David

Best Book In Years on the Subject of Algorithms

Revisado: 05-02-25

Perfectly enjoyable, highly informative, full of new details on stories I’d heard before but clearly did not know.

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Some refreshing approaches to the understanding of the quantum world. Our world.

Revisado: 04-18-25

I liked the treatment of the misguided Everettian view of Many Worlds: use it for the insights it gives while discarding its overall preposterousness.
Professor Ball: do it again please.

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Constant Nagging Diatribe

Revisado: 03-15-25

A genuine desire to improve education for both the recipients of that education and of the public in general pervades the book. However it only briefly touches on the actual need to transcend the Doctoral system that perpetuates the fawning and ass-kissing that the system enthrones that doesn’t lend itself to real creative thought and research. Far be it from a doctoral student to have ideas out of line with old professor fudnik or Doctor pambynamby.
The revision of that system to more of a meritocratic mean is key.

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A great deal of Apostrophe on how History is done

Revisado: 07-15-24

Debates on Imperial Britain’s management of India are a level of extrapolation too far from what the book should have been…analysis of historiography would be a better description than The Roman Empire

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Be prepared for poor narration

Revisado: 05-15-24

Narrator does not know that kw is kilowatts GW gigawatts and so on. He reads them as k w and G W. it’s irritating. But the info is very worthwhile

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Beautiful Prose - Poetic Exposition

Revisado: 01-04-24

There is nothing at all to dislike in this, unless length be not a merit.

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Pronunciation Can Distract from Topic

Revisado: 11-26-23

This is a marvellous collection of thoughts and debates by the top minds in Physics. Superb. However one of the readers has an irritating way of pronouncing various key scientific words. I wonder if he was expeerimenting with the audience. Spearmint is a flavour- not a scientific paradigm.

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Mixed Feelings

Revisado: 11-02-23

Excellent, technically, in all respects. A very real and realist/realistic approach on a wide-ranging field of topics.
However Smil is clearly a cheerleader of the status quo. His overall message is “things will go about how they have always gone, because we humans change little in our foresight and ability to pre-plan.
I get the impression that, were he sent back in time to 1899 he would have little to say about the “over enthusiastic proponents of horseless carriages. Flying machines a ridiculous fantasy”.
Worthwhile all the same.

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Big Headed Parochialism

Revisado: 07-12-23

Don’t send music or art or philosophy to the aliens….send basic physics which they already know and learn in the nursery (if they even NEED to learn it). To send our “achievements” in science to a species thousands of years advanced beyond us would be silliness beyond belief.
Send something the aliens would really be interested by: “we have been searching here and here using these methods for this long and we only found YOU so far”.
You make yourself infinitely interesting and enjoyable by talking about the other person not yourself. :-)

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Brilliant Explaining of Scientific Mis-Step

Revisado: 12-20-22

But for the total unbelievability of the “many worlds” boondoggle of “science”, this is a well explained and even brilliant exposition.
But if you can wrap your arms around Many Worlds you may as well believe in unicorns and the power of crystals. It should be called many many many many many many many…worlds. Ridiculous.

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