their daughter. They were frugal and were able to save for her to go to University of Chicago. Now she dispenses financial advice to Millenials. It seems to be "save more than you spend, but still enjoy things." There are also long discussions about treating marriage and kids as financial endeavors. Oh millenials.

Spellbound: How Charisma Shaped American History from the Puritans to Donald Trump

Spellbound: How Charisma Shaped American History from the Puritans to Donald Trump by Molly Worthen

People with charisma have been able to influence people. The term was originally used theologically and much of the book explores the charismatics from a religious perspective. In modern times, it has come to spread beyond religion to other people like Donald Trump. Charismatic people can influence others in various ways and have lead various large-scale religious movements. The Puritans and other early religious movements had many charismatic leaders. The second great awakenings were similar. (Though Joseph Smith was charismatic, many people were drawn in after reading the Book of Mormon before seeing him.) Political leaders also had their appeal based on their public oratory. Later television would play a role in changing how we viewed leaders (with Nixon/JFK being an early example.) The history of charisma is interesting, but almost too broad to be well covered.

Atlantic Cataclysm: Rethinking the Atlantic Slave Trades

Atlantic Cataclysm: Rethinking the Atlantic Slave Trades by David Eltis

This book objectively explores the history of Atlantic slave trade within the context of the day. Slavery was a fairly normal part of the world. However, some restrictions had come into play, such as Christians not enslaving other Christians. This left Africans as a common source of slaves. Africa was far from homogeneous. It was often one group selling off their enemies to be slaves. The names of slave ships showed the gradual change in feelings towards slavery. The slaves were treated less humanely and the slavers begin to acknowledge it. The practice of slavery became more and more repugnant and more open to calls for abolition. 

The author also explores the economic impact of slavery and came to the conclusion that it likely hurt development more than it helped. Places with the most significant slave culture often stalled developmentally compared to similar places with stronger embedded slavery. This book is able to present powerful arguments against slavery without retrofitting modern values onto the past.

Einstein's Unfinished Revolution: The Search for What Lies Beyond the Quantum

Einstein's Unfinished Revolution: The Search for What Lies Beyond the Quantum by Lee Smolin 

Quantum mechanics is hard to understand. It often seems to go in the face of what we observe. However, it is possible to be realist and understand quantum mechanics. There were some that put forth the postulates, but did ended up losing popularity to the non-realists. (Einstein was a realist, but he struggled to get a good explanation.) Today, we may need a revolution to adopt a new framework that truly covers everything together. Some will likely fail, but we need new ideas to come to final solution. The book says as much about the pitfalls of academic culture as it does with the quantum mechanics. Academia can get stuck in its ways and find it difficult to move on.

Two Women Living Together

Two Women Living Together: The Bestselling Korean Memoir by Kim Hana and Hwang Sunwoo

The title describes it well. This is the story of two adult women who live together. They are not romantic partners. They are just friends that care for each other.  They also advocate for better legal protections. Why are rights tied to marriage whether heterosexual or homosexual? What about people that have mutual caring without the romance? There is not a lot of substance to the book, but it does have some interesting thoughts to explore on the different styles of human relationships.

Firestorm: The Great Los Angeles Fires and America’s New Age of Disaster

Firestorm: The Great Los Angeles Fires and America’s New Age of Disaster by Jacob Soboroff

A reporter found himself in LA reporting on his hometown of Pacific Palisades burning down. The book tries to straddle the line between detachment and heavy involvement. There are reminiscences of the past in the area as well as jabs at Trump. The fires came right around the transition from Biden to Trump so there is ample time to poke fun of Trump's obsessions. (Many seemed to start off with a rational point and then go off the rails with hairbrained solutions.) The fires come across as surprisingly non-dramatic in the book. There was a lot of hard work and creeping into deserted areas, but not much of the expected personal drama. Maybe we have just become too spoiled with the disaster genres.

Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World

Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World by Tom Holland

This book is more a less a history of Christianity. However, instead of focussing on the internal leadership of the church, it explores the "power" that church held in society. The narrative meanders around different times and places. It lacked a clear focus as it explored the influence of Christianity on society.

The Nvidia Way: Jensen Huang and the Making of a Tech Giant

The Nvidia Way: Jensen Huang and the Making of a Tech Giant by Tae Kim

There were many times in the early days where Nvidia almost went belly-up. They had some strategic decisions that didn't pan out. They bet on new, better technology, but had slow software translation to the old technology. The company would strive to excel technically, while not disgarding the lower levels of the market. The organization structure is extremely flat with the CEO having a large staff. Employees from the CEO down put in crazy amounts of hours of work. They always viewed themselves as being one bad mistake away from oblivion.

Things really started to boom for Nvidia after the company received an XBox contract. Later the company coined the term GPU to describe their programmable graphics chips, but let the term be used generally. They released programming tools and were able to dominate the GPU market. Nvidia saw the potential for GPUs to be used in artificial intelligence work and have been able to ride the AI boom to record valuations. They also got a nice lift from Bitcoin mining and they are still popular with gamers. Nvidia has been able to become the world's highest valued company thanks toa confluence of hard work and being in the right place at the right time.

The Situation and the Story: The Art of Personal Narrative

The Situation and the Story: The Art of Personal Narrative by Vivian Gornick

How do you make a memoir sound alive? This book provides examples and tools for helping to write memoirs. There is not much narrative in the book itself, but it may be appealing for writers.

The Love Hypothesis

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

A girl runs into a guy when she is visiting campus. She thinks he is a grad student. He gives advice that helps her choose her future path. She doesn't realize that he is actually a professor and he had feelings for her also. She later chooses to kiss a random guy to "allow" her best friend to date her boyfriend. This ends up being the professor. But neither of them realized it at the time. They decide to carry on "fake dating" for a while. They are both oblivious to each other's feelings. It finally comes to a head when they agree to share a hotel room at a conference (in a Platonic relationship.) Things end up being not so platonic. Then there is the episode where the professor's old friend ends up being a scumbag and the professor gets in a fight with him. It makes for a welle-executed, very typical romantic comedy. You jus wish the main characters would stop behaving like middle schoolers and talk about their feelings.

Source Code: My Beginnings

Source Code: My Beginnings by Bill Gates

Bill Gates had the perfect childhood to set himself up to launch Microsoft. His parents were dedicated to their family, but gave their children significant autonomy. His mom was highly involved in community organizations and had many connections. His father was a lawyer. There were entrepreneurs in his family tree as well as a doting grandma that helped teach logical thinking through games. He enjoyed learning what he wanted to learn and struggled in school and socially. He would have been diagnosed on the autism spectrum today. His parents didn't give up on him or try to force him in a certain path. They had him engage in common youth activities. They let him learn on his own terms. He ended up enjoying some of the "punishments" he received in school (such as working in the library.) His parents helped him to "fall up" out of the public school to attend private Lakeside school. There he was able to find another socially awkward friend as well as other "geeks" who would help found Microsoft.

Lakeside was one of the few places that had a computer for students to access. Gates was drawn to the computer. He would spend time thinking in code and how to program. Through connections, he and some friends were able to get access to other computers at companies and the University of Washington. He had friends in older grades, such as Paul Allen that could get access. They were able to work on business projects finding bugs and coding - all while still in high school. Their parents helped support them as well as get them further connections. He was able to get into Harvard and explore other academic interests. There he met others with complementary skills. Then the first real home computer came out. He and his friends had experience and created a basic interpreter. They were able to sell it and create an appropriate contract that would help them defend their rights. They would later be able to defend their rights to allow the company to continue. 

Bill Gates was at the right place at the right time and had the proper support as well as the personal interest and drive to keep with his company. There are so many ways that Microsoft could have failed to be, yet it somehow managed to be the behemoth it is today.  

Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress—and How to Bring It Back

Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress—and How to Bring It Back by Marc J. Dunkelman

Progressivism is torn between individual autonomy and the desire for big government solutions. The current result is massively expensive projects that can be easily be derailed by the simplest thing. 

Big Projects reached their zenith during the age of Robert Moses. He had the wherewithal and the budget to do just about anything. He rammed freeways through residential neighborhoods with little regard to who lived there or what they needed. He decided parkways should be for cars and not buses. He built beaches and other amenities with particular people in mind. He got things done. At first, people were happy with the benefits they saw from his megaprojects. The people complaining were seen to be in the way of progress. Eventually his plans got in the way with those in power. This led to greater restrictions on what could be done.

Today things of turned far in the other way. Environmental impact statements require development to explore various different negative impacts of a project. These stretch much beyond the ecological environment to different peoples and groups. Projects are looked at through an equity lens to ensure that some groups are not disproportionately hurt. There are many veto points in the process. There are also many opportunities to file lawsuits to halt a project. Projects often balloon in cost in order to respond to all these complaints. Perversely, wealthy people with deep pockets are most able to stop projects. You can see in Seattle where there are freeway lids over the rich suburbs, but not in the dense city where they would be most useful. The process also favors the status quo. An existing project that harms many people, but benefits a few is hard to change. Even if the benefits would greatly outnumber the harms it is difficult to make changes due to few people that would be impacted by the changes.

The book explores the conflicting Jeffersonian and Hamiltonian impulses. There is a desire for small government to let people do what they want. There is also the desire for big government to help rid society of its ills. The progressive movement has many of both combined together. They want government to protect individual rights and liberties. They also want government ro provide a safety net and implement programs to help people and to provide the needed infrastructure needed. Conservatives, too, have a mixture of both ideals. These two conflicts are what has lead to massive expenses but little benefit. As an example, we want to help the homeless, but give them full autonomy to live how they like. This results in lots of money spent, but little benefit. California would like high speed rail, but has produced almost nothing with all the time and money spent.  China was able to build a great network of high speed rail in the same time. California has been able to maintain and expand the existing freeways despite the environmental degradation caused. As a society, we expect all big organizations and government to be "perfect". Any negative caused is grounds for lawsuits. Alas, this risk aversion has also prevented much good from occuring.

Fall of Civilizations

Fall of Civilizations: Stories of Greatness and Decline by Paul Cooper

What causes civilizations to fall? What are some of the big civilizations that fell. This book explores many of the different failures, from ancient times up to Easter Island. Much was based on a podcast that he has. He does explore different reasons for failure. In the case of Easter Island, he rejects the "resource depletion" argument, and instead focusses on the European discovery. They dropped off diseases and took away many of the residents, leaving the culture in poor condition. Later a sheep ranch used the land, denuding what remained. Other cultures had different reason for collapse. The book goes somewhat chronologically, though it is covering individual experiences rather than a coherent narative.

Best Offer Wins: A Novel

Best Offer Wins: A Novel by Marisa Kashino

A couple in DC is trying to buy a house. Alas, they get outbid in all their offers. They want to have a family, but getting the house first is a priority. The book is told primarily from the perspective of the Asian wife. Then they hear from a friend that a house in Maryland is coming on the market. The woman decides to scope it out. She absolutely loves it. She even decides to sneak in the back yard for a look. She stays too long and almost gets caught by the owner. However, she manages to get out just in time, but does run into him. She decides she will try to get the house as a "pre-listing" transaction. She stalks the owners and discovers that they are a gay couple with an adopted Asian daughter. She  tries a yoga class that one attends.  They actually hit it off and end up getting invited to dinner. At dinner she pushes things too far about an offer and end up getting discovered and kicked out. That is still not enough. She hunts for dirt on the couple. She discovers that somebody had bad things to say about one of the men (a university professor who published a book.) She traced all the students in his program at the time to see if she could find who it was. (She had previously been a journalist, so had connections as well as desire to do it.) She travelled distances to find dirt to potentially use it against them. She found he plagiarized a student. However, the student realized that she was a fraud and didn't give her the evidence. She tried to use this against the men. However, they eventually called her bluff.

Then the novel takes a very macabre turn. She realizes that her husband had been having an affair. She kills the woman involved and takes her body to the basement of the house. She framed it as having been done by a friend of hers. (She had the friend tour the house and used the friend's car and dressed like the friend when committing the crime.) Then, right before the police were ready to catch the friend, she gave her various drugs to make it look like she committed suicide. It helped wrap everything up. It also left the house available to them as the only people willing to put in an offer. The book ends with the woman discovering another affair from her husband and makes us wonder what she will be doing.

The book is a fast moving case of desperation in a crazy housing market.

Savings and Trust: The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman's Bank

Savings and Trust: The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman's Bank by Justene Hill Edwards

The Freedman's bank was formed at the end of the Civil War to give former slaves a place to save their money. It was initially charter to be a very safe savings bank in a single location. It would invest in government bond and pay a small amount of interest. It expanded to other locations. Many of the leaders were white men who desired to help the blacks. The bank later expanded to many other locations. Many of the clients were using it as a place to store money until they could buy land. Transactions tended to be small. The bank later ran into money issues. It had difficulty making the promised interest payments. It spent money on opulent buildings. The solution seemed to be to go into other money making ventures, such as making loans. It was restricted to making "safe" loans to those with significant land as collateral, and was forbidden from loaning to those controlling the bank. Alas, the first restriction ended up restricting loans to most of the black patrons and the second restriction was flouted. After a banking panic hit, the bank hit huge issues. Advance notice was required for withdrawals. (Though certain mostly white business customers could get money out easily.) The bank eventually failed. Even in failure, there were some last minute loans to friends. Almost none of the outstanding loans were paid back. The clients only received a few cents on the dollar and now were resistant to dealing with banks. It is a typically case of bank failure caused by greed, tho. This probably set back the financial condition of the freed slaves, though was only a small part of the many negative policies during reconstruction. 

Left Behind: A New Economics for Neglected Places

Left Behind: A New Economics for Neglected Places by Paul Collier

The author of the book appears quite full of himself, but has a good message. Places that are not succeeding need help. The help is best when it comes within. External groups can (and should) support the process, but do so in a hands off way. Throwing dollars at a poorly functioning location can often make things worse. People do not like being told what to do. Leaders may capture benefits for themselves or create "trophies" that make things worse in the long wrong. Instead, the local groups need to adopt policies that work best for them. Aid without strings may be useful for helping implement the changes. (Though this may not be necessary.) Many of the most well-functioning egalitarian states were backwaters at one time. They suffered from many of the problems modern basket-cases do now. They may be able to There have been successful authoritarian regimes and failed democracies. Singapore has boomed through a time with a single ruler. Rwanda has gone from civil war and genocide to tourist haven. South Africa has fallen down, despite dropping apartheid and allowing global electoral participation. Each place has their own special cases and most adopt appropriately.