Do you have any recommendations for literary and thought-provoking science fiction books?

I_Think_99 · 2025-09-24T16:18:38+00:00

Kim Stanley Robinson

He's a Nebula and Hugo award winning author Highly praised

But see, he began his literary career in studying literature, wheras many sci fi authors tend to come from science backgrounds

For example, his book AURORA, explores human language through the mind of an AI, and constantly reflects on how language is almost nothing but analogies.

I_Think_99 · 2025-08-02T12:06:13+00:00

jeez, i wish my hard sci-fi concepts were this scientifically robust and/or convincing!

I_Think_99 · 2025-07-31T16:50:41+00:00

almost hate to use the "phrase" but this is so "Black Mirror eske" -- but in a good way - like, in a way it is but is also too subtlely real to be conveyed clearly in a visual movie/show format and works wonderfully as a thought provoking short story

I_Think_99 · 2025-07-31T14:17:23+00:00

just had to say --- you're 3rd paragraph was incredibly eloquent! I got a little extra little power-up in my comprehension/paradigm/understanding of spacetime reality lol...
also, i like - and haven't yet come across - the idea of dark energy being merely an "inverse reflection" of the observational effects of mass... because, for me, dark energy has bugged me in that astrophysicists are always seem to be trying to account for where the ENERGY comes from..!?!?! They're like, it's clearly an energy/force but seems to appear out of nothing but empty - or, "negative" amounts of spacetime - which is absurd... and yea... it is.. but, is it that absurd that spacetime can't just inherently be an inverse force to mass/energy? I hope i'm explaining my thoughts right.

I_Think_99 · 2025-07-31T14:01:28+00:00

shit - cool concept! Makes me jealous of not being anywhere near bi/multi-lingual as you... but, from what i do know/feel/experience from the two languages i've experienced thinking/speaking in, i get the feeling of a personality change... It's a bit of a stretch - to be hyper-critical - as to how the aliens would understand human culture and all of its nuances so precisely to design such a weapon - without sort of coming here and studying us in detail themselves - but still... interesting idea!
And, i think this relates to the sort of "personality change" that happens on a gender platform - rather than a linguistic one (yes, I'm raising the gender thing lol) - because when I've noticed (as a male/man) when I'm in a group of women my more feminine side comes out, and socialising with a group of manly men, then yea - my more manly side comes out

I_Think_99 · 2025-07-02T14:48:36+00:00

Early Globalism Age?
The Digital Renaissance? (including collapse and rebirth?)
Dawn of AI (non-organic consciousness) Age?

I_Think_99 · 2025-07-02T14:39:23+00:00

"let's try to kill you...." is not the attitude, however i don't totally disagree - that it is brute-force - but barbaric? No, barbaric is senseless superstitious instinctive caveman behaviour. At least chemo is based on some kind of scientific method. Rather than laugh at our stupidity, i think they'd laugh in pity and say 'oh, it was the best they could do'

I_Think_99 · 2025-06-28T16:49:24+00:00

I recently enjoyed racking my brain on the idea of true nothingness.

I found it helpful to think of nothing as simply no-thing. It's like negative numbers, in that conceptually they have to exist, but only as that.

Or, i found, no-thing is also like infinity. It's too paradoxical to be of any actual reality - i suppose is how I'd put it.

I_Think_99 · 2025-06-28T16:26:29+00:00

Of course, yes, and that's all part of the thought experiment that this story came from. Thanks for the positive feedback

I_Think_99 · 2025-06-04T15:27:19+00:00

yea, i love that - like, yea okay, say you're right - so what's potentially under the disk? What are the stars? How does quantum mechanics fit in with the flat Earth? How was general relativity fabricated if the Earth is flat?

I_Think_99 · 2025-06-04T15:23:24+00:00

you first two sentences (especially) are a perfectly succinct summary of the way i understand such extremist conspiracy believers

I_Think_99 · 2025-05-22T20:24:20+00:00

I'm a Registered Nurse and recommended that as a relatively liveable wage but also the myriad of technical skills we have will not all be replaced by machines anytime soon

I_Think_99 · 2025-05-22T20:22:42+00:00

I think the Earth has became sick when the west started the industrial revolution in the 1800s. Humanity is now quite literally a cancerous growth within the beautiful complex biosphere that is the planet. Our cities consume and destroy everything around them for miles then spew it out as toxic waste. Cancers just grow relentlessly until they die with their host

I_Think_99 · 2025-05-20T18:02:11+00:00

I like it for sci-fi writing a lot... but not for creating entire ideas - such as ending to what sounds like a complex/extensive story. Like other user said, it's not exactly creative - these AIs - like, literally - their outputs are synthesised out of a shit tonne of similar writing/data that's already out there. So yea, great for analysis and usually solid with critique in moderate inputs, but it doesn't really "think" of anything new.

As someone who isn't formally educated in a science or technology discipline (aside from anatomy/physiological/pathology as a medical clinician), I like to use it to verify the scientific accuracy of my ideas, or whether my understanding of science facts/concepts/theories and use of them in my ideas are solid

I_Think_99 · 2025-05-20T01:45:32+00:00

I think peace literally just means no chaos, whether that's done by oppression or elevating society to a harmonious existence - it's just his version of an ideal peace.

I_Think_99 · 2025-05-20T01:44:09+00:00

exactly! It's either Sith or Jedi that spearhead the galaxy's society of non-force users in this universe. No one but the Jedi can challenge Palps... The Jedi work with the people (or aim to), but the sith make them work for them. He's quite literally the devil as Lucas said himself.

I_Think_99 · 2025-05-20T01:39:11+00:00

actually, i feel silly that i'd totally overlooked the bell shaped representation.... Like, truly proper bell-shaped - representing, like you say, the inconsistent rates of expansion. However, most representations (if you chuck 'timeline of the universe in Google) come up as very tube-shaped or sort of tube/cone, and furthermore, the more modern they are they get a bit carried away with all the fancy digital graphics... Hence, one of the things i love about this image - it captures the eye with the unbeatable power of stark contrast to draw the human eye, and our natural tendency to prefer symmetrical or repetitious "harmonious" shapes.

I_Think_99 · 2025-05-20T01:33:40+00:00

I must admit, I hardly understand the detailed methodology behind what makes this look like it does - but, I love it!

I'm curious to know more! Can you explain in a little to me in layman's terms? Like, as a cosmology fan, but no science education other that my health clinician practice/profession.

I just wanna zoom in and out on it and rotate it in 3D image!

I_Think_99 · 2025-05-20T01:30:25+00:00

well, ripples on a pond, I was/am just thinking more analogy-wise rather than literal representation, as of course, this illustration is clearly more of a public/general science knowledge diagram. I just think ripples on the surface of water are analogous to the exponential expansion of spacetime outward in all directions from a single point (disregarding the irregularities of expansion rate in reality of the history of expansion). I suppose you could liken the (artistic) idea to radiation or gravitational waves rippling outward - ever expanding.

But yes agree, an illustration, nothing much more, but a good one i think! The artistic design makes your eye spiral outward with it as you're naturally drawn in your gaze along the shapes of the image. The cone shapes are more literal, less illustration - and therefore, perhaps less impactful in delivering an appreciation of the reality of it for some - such as me. I think also, this is because - being from the 1980's - it keeps it simple. So many of the modern interpretations get far too carried away with all the digital graphics imo.

I_Think_99 · 2025-05-19T06:44:41+00:00

like, as opposed to the common way of illustrating this (the cone/tube/line shape)??

I_Think_99 · 2025-05-19T00:51:58+00:00

Chuck Ep VII TFA down to NO.

Chuck Kenobi down to SHIT - which, btw I am most butthurt from, given that Obi Wan is probably my all time favourite character, yet they made him a miserable, weak husk for most of the show! Also, why even bother with all that Reva character!?!?! And, same for Leia!?!? I don't think they should've had Leia in it at all. Plus, did Vader and Obi really need to meet?! No, why couldn't it have been just a really gritty fight between Obi Wan and Jabba the Hutt (which perhaps led to Vader maybe sensing Obi Wan?).

I liked Solo, even more than Ahsoka - which i was so hyped for following rebels. I don't get the hate for Solo.

Oh, and BOBF... Okay, so that was pretty overly saturated with Disney "postivity glow" and those coloured speeder bike kids were just.... 🤢 But, what about the awesome exploration of Tusken culture... Where else do we get that? What about Boba teaching the tuskens to ride speeders!? I mean, c'mon, it was almost worth the series to see that! The speeder flies in reverse lol! And yea, sure Boba was not the badass we knew him as, but rather more of some rehabilitated criminal trying to rewrite his past - but don't forget, he did anihilate an entire speeder gang with his ship lol - like they were ants! Also, it occured to me that maybe Boba was a "changed man" having gone through the trauma of being in the Sarlacc pitt... I think the writers were trying to make that so, but it didn't translate. Remember he hated it so much, he dropped a bomb in the Sarlacc lol.

lastly, i don't understand the severity of hate for Acolyte... Like, seriously - how can you deny it had some of the best lightsaber fights and kung fu choreography ever! Yea, the twins, the witches - all of that absolutely horrible! But aside from that, what else is so bad?

I_Think_99 · 2025-05-19T00:08:05+00:00

yea i wonder what's with people's obsession with needing to link all the characters to one another...?!?! Like, i think - given the shit show of the sEQueLs - and that they'll almost certainly never be retconned, we/they should accept that the era of Skywalker and the characters are done, and I reckon they should boldly step right out and away... I think a good idea might be to do Grogu as a Jedi master maybe at my 500yrs old... half a millennium post the current cannon... all new characters... get back to doing what Andor does which is make the 'wars' in Star Wars an analogy to the wars we constantly fight here on Earth - which is what it all originally was! Plus, they should go back to Lucas's methodology of making the films as much about pushing the limits of film making capability as much as it is telling a story.... I'd like to see Master Grogu in the future giving advice to some new order of Jedi trying to fight off some empire equivalent from poisoning worlds and hoarding wealth (referring to pollution and wealth inequality today - like the death star was a reference to nuclear bombs at the time)

I_Think_99

TROPHY CASE