Inheritors

Inheritors by Asako Serizawa

How where the Japanese impacted by World War II? This book contains a gorup of tightly-coupled stories of a family that span the time before and after World War II. There were family members that had a strong loyalty to the emperor and country and wanted to serve. There was also a discovery that there was Korean ancestry in the family. Family members had been involved in secret biological weapons work, including research on involuntary human subjects. The book continues to modern times and alternate-reality worlds that end up becoming intermeshed with the real world. There are family "secrets" that only become disclosed after many years - often limiting the chance for people to know their relatives until their death.

The family spanned both America and Japan. This left them somewhat isolated and not really part of the culture of either. The mind of the traditional Japanese is difficult for Americans (even of Japanese origin) to understand.

Last Winter, We Parted

A man is in prison for murder. A writer talks to him to try to uncover the story. In the process, he learns that there is much more to the story. The man is a photographer who set fire to his model and took pictures of her in flames. This may be to get a great picture, but the pictures were not that impressive. There is also plenty of conversation about photography and interesting relationships with people. The conclusion is even more unexpected.

Flying Blind: The 737 MAX Tragedy and the Fall of Boeing

Flying Blind is a hatchet job on the modern Boeing. The bean counters took over. The beginning of the end was the late 90s acquisition of McDonnell Douglas. The later had a much more competitive, hostile culture. The joke was that MCD bought Boeing with Boeing's money. The culture soon permeated the company. Things got worse as the company sought out a Jack Welch proteges for CEO. The financial manipulation continued in full force. GE management concepts such as stack ranking were introduced. There was an emphasis on managing for financial results. Stock buybacks were preferred over research and development. The headquarters was moved to Chicago, away from the engineering center. Many functions were divested and contracted out. Operations were moved to non-union locations. At the same time, government oversight had been reduced, with airlines doing the bulk of the certification effort.

This was the situation under which the 737max was developed. Boeing needed a refresh to compete with Airbus and the increased inroads of regional jet manufacturers. By calling it an update of the 737, Boeing could save on a lot of the expenses. Certification would be straightforward and pilot training would be minimized. The plane was different from other 737s. To compensate for some of the changes, software fixes were implemented. The MCAS system would rely on sensor data to correct flight patterns to prevent stalls. It seemed like a good idea. However, later changes were made to account for another possible situation by relying on only a single sensor. To make matters worse, it was an extra charge to be able to see details on the status of this sensor. There were also no details as to what MCAS would do and how to avoid it. 

Sure enough a plane crashed due to the system activating on take off due to faulty sensor data. This was on a third world airline with a questionable record. It was easy to chalk it up to poor maintenance or pilot error. Boeing tried to brush it away and pay off the victims. Then a similar thing happened to Ethiopian airlines. This was also on the "other side of the globe". However, this was a well run airline and pilots had seemed to do everything they should. With multiple planes falling out of the sky, governments soon moved to ground the 737max. It would take over a year before it was back up. The government now had a much stronger interest in regulation. This was a sad case of a software bug killing people due to a lack of testing of edge cases and human reaction. Some people did voice concerns, but they were hushed. Boeing didn't want the small additional cost of more simulator training.  (According to sources, Southwest had copy and pasted language for a $1 million penalty per plane if simulator training were required. Boing has paid over a $1 billion in compensation alone for the MAX incident - and Southwest is training pilots with simulators.)

There are a lot of angles to view the source of the MAX tragedy. This book zeroes in on corporate culture.

Ball Lightning

Ball Lightning is a rarely seen, not very well understood form of lightning-look power. In the book, Cixin Liu creates his own explanation of it. The novel starts with the protagonist's parents getting vaporized before his eyes. This drives him to explore ball lightning. He meets up with others that have interest in the subject. One woman is keen an using in as a weapon. A scientist has an understanding of the phenomenon as in the quantum realm. Those incinerated by ball lightning live in a state of being neither dead nor alive. The whole concept is not understood with our current understanding of physics. The ball lightning effects can be used to wipe out electronics, vaporize specific things or control tornados. Various parts of the research are used as both offense and defense in a war that breaks out. In the end some research foreshadows "others" watching the earth (in the three body problem.) The author has a nice afterward where he explains how he was influenced by other science fiction writers to create this novel. The novel has a fairly "young" feel to it - at times it feels almost like a young adult sci-fi novel. Then it bounces to more detailed scientific explanation. There is warfare and destruction, but it feels like it is more at a distance. It is interesting that there is a progression from the child-focused Supernova Era to the young adult Ball Lightning and then the more dark adult Three Body Problem. 

Supernova Era

A distant store has gone supernova. This has sent particles to earth that cause chromosome damage. All adults will die within a year. However, children are able to repair their chromosomes and will continue to live. The earth needs to plan for children quickly taking over.

The adults detonate all the nuclear warheads and plan for themselves to drive out to caves and remote areas to end their lives and launch the children-led era of utopia.

The utopia is short lived. Immediately after the adults leave, many of the little children start freaking out. The leadership command center is inundated with calls. They eventually get things under control. The climate also causes issues. Sea levels rise, flooding some land.

The US leadership decides the world needs to play a "real" wargame. The other countries think this is a bad idea, but they play along. The games will take place in Antarctica. This begins the "Lord of Flies" phase of the book. (It even acknowledges "Lord of the Flies".) Eventually, the USA keeps upping the ante, settling on nuclear warheads. They seem to have a small stash that were not destroyed. Nobody comes to China's aid. However, it turns out some special observers had codes for the Chinese nuclear missile. The games finally end as the missile is launched. A large number of children do still remain on Antarctica, however, they need to vacate once the earth rapidly cools back to a more "normal" temperature.

As a final action, the USA and China agree to switch land. The book then ends with an epilogue.

It is an interesting story, though it feels somewhat underdeveloped. It is an interesting concept of the children being fully in control that would have a lot of ways to explore. The implication is that they managed to continue a society, but we just see a few small glimpses of what happened. 

Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Forde

Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is a sappy tween love story that yanks on the heart strings. The story alternates between Seattle during World War II and Seattle of the mid 80s. Henry Lee is the son of strong Chinese nationalist father. He gets a "scholarship" to a white school, where he works in the kitchen with a Japanese girl, Keiko. Their friendship develops, much to the chagrin of his father. However, the Japanese internment separates the two. He manages to visit her in the camp on the Washington State fairgrounds as well as in Idaho. In the future, Henry has recently buried his wife and is watching his son come of age as he is graduating from college. Artifacts are discovered in the Panama hotel, and he searches through them to find remembrances of his youth.

The plot moves quickly and is loaded with vivid descriptions and street locations of Seattle of the 1940s. It makes you want to jump out and explore the International District (and wonder what was destroyed with the Freeway running right through there.) The Japanese Internment plays a big role in the story, with the emphasis on the decisions of individual people. There are few "evil" characters involved, yet some people's understanding of the "right thing" could be very harmful to others. Those who seek out the positive can remain happy regardless of the circumstances. The little bit of hope that is obtained can go a long way towards continuing on the path of happiness even when things appear miserable. (The Japanese do seem to be the master of making the best of a bad situation - It reminds me of the impeccable stadium and locker room after the Japanese soccer team lost.)

The love story stands well on its own. Two young kids are "forced" to advance their friendship by the circumstances of war. However, the same thing that hurries the relationship on also causes it to reach its premature end. Both are happy living their new life apart and with others. There is no need to look back at what had been. However, there is still opportunity to come back and celebrate the later life.

There is a complicated theme of family relationships. Fathers try to do what is best for their children. However, they can often pass along their own "bad behaviors" to their children even as they try to avoid them. There is also the relationship between Henry and a jazz street saxaphonist that winds its way through the story. They meet as Henry is going to the white school. They become friends and help each other out. The jazz music becomes a special unifying force among all of them.

Physics of the Future

This book would make a great source of inspiration for science fiction novels. There are chapters here about energy from space, nuclear fusion, nanobots and all sorts of technology. The author even peppers the book with actual science fiction allusions. (Star Trek - money? What's that. Nanobots can make everything. However, an emotionless android would not be capable of being a good crew member. Honey I shrunk the Kids? Nope, physics would be totally different at the small level. Terminator? AI research is probably a long way off from getting a senscient computer.)

The book's fault is that it seems to be extremely optimistic towards the progress of science. It does acknowledge the "caveman principle" that we may like contact and physical stuff. Some inventions like the paperless office are doomed to fail because of this. (Or are they? Offices do seem to be getting more and more paperless. It is just not a sudden thing.) Face to face visits are still needed for all the personal contact. However, even beyond these there is the cost of the "Technology". Even if we could create technology to eliminate all our work, would we? If nanobots could produce anything for nothing, accumulation of "stuff" might be simple. But what about property? That is still scarce. We seem to be drowning in too much affluence. We could make automatic cars, but what about the roads? Where would we park all the cars? Reducing pollution might be a nice goal, but what about all the other impacts of cars? And what if medicine could cure just about every disease automatically through little chips. Would we simply become computers? Maybe our destiny is to design the new computers that will be our robotic progeny? Or perhaps a terrorist will use some of it to wipe out most of the earth, and send the world back into a dark age. Or we may even go the way of the dinosaurs.

I want to check out Jules Verne's Paris of the 20th century. I wonder how accurately his view of the future sounded. The problem with future predictions is that it never really goes forward linearly. Some new idea may disrupt the entire train of research. Or a physically inferior form of technology may get a huge amount of money behind it and inflict itself upon the market. Looking at what science can logically be able to do may be a good start. (I didn't realize we actually had fusion now, just not practical fusion.) However, things are never that linear in real life.

He also talks about the phases that things go through. At one time books were precious commodities. Then the price came down where everybody could afford them. Then everyone could afford a library. And now paper is a number one source of trash and books are often more about "fashion statements". He predicts computer chips will follow the same path. They will become embedded everywhere and eventually become a source of much trash. However, he predicts Moore's law will eventually collapse, bringing down much of Silicon Valley with it. (Ah, there is an issue. Silicon Valley has become more of an "innovation" and software hub than a chip producing location. Less rapid increases in processing may change some of the focus on computing, but probably wont be vary disastrous on the area as a whole. Even recently, focus has downshifted to the less powerful mobile devices. If hardware innovation slows, we can expect a lot more in the software innovation front.)

Discussion of economics also gets a little fuzzy. According to the author, all economic bubbles were caused by technological innovation. The previous generation's bubbles were forgotten and thus a new bubble. The bubble happens when the financiers of the new technology have more money than they know what to do with. The actual use of it happens later. The 19th century panics were caused by railroad money. However, the railroad was eventually expanded, providing the benefit. The real estate bubble was caused by internet money needing a place to go. This explanation makes sense on the surface, but seems a little too simplistic in practice.

This book does provide a good overview of technologies that are on the cusp of widespread commercialization. It has, perhaps, a little too much faith in its scientific predictive powers (especially when it veers into the social realm.) However, it still provides lots of fodder for futuristic immaginations.