Pursuing the Good Life by Christopher Peterson

I was enthusiastic when I started reading this book. Truthfully, it got to be a bit of a slog in the middle - even a little annoying at times. It often seemed the author just rambled on (like professors sometimes do) from one odd topic to another. I was looking for something concrete, and I didn't see it all that often. BUT,

when I got near the end, I got some of what I'd hope to get from the book. Probably the best chapter was second to last - it was on separating the ends from the means and having a vision as the ends. The very last chapter was pretty good as well - Scrabble as a metaphor for good living - yes, that one was interesting. There may have been a few others earlier on in the book that were pretty good, but I can't recall any of these specifically. I give the book 4 out of 5 stars, instead of 3 out of 5, since the last few chapters were very well done.

In any case, the subtitle of this book is a clue that it will be a bit different: 100 Reflections on Positive Psychology. Not your usual psychology book where you'd look at the dark side - phobias, anxiety, depression etc. Instead, this book focuses on positives. Questions considered here include: What makes life most worth living? and How can we pursue a good life? I didn't see very many clear answers to those questions in the book, with the exceptions noted above.

This book gives readers one hundred short readings. I have to admit that the title of one more than anything convinced me that I had to read this book: "How Can You Tell If Someone from France is Happy?" I just had to know - most of my ancestors came from France and even I wasn't sure. To be honest, I'm not sure the answer I got was all that definite. Maybe it was just me.

The book is OK overall. I had hoped for much more.

Immortality by Stephen Cave

The title of this book says a lot. Immortality: the Quest to Live Forever and How It Drives Civilization. Certainly made me stop and take a look.

The author shows four possible paths to the goal of immortality that people have pursued for a long, long time: (1) Staying Alive (via magic or science); (2) Resurrection (via rising from the dead like Jesus or reanimation like in Frankenstein); (3) Soul (via heaven or reincarnation); and (4) Legacy (via fame or genes). Interesting discussion provided with each, including possible origins and how they affected civilization in big ways.

Each of these paths is examined by the author in some detail and found wanting. Cutting to the chase, the author thinks that none of the four work; in fact, he does not seem to think that immortality is any usual sense of the term is possible. A fifth path of sorts, that has been around a while, but not as popular perhaps, is then presented - Wisdom. It has three parts: identifying with others, focus on the present, and gratitude; I think it is fair to say that the author concludes that it is best to practice this fifth path which allows you to stay sane/content and then you die and that's it for you, but no big deal because ...

I did like the book, but I found the author's analysis incomplete. To me the most glaring issue here is that he does not consider many possibilities concerning the existence of the soul and how an immortal would not get bored which stem from eastern religions and other sources commonly known. And he does not seem to allow for the fact that some very important things remained undetected by science for a very long time, then suddenly where shown to exist, at least indirectly. How about dark matter and dark energy? Maybe they will explain the soul. Who knows?

This would have been a five out of five star book if not for the authors rush to a conclusion. The best I can give it is four.

That being said, there is lots of good food for thought here. I recommend the book but with the caveats above.

Freeware by Rudy Rucker

This is the third book in the Ware Tetralogy. Some of the characters from the two previous books continue on in this one - like Stahn, "Sta-Hi".

First, this book is kind of weird. The robots have "evolved" into creatures with bodies made of imipolex plastic that is infused with molds and algae. Sort of an unexpected result of the attempt to shut them down in the previous book. The "moldies" as they are now called, smell pretty bad, but they sexually "turn on" some humans - called "cheeseballs". If this concept upsets you, then this book is not for you. The sex is not super graphic, but it is made clear what goes on - and on.

Many moldies live on Earth and seem to fill servile roles for the most part. There are many on the moon as well who live apart from the humans there. Some humans like the moldies, while many do not.

It is hard to summarize what goes on in the book. Some of it seems a little pointless, but the book is entertaining for the most part - though to me the sexual parts with the moldies and cheeseballs did go a bit far. We may see the point of some of the action here when we get to the fourth book in the series.

The last part of this book concerns aliens arriving in the form of cosmic rays. Apparently, the rays carry information that can be decoded and downloaded into a moldie body and the alien can then interact with humans and regular moldies. Sort of a cool concept in many respects. The moldies figure out the decoding and try it out, but things soon go awry.

Some of these aliens are friendly and even spiritual, but one of them makes a big problem. All but one of the aliens is killed by humans - maybe an over reaction, but maybe not. The one called Shimmer survives - she comes from a place where they experience time as 2 dimensional and this seems to save her. Another cool concept, this 2-D time thing - Shimmer explains it in some detail. Food for thought here. She seems benevolent, but the book ends before we can be sure.

The fourth and last book of the series remains; it is called Realware. The series is a bit weird, but it has been entertaining and has provided some food for thought. I do have to see how it ends. I'll let you know how it looked to me when I get done with the last book. Should be soon.

That's all for now.

Wetware by Rudy Rucker

This is the second book in the Rucker's Ware Tetralogy.

What is wetware? I think I know, but I am not sure how to explain it. A biological computer perhaps?

In any case, in this book, the robots (boppers) make a sort of human-bopper hybrid. The humans, with a few exceptions, are not amused and take extreme action. This includes killing the hybrids and infecting the boppers with a mold.

This mold appears to shut down the boppers, but it also seems to work some kind of transformation on them as well. Where will this lead? Maybe the third book will tell us.

The second book brings back many characters that we met in the first book and tells about a very weird drug called merge. Merge makes people sort of melt.

I would give this book four and not five stars out of five, because it is kind of weird. But, it is entertaining and provides much food for thought. As to the latter, where is the line between life and machine? Not an easy question to answer as this book illustrates. But, then, maybe the questions is not as important as it seems at first. Yes, it is one of those kind of things. :)

The book may also make readers wonder about life and death. As in, what is the meaning of each. It does provide an inkling of answers perhaps.

I look forward to reading book three - and then four.

See what you think.

Software

Software is the first in a tetralogy by Rudy Rucker - the others are Wetware, Freeware and Realware. All four are available in a one volume edition - the Ware Tetralogy. Like other books by Rucker that I have read, it is a bit strange, but it did hold my interest. Software won the first PKD award.

Cobb Anderson invented robots that appear to have developed sentience. They live on the moon and have continued to "evolve". Now there are little boppers and big boppers - boppers is the name of these sentient robots.

Many years go by and Anderson is old and in bad shape. He is asked to go to the moon and told that the boppers will make him immortal. He goes there with a young drug addict called Sta-Hi and is transformed. The two return and things get really weird - even more so than before. :) You'll never look at Mr. Frostee the same again - trust me.The ending leaves you hanging, but maybe things will be explained somewhere in the three books that follow in the tetralogy - I've just started the second book, so I'm not sure as of yet.

Earth is a real mess in the time of the story, but still recognizable. The characters are very flawed personalities, but I found myself liking them anyway. Plenty food for thought on what makes us who we are. Is it our software?

I'm anxious to find out where the succeeding books will take us.

Do You Speak American? by MacNeil and Cran

Overall, I liked the book, but there were some things about it that I thought were off - which I'll point out as I go here.

There are 8 chapters and an introduction for a total of about 200 pages. The book follows a kind of cross country trip format and looks at the various regional dialects/accents of American English. I'll comment on the chapters that I found the most interesting.

The chapter on Hispanics is of note. The authors claim that the longer particular Hispanics live here, the more they shift to using English. They claim that the reason what we see today looks otherwise is that Hispanic immigration is continuous, so we are always seeing new arrivals - in time, the newbies will be speaking decent English they say. Many people feel that current government policy is making it too easy for new arrivals to get by without learning English, so they won't. We'll see who is right.

It did seem surprising to learn that black English is diverging more than ever from white English. With the end of segregation, it would seem like the opposite would be the case. If the authors are correct, then we have a big problem here.

I'm not sure what to say about the chapter on California. Val Speak was mocked more than adopted as I recall.

The chapter on teaching computers to talk was very interesting. Personally, I hate talking to a computer on the phone, but maybe this will be less weird in future as computers understand what we say to them better than they do now.

There were a few places in the book where political correctness crept in. It is pretty hard to maintain objectivity when this happens. The authors did, however, quote someone making fun of JFK's accent - politically incorrect, perhaps. Was this for balance? :)

The authors spent a lot of time on some regional or ethnic accents and little or none on others. It's not all that clear to me why that was.

There was almost nothing on the New Orleans accents - a shame.

You can hear several different accents when listening to people from New Orleans speak - the Cajun accent is very rare there. Yat is pretty common - like a Brooklyn accent with southern expressions like y'all and dahling (darling).  Some people there speak with a light drawl that is distinct from other southern type accents - mine turned into a variation of this one after we moved to New Orleans when I was in middle school and stayed this way I guess. There are others of course, including the accents of many black people from there. The New Orleans area is not all that large land wise, but many very different accents can be heard there. Not sure why this got so little attention in the book.

I was disappointed in the section describing "Cajun English" - I'm Cajun, so I can have an opinion here. The accent described in the book does exist, but it is much heavier than that of most Cajuns today - even my 95 year old grandmother has a much lighter accent than this. A visit to Mamou does not tell the whole story - which is what the authors seemed to think it would. If you speak to people in southwest Louisiana (Cajun Country), especially younger people in the larger towns, you'll hear a lighter accent as a rule - and even less if they are college graduates, and there are many of these today.

Mixing in French expressions when Cajuns speak English is less common than the book makes it out to be. I will do this from time to time when talking with people I know very well from there - usually when talking about something relating to Louisiana that we find especially amusing or very tragic. We will also tend to pronounce English words with a heavy Cajun accent too at these times as well to make it flow well. But, this is not usual. Enough said.

I guess the big surprise is that the authors conclude that, overall, the speech of Americans is not converging, despite people from all over the country watching the same TV programs, reading the same new feeds, etc for many years now. Seems odd. Will this continue? We'll see.

The book is not all that long and an easy read. Recommended if the topic grabs you.

Big Data by Mayer-Schonberger and Cukier

Big data is the new "big thing". A good book here to get a basic understanding about what is going on with it.

The one word chapter titles give you a good idea of what to expect in the book: Now, More, Messy, Correlation, Datafication, Value, Implications, Risks, Control and Next.

I took some online courses relating to Big Data before I read the book. I think the authors did a good job explaining the subject, without getting into too much detail. I kind of wish I had read the book BEFORE I took the courses. It would have given me a helpful overview/perspective.

The "distinction" made between correlation and causation is one of the most useful parts of the book if you ask me.

I did not like the last chapter or so of the book all that much though. I thought the text there was a bit preachy and too full of the authors' "personal opinions" and tended towards conclusions that were less certain than the authors would have you believe.

That being said, I did agree that using Big Data to create a society like that in MINORITY REPORT would be a very bad thing. However, using it to predict whether potential parolees would commit serious crimes if let out and denying parole if the chance of them committing further crime was high is not the same thing - they have been convicted of a crime and getting out of prison early is not really a right, but more of a privilege.

Overall, I thought the book was well done and do recommend it.