I do not have much time for this blog right now, between the Substack and my primary focus, GenRAIT, which we introduced to the world at PAG 30 (we’re still rai$ing, so if you an angel you know to reach me).
But I’ll keep posting here now and then as usual. This blog has been going for more than 20 years now (since the spring of 2002).
The new Rings of Power series debuts on September 2nd, so they have a new trailer out. I’m skeptical, but they pulled all the stops for the effects. My expectation is that this will be to the Tolkien canon what Taco Bell is to Mexican food, but I will be happy to be surprised. It is obvious that they are taking Black Númenóreans a bit too literally, but if they execute well on things unrelated to the identity politics I bet people will be willing to overlook that (it could be that this was just the price they’d have to pay in Hollywood to get this produced).
Tad Williams Into the Narrowdark – Last King of Osten Ard Book 3 is good. Williams, in my opinion, is great at navigating between George R. R. Martin’s somewhat excessively gruesome world-building with Brandon Sanderson’s “boy scout” approach. Like R. Scott Bakker he is excellent at the fashioning of human-like elven analogs that push into the uncanny valley territory of “human nature,” very much like us but different in critical ways as to seem alien and fantastic.
I don’t have time to write up all the ancient DNA that is coming out, but I do try and read it. Keep the links coming; I do appreciate them.
Most of you know I ungated my Substack podcasts after two weeks. The reviews have trailed off, which means that there will be ‘less discovery’ of them. If you have a moment, I would appreciate a five-star (I may mention this on my podcast at some point, I don’t push this heavily).
I’ve been writing on this blog for 20 years. One sad trend is that a huge swath of academics are becoming incredibly conformist, censorious and ideologically motivated. Yes, this tendency was always there in a field like sociology, for example, but now it’s everywhere. The public doesn’t even know the tenth of it from what the stuff I hear. Just keep your skeptical hat on…
The Man from the Future: The Visionary Life of John von Neumann is worth reading. It’s mostly science, and not too much about von Neumann’s personal life, though there is some that is there. The only negative I’d give is that because von Neumann died early the author includes some discussion about people who extended and furthered von Neumann’s legacy near the end of the book.
I’ve been reading The Man from the Future: The Visionary Life of John von Neumann before I go to sleep. Not sure I would recommend this, as the author, Ananyo Bhattacharya, does get a bit into the mathematical questions von Neumann explored in his early life. But overall, very readable, and so far von Neumann is sketched out as a very human individual (he was mediocre at chess, for example).
I talked about immigration (US) and migration with regards to Ukraine in particular with Alex Nowrasteh. It was a good conversation, in part because we are friendly with each other off the interwebs. I plan on posting a discussion with someone less amenable to “open borders” in the near future (stay tuned!).