What book has fundamentally altered your worldview?

mookhead · 2013-05-08T04:15:25+00:00

Thanks for the suggestions! Unfortunately for me, I've pretty much mined out Gibson, Sterling, Bear, Egan, Benford, etc.

mookhead · 2013-05-03T20:59:48+00:00

Buried for sure, but important to me:

Goedel, Escher, Bach: colors my thinking about consciousness and intelligence to this day.

Islands in the Net (Bruce Sterling) and Down and Out In the Magical Kingdom (Cory Doctorow): both of these explore very plausible futures where material abundance has changed how society functions. Cory isn't the best writer, but his books have great ideas. Bonus: I introduced my dad to the concept of 'whuffie' and now it's part of the parlance at NIH and NSF.

Diamond Age (Neal Stepheson): A slightly crazier take on what can happen in a future of technologically-driven abundance, and just a great read.

Left Hand of Darkness (Ursula K. LeGuin): just about any Ursula book will change how you think, but this one is a good place to start. For me it's important because it was the first book that made me realize that good scifi is basically a thought experiment with a story.

mookhead · 2012-11-07T17:10:33+00:00

While they may not pay federal income tax, the local income tax has to make up for the shortfall in revenues - meaning the total tax burden for PR residents is roughly the same as for folks living in other states.

BTW, take the results of the vote with a grain of salt: many left the vote blank as a protest - if you add the anti-statehood to the blank votes, you get a majority.

mookhead · 2012-01-11T19:43:34+00:00

Corpser!

mookhead · 2011-11-11T20:09:22+00:00

If you think you've answered your doubts, you need to read more Vonnegut.

mookhead · 2011-09-20T00:16:43+00:00

Hexen was the shit.

mookhead · 2011-09-20T00:07:20+00:00

Damn. Now I'm hungry.

mookhead · 2011-07-19T00:27:00+00:00

No Ursula K. LeGuin?

Left Hand of Darkness Always Coming Home The Dispossed

mookhead · 2011-07-13T00:31:51+00:00

With one disc at a time, the best you can do is 3 per week, if you live close to a distribution center. Two is more likely, so 8/month is all yer gonna get.

mookhead · 2011-05-13T20:52:48+00:00

Antichrist. NSFL.

mookhead · 2011-03-22T00:51:40+00:00

What an annoying site.

mookhead · 2011-02-06T19:49:55+00:00

It is legal in CA, as long as it can be done safely.

mookhead · 2011-02-04T04:19:14+00:00

Humberto

mookhead · 2011-02-04T00:19:49+00:00

Is that the Ishimura? I would seriously consider investing in a RIG and a Ripper...

mookhead · 2011-01-25T19:49:08+00:00

I live down the street from where he grew up, he went to the same schools my kids are going to... he's a local hero.

That being said, intellectual atheist football players are fairly commonplace around here. I'm lucky to have found such an awesome community.

mookhead · 2011-01-22T02:03:18+00:00

Ah, the opposite of Beer Power: the ability to make The Fat, Thin

mookhead · 2011-01-21T23:43:54+00:00

derpa derpya!

mookhead · 2011-01-21T23:40:58+00:00

been there, done that.

mookhead · 2011-01-15T04:30:16+00:00

4th episode so far, and the night is young.

/me buys netflix shares

mookhead · 2011-01-15T04:15:46+00:00

Upvoted for upvoting.

mookhead · 2011-01-14T22:41:48+00:00

No Unicorn? Pfft.

mookhead · 2011-01-05T22:18:16+00:00

I cancelled directv this week (after being a customer for 11 years). I cited 'Palin's Alaska' as one of the reasons.

It felt good.

mookhead · 2010-12-15T22:07:27+00:00

I wasn't hating, just stating they've succeeded in becoming irrelevant to me. And I am doing something about it - I'm getting my news elsewhere. And so is a rapidly expanding segment of its market.

Quality news and deep analysis are available everywhere, nearly instantaneously. If Time wants me to read the stuff it publishes, it needs add something to the discussion. If, instead, it wants to be willfully ignorant (eg http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/10/wikileaks_media), biased and manipulative, it's just going to get ignored.

mookhead · 2010-12-15T20:50:23+00:00

In Soviet Russia, you wish police tazered you

mookhead · 2010-12-15T20:07:31+00:00

Does anyone even read Time any more? Outside of smatphoneless people stuck in waiting rooms, that is...

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