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SoylentNews Book Club: Discuss Foundation, Start Reading The Three-Body Problem

posted by Fnord666 on Sunday November 04 2018, @12:06PM   Printer-friendly
from the two-interesting-books dept.

takyon writes:

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!

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 2) by Murdoc on Monday November 05 2018, @01:25AM

    by Murdoc (2518) on Monday November 05 2018, @01:25AM (#757806)

    I feel pretty much the same as you about the book(s); I love how the story is about grand forces of combined humanity shaping the future and yet it is still told on the personal level with individuals playing their parts, often with little or no knowledge of these forces. The stories are also often as gripping as any other, with imminent danger and time pressures (like the "Seldon Crises") so it's not just a heady, cerebral accounting of people talking about big ideas. I also just love stories about really smart people doing really smart things. Some of the solutions devised by the protagonists are just brilliant. Prelude and especially Forward the Foundation are my favorites, showing the development of psychohistory from the guy who didn't even think that it could be done. The original Foundation book comes next, and yeah, Foundation and Earth last.

    There's a clear parellel here to the modern day decline of Western industrial society; though I doubt Asimov intended this at the original time of writing, it nevertheless resonated quite deeply with me as I see the same declines in our own cities. While we might individually have the motivation and skills to turn things around, if the forces at work in society act to prevent us doing this we can feel crushed and powerless. If only we had a Seldon to see us through to the other side.

    Maybe there was. I noticed that parallel as well, and if I recall correctly Seldon wasn't well known outside of certain circles, so I think that perhaps Howard Scott might be the closest we've had to a real Hari Seldon. He formed a group of scientists to study the future of human society, and while their science may not have been as sophisticated as psychohistory, they did accurately predict the Great Depression to within an accuracy of 6 months (their projection was for the autumn of 1932, instead of the spring of 1933). Of course, no one listened to them either. And knowing what was the cause of the collapse, they were able to devise a solution to it, which they called Technocracy [technocracy.ca] (although nothing like we know the term as used today). So they both found the solution to society's problems in science. I also find it amusing that they both have the same initials (H.S.).

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