willowfine

4 ms·

1.
by willowfine 5y ago
Try Ridley’s The Rational Optimist, as I mentioned above.
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by willowfine 5y ago
You might also like Matt Ridley’s The Rational Optimist (2009). I read that first and was struck by his many insights into how human society has prospered by collaboration and exchange. Reading Sapiens after that book gave me the feeling of
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by willowfine 5y ago
I just read that story based on your recommendation - thank you! I might be just a tiny bit better as a person now than I was before reading it. For fellow fans of le Guin, Sturgeon and Smith looking for more authors, I would recommend Loi
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by willowfine 5y ago
Neal Stephenson’s Anathem, Norman Spinrod’s Child of Fortune.
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by willowfine 5y ago
I’ve thought about that as well. The only addition I can think of to your short list is Ada Palmer, I highly recommend her Terra Ignota series for social commentary and some refreshing optimism - and flying cars.
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by willowfine 5y ago
I did some work in Ramsey theory 20 years ago (improved the upper boundaries for R(3,12) and R(3,15) by one digit each [1]) and I agree with Erdös: we could do it, if there was a compelling reason to devote a lot of effort to it. As others
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by willowfine 5y ago
As a mathematician, I would claim that math at its best is exactly about riffing and jamming on shared fundamentals and adding your own insights. But it is often misunderstood what these fundamentals are: not the proofs or the formulas, but
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by willowfine 6y ago
Yes, this is possible and legal in Sweden. The other way to obtain cheap alcohol is to take a cruise via the island of Åland, which is not in the EU. If you plan to visit Åland, make sure to pick a ferry that actually stops there as opposed
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by willowfine 6y ago
Pre-covid, this was a thriving and mostly legal industry. There are quotas on how much may be imported for personal consumption. Meanwhile, the Swedes go to Denmark for cheap alcohol, the Danes go to Germany, the Germans to Poland and the P
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by willowfine 6y ago
Yes, it’s ”The time traveler”, first published in Analog, April 1974. Reprinted in the collection “Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon”, and in the meta-collection “The Callahan Chronicals”. Is shows how much cultural shift can take place in a deca