November: The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin.
December: Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.
A poll for the January 2019 book will be around the 15th, unless you want it sooner (not sooner than the U.S. midterms).
Discuss Foundation by Isaac Asimov in the comments below.
As for Liu Cixin's best known novel:
"Wildly imaginative, really interesting." ―President Barack Obama on The Three-Body Problem trilogy
The English translation for The Three-Body Problem was published in 2014 by Ken Liu under Tor Books.
Consider using <spoiler>text</spoiler> wherever you feel the need to do so.
Previously: Announcement post • Mars, Ho!
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 04 2018, @02:36PM (5 children)
I like the old-fashioned technology. As an example, the first part of the second book talks about unbreakable message capsules that carry secret messages. The empire has pretty good ones, but the foundation's capsules are better, and the foundation can break into the empire's. Anyone breaking into a foundation secret message would find the message immediately oxidized. This completely fails to predict cryptography, and the idea that in the future, everything would be done with a single general purpose computer.
There are other examples of highly specific mechanical devices, like a transcriber pen instead of voice recognition software. They happen in nearly every chapter.
To me, this is a big part of the draw of old science fiction. Before transistors were readily available, most science fiction looks like this. I guess they didn't know what things would be in the future, so they just wrote it like magic. Maybe it should be considered part fantasy. I'm definitely going to read more old science fiction.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Sunday November 04 2018, @08:24PM (2 children)
I re-read Foundation last year, after 40-ish years, and was struck by how much the characters smoked. How times change.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday November 04 2018, @11:00PM (1 child)
Schools Enlist AI to Detect Vaping and Bullies in Bathrooms [ieee.org]
Welcome to the World of Tomorrow!
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by legont on Monday November 05 2018, @12:23AM
Apparently, nicotine is safe and good for aging brain https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/study-finds-nicotine-safe-helps-in-alzheimers-parkinsons/2175396 [tampabay.com]
Propaganda can and do change fast..
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by legont on Monday November 05 2018, @12:03AM (1 child)
I actually believe that once the technology matures, we will have dedicated physical devices again. For example, I already know people in Europe carrying 3 phones - regular, car gps, and payment device. I myself will be there very soon. Oh, forgot, I have a dedicated mp3 to listen for books. So, 4 devices with me all the time. Wait, secure id, smart watch.
This will continue.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 05 2018, @02:01AM
You forgot the drug dealer burner phone!