Friday, February 26, 2021
Red Pill: A Novel
Thursday, February 25, 2021
Caste (Oprah's Book Club): The Origins of Our Discontents
The primary focus is on the US system. Whites are the "upper-caste". Blacks are the lowest caste. Others are in between. Even within the castes, there are gradations. The author provides anecdotes of the negative impacts on the lower and upper castes. However, some of these can be difficult to tease apart. In one example, an Austin bomber first killed a black man. Initially there were questions as to whether it was an accident or terrorism. Only after white people were targeted did they hunt down the suspect. How much of this delay was due to the "lower caste" and how much was it due to questioning isolated incidents? It is hard to tell, but probably a little bit of both.
The definition of the lower caste is often fluid. In America, "black" has had various definitions. Today, it is pretty much "how you identify". There have been various laws that defined it previously. It may be a few generations. It may be "a drop of African blood". The Nazis were a little tighter with Jews, and generally required a grandparent. Practicing the religion would also get you in. In America, however, Jews were "white".
The book is a little vague about what to do about caste. The standard bits of the "higher caste people need to work hard to stop it" are given. Humanization is also important. She gives an example of a plumber that did not expect a black women in the white neighborhood and refused to do much. After she started talking and relating to him, he became very friendly and helpful. The author laments that it is often the "lower caste" that has to bend over. (And she gives examples of blacks being castigated for being too cultured.) In reality it does need everyone. If we are constantly calling out racial affronts, we may see a "perceived" balance, but are really just seeing a veneer hiding internal anger. Instead, we need to realize we are all just people.
I wonder how the individualistic culture relates to the concern about caste. If people have a strong group identity with roles and responsibilities, do they really care what others are doing? It is a duty to your family and group to continue on the path. You have a distinct realm of possibilities that you can make the most out of. There may be aspiration to be like others, but an understanding that it is not possible. Were people generally content in that world maximizing potential in their sphere? Today, there is a strong ethos of individual empowerment. The groups which one belongs to is seen as a "choice". Being brought down by accident of birth is seen as a bug in the system and leads to misery.
Perhaps the biggest flaw in the argument is ignoring class. It is stated that poor whites outnumber poor blacks. This lower class is near the bottom of the social latter. The only thing that had been propping them up is the feeling that they were better than other races. Now they don't have that anymore. Even worse, they have people telling them they are bad and wrong. How do we bring up the lower caste without bringing down the lower class? It was often the "just above the lowest rung" that would inflict punishment on the lowest. We can easily end up with a situation where the now empowered lower caste people are now being even more negative towards whoever now resides at the bottom. True victory can only be obtained when physical appearance is disconnected from physical worth. The assimilation of "whiteness" in the US in that sense can be considered a huge success. Can it be done society-wide? Or was it only possible by having a "non-white" foil?
Wednesday, February 24, 2021
All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries (The Murderbot Diaries, 1)
The book explores a world where "bots" take over many of the lower-caste work in society. They are part human, part machine, yet treated as property. They also have limited rights and responsibility. On the other side, there are "augmented humans" that are "high class". It poses some interesting exploration of consequences of a human-machine singularity.
Legendborn
Monday, February 22, 2021
American Dirt (Oprah's Book Club): A Novel
American Dirt centers on Lydia (mom) and Lucha's (young boy) voyage to the United States. They come from a middle class family in Acapulco, she runs a bookstore, while her husband is a journalist. Their entire family is murdered by a drug lord. (We later learn that a newspaper article about him caused his beloved daughter to commit suicide.) They want to get as far away from Acapulco as possible. Alas, Lucha doesn't have a photo ID, so they are not able to buy an airplane ticket. They are afraid to drive or take a bus (because they might be found by the crime boss), so they opt to join the migrant route. They jump trains with other (mostly Central American) migrants. They learn about the challenges that led the others to escape their homeland. In the process they have a number of scary encounters and close calls, but manage to make it through, eventually being guided by a coyote across the Arizona desert to finally make it to reach a relative in the US. It is hard to read the book and not have sympathy for everything that these migrants have had to go through.
The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you
Sunday, February 21, 2021
The Three-Body Problem
The Three Body civilization occupies a single planet caught in the middle of a system with three stars orbiting each other. Depending on how they orbit, the world could experience vastly different situations. However, it is impossible to precisely predict how the orbiting will be done (hence the three body problem.) On earth, there is also a three-body civilization game that is played by many of the brightest. They use some experiences from earth to try to solve this three body problem.
Earth sends out a message to try to discover if there is additional life. It is retrieved by the three-body world. However, they are unable to accurately tell where the message came from. They can tell the direction, but not the distance. One of the people on the three-body world sends a response that they should not respond. They know that the world is looking to settle a new planet. If they know where to look, they may seek to destroy the current inhabitants. Alas, a disgruntled earthling decides to send a response, seeing that as a better option than the horrid state of earth.
The three-body world sends a fleet to earth. However, they realize that earth is advancing at an exponential rate and may be more advanced than they are before they arrive. They hatch a plot involving proton folding to restrict scientific progress. This seems to work. On earth many maddening things are happening to scientists. There are also groups on earth that are intent on using the aliens to help "fix" man's wrongdoings. The other planet views humans as no more than "bugs". However, what is they status of "bugs"?
This is a well done science fiction book. The Chinese background makes it different enough, while still being very accessible in translation.
Zach King: My Magical Life
In the book, Zach comes from a family of magicians. Alas, he has not found his magic. Because of this he is required to attend a public middle school to learn like "regular people". Things do not go well. He gets on the bad side of the "mean" girl and the principal. He accidentally finds himself inside a vending machine. This seems to be a sign of getting his magic back. He later finds magic caps that allow him to transport things from one cap to another. He uses this for fun (such as getting popcorn in the movie theater), tricks and even to save the life of the mean girl.
The story blends standard middle school challenges with some of Zach King's magic. It makes for a fun story.
The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War
From his information, Britain was able to learn many of the challenges within the Soviet Union. Even the KGB was mired in its own bureaucracy. The Soviets had also come to the belief that the US was at the cusp of launching a nuclear attack. They would find all sorts of other meaningless actions that seemed to "back up" their supposition. Once Gordievsky was out of the KGB, the west was able to fully act on much of the intelligence provided. This was in the mid-80s, a half decade before the collapse of communism.
His escape from Russia was perhaps the most "unreal" part of the story. The KGB-brass had an inkling that he may be a spy and called him back to Russia. He managed to make it through the truth-serum interrogation, but knew he was likely a dead man. Through coded phone messages, an elaborate escape plan was set in motion that involved signaling using a safeway bag and mars bar. Then the getaway required breaking a multi-vehicle tail, hiding him with heat-resistant blankets in the back of a car, a baby's dirty diaper and making it through multiple checkpoints to get to Finland, then to Norway and finally to England. A young Putin was involved on the Russian side. The book credits Russian bureaucratic complacency as one factor that helped the plot to succeed.
Alas, his wife and kids were still in Russia. They were interrogated by the KGB and had a miserable life for a few years. However, after the fall of communism in the early 90s, they were able to be reunited again. Alas, by this time they had drifted apart. (They had known nothing of his spying or the escape plot and had remained loyal to the USSR.)
Saturday, February 20, 2021
Ready Player Two: A Novel
Like the first novel, this book drops endless 80s reference. Alas, the writing and story are even more tedious. A battle with different versions of Prince is way over the top. It feels as if he has just run out of ideas and just tries to throw out whatever he can and hope it sticks.
The Faded Sun Trilogy
Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment
Poor white people have "lost out" on the quest for identity. Blacks, immigrants, Hispanics, Native Americans and other groups have their associated identity. They can seek to advocate for their historical religion and culture. They also advocate for social justice and favored position. Whites are viewed as the "dominate" culture. They are not permitted by society to advocate for their culture. Their culture is viewed as imperialistic. Even advocating their positions is viewed as racist. While people would be shunned for using slurs for other groups, using slurs for poor whites is encouraged. The "elite" whites are primarily in control of culture and institution. They are the ones that also encourage the political correct views that shun "white" culture. The poor whites have been turned into persona non-grata. They are viewed as controlling imperialists, even though they have no power. Their culture, religion and institutions are mocked. They seek somebody to represent them. This is the situation that enabled Trump and Brexit. Trump finally spoke freely in a why that made these people feel they had an advocate.
The domination of "Identity" could eventually lead to the downfall of our multicultural society. Could this be the way in which a "unified" China easily dominates the United States?
A Sky Beyond the Storm: An Ember in the Ashes, Book 4
Saturday, February 13, 2021
The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature
There are many interesting theories put out and discarded in the book. The book even ends admitting that much of what is written will be proven wrong. Humans have adapted quite well to dominate the current world. Will we continue to do so?
Friday, February 12, 2021
The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz
Calculated Risks: How to Know When Numbers Deceive You
Breast cancer is called out as something where bad statistical understanding has lead to negative outcomes. Studies have shown no increase in life lived with universal mammograms for people under 50. However, there is a significant risk of false positives. There is also an increased risk of cancer caused by the radiation exposure in the test. Alas, rather than being upset at needless intervention, people are often relieved when a doctor cuts into the breast only to find no cancer. The many statistics about breast cancer lead to confusion. There is a fairly high prevalence of the cancer in women. However, it is often not the cause of death. Similar to prostate cancer, many people that die of other causes are found to have the cancer. These cancers are often benign and do not negatively impact the quality of life. However, treating these with surgery and/or radiation does negatively impact the life.
The book gives an example of expressing data differently. "If cancer probability is .8%. If somebody has breast cancer, there is a 90% chance of a positive mammogram. If they don't have cancer, there is a 7% chance of positive mammogram." From this example, it looks like a positive test result makes it extremely likely that one has cancer. However, expressing in frequencies makes it more clear. "8 of 1000 women have breast cancer. Of these 8, 7 will have a positive test. Of the 992 without cancer, 70 will have a positive test". This is the same data expressed differently. However, it makes it much more clear that somebody with a positive result most likely does not have cancer.
Knowing the prevalence in a population can be extremely important in understanding results. If somebody has HIV, there is a 99.9% chance they get a positive test result. If they are not infected, there is a 99.99% chance they will get a negative test. This seems like the test is rock solid. However, if somebody is not in a high risk category, their chance of having HIV is about 0.01%. Thus in a group of 10,000 low-risk men, 1 will have the virus and 9999 will not. The one with the virus will likely get a positive result. Of the 9999 men without HIV, there will also be 1 likely test result. Thus, even with the very high specificity and sensitivity, a positive result from a low risk population only has a 50% chance of being accurate. In the case of AIDS, many people have committed suicide after getting a positive result, even though the accuracy of this result for their population is about the same as a coin flip.
Criminal Justice often misuses statistics on both sides. In the OJ Simpson trial, the defense portrayed his beating of his wife as irrelevant to the his wive's eventual murder. There are millions of men that beat their wives, yet only a small number that eventually murder them. However, expressing in different frequencies produces a different result. Of 100,000 battered women, 45 were murdered. This seems to back up the defense. However, of the 45 murdered women, 40 were murdered by their partners, while 5 were murdered by somebody else. Oops! Now it seem that the wife beating may be very relevant indicator of a murder. The inverse of this is the "prosecutors fallacy". Here, the prosecutor infers that the probability of observing a set of characteristics is the probability that a defendant is innocent.
The book ends with some hypothetical problems and examples of "deliberate misleading" with statistics. (In one case, risk was expressed using low absolute numbers, while benefit was shown using high relative numbers.) Statistical literacy is a key trait in society today. Alas, even most highly educated people do not have it and will fall prey to intentional (and unintentional) misleading representations.
Tuesday, February 09, 2021
Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
The book is filled with examples in which narrow specialists miss out on a key insights that outsiders were able to bring to the table. Specialists have their place. They often work within established norms and processes to carry out small scale improvements. However, we need the generalists to apply knowledge from elsewhere to make the big improvements in society. Our current state of uber-specialization is concerning, but it also creates opportunities for generalists to achieve.
Another related topic brought up in the book is "late bloomers". We often hear about the child prodigies. However, there are also people that pivot later in life to a new field or activity. There are many examples of success, especially with people that have been able to apply learnings from other fields. People don't necessarily need to know everything. However, a breadth of experience can be helpful in putting things together in different ways for the benefit of society.
Saturday, February 06, 2021
Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath
As the story of her life progressed into adulthood, my interest waned. Plath came across as somewhat cocky. No longer the young striver, she was the young adult that was manipulating others while she was being manipulated. She fell into the various foibles of young adulthood. She was still motivated to continue writing and was willing to work through rejections to get her works published. The relationship with Ted Hughes seemed like a teenage romance that she wanted to turn into a domestic life. It felt like she was struggled between the desire to be a mother while also carry on an independent intellectual life. Alas, Hughes was a serial philanderer. He did great in the "fun" department, but not so much for the "domesticated". (The book focusses on the "good part". Plath eventually committed suicide. Perhaps it was a problem with her medication that drove her to it. Or perhaps she thought she would live through it as she had done before. Regardless, she probably achieved much more fame in death than she did in life.
Would Plath have faded into obscurity had she not died at an early age? Perhaps she would have focussed more on motherhood and let her writing fall by the wayside. Or perhaps she had her best years writing ahead of her. Or maybe she would have spent all the time battling mental illness. We will not know. The biography starts out strong, then fades near the end. Comet is an apt metaphor for the life portrayed.
The Master and Margarita
The Royal Ranger: The Missing Prince: Ranger's Apprentice, Book 4
In The Missing Prince Will and Maddie disguise themselves as performers to help assist with some internal conflicts in a neighboring realm. In the process, they manage to break up two rings of common street thugs and master the art of performing (singing and throwing knives). Their main goal is to rescue a prince that has been held captive. They don't have much respect for any of the leadership of the Kingdom. However, they feel that the current inept ruler is better than the strong pretender to the throne. The story moves along quickly, but there is little suspense. The book felt short. I was also disappointed with he "too bed continued" ending.
Tuesday, February 02, 2021
Mozart: The Reign of Love
Mozart: The Reign of Love goes through the basic biographical timeline of Mozart's life. However, it also delves deeply into the analysis of his key works. (It would be great to have an accompanying Spotify playlist.) I found myself sometimes consulting Wikipedia as I got lost in the music details and wanted a quick rundown of life history. On the history side, Mozart is portrayed as no so much of the playboy he was made out to be in Amadeus. (Interestingly, Amadeus was not a name he frequently used. Mozart was multilingual, and this was merely a translation of one of his middle names. It only became part of his canonical name after later biographers latched on to it.) Wolfgang did delight in scatological joke-making. However, he was also extremely dedicated to his work. He tended to write music more for his own pleasure than purely for commercial reasons. (However, he loved to live to good life, and was often desperate for more money.) He was well respected in his time as a brilliant musician and composer. However, he also was prone to overwork, and often got sick. The medical system was often a hinderance more than a help, thus was not able to prevent his early death.