Reviews and Comments

It's been two decades since I originally read "Dune" and this re-read (to get ahead of the movie) was a delight. Looking forward to continuing on with the rest of the Frank Herbert-authored sequels in the weeks and months ahead.

Excited to read the inspiration for "The Wicker Man".

It's pretty amazing how much new stuff emerges out of the book almost a quarter decade later and a me spending a stint in graduate school studying history of computing. (Vannevar Engleton!)

It's also a VERY interesting look at a pre-9/11 world where protagonists fly around the world like taking a cab. Interestingly enough, it does anticipate the surveillance state / capitalism, which we see more of in the companion book "The Pains".

In between larger books on my reading list, I slipped in a second reading of this book. It had been long enough that I had forgotten most of it, but still retained fond memories of having read it.

This collection, from an AI competition to try and pass the Turing Test through storytelling two decades ago, has some newfound relevance in the age of generative AI, and its encroachment on the most basic of human activities, spinning a yarn. I don't want to spoil too much of the experience for new readers, but this is definitely worth a read if you've ever looked at the output from ChatGPT (or its numerous clones and me-toos) and wondered why the algorithm made THAT choice.

Looking forward to revisiting the rest of "Mind over Matter" sequence that @jsundman@mastodon.social was so generous to drop on us, two decades ahead of schedule.

After reading Ashlee Vance's "When the Heavens Went on Sale", I expected this to be more of a book about the same companies and same New Space developments, but from the government angle.

Instead, I got a much longer history of Garver's involvement in space policy stretching beyond the Challenger disaster. To the extent New Space is a theme in this book, it's mainly focused on SpaceX, with Blue Origin following a close second. (The hero of Vance's book, Gen. Pete Worden is mentioned ONCE.)

And you know what? That's fine. SpaceX has been the big driver in changing American space policy, and Garver's account really highlights what an uphill battle that was within NASA. Much of the book describes her bucking the prevailing attitudes at NASA (though she is quick to justify that as an allegiance to the President over the NASA administrator), and succeeding in some cases, and losing in a lot.

In the end, I got a different book than the one I expected, but it was quite interesting nonetheless.

Required reading for anyone following the New Space economy. This will become a definitive historical text should mankind actually escape the Earth's gravity well and establish a meaningful presence "out there".

#NewSpace #RocketLab #RKLB #Astra #ASTR #PlanetLabs #PL #FireflyAerospace #NASA #PeteWorden

Required reading for anyone following the New Space economy. This will become a definitive historical text should mankind actually escape the Earth's gravity well and establish a meaningful presence "out there".

#NewSpace #RocketLab #RKLB #Astra #ASTR #PlanetLabs #PL #FireflyAerospace #NASA #PeteWorden