The Technium

Recent Readings, 8


IMHO, reading this subReddit written by an AI feels very similar to reading a subReddit written by humans that post on Reddit. Link.

Pregnant women operate at a the limit of human energy endurance, just slightly ahead of elite ultramarathoners. The limiting factor is not heart, lung or muscles, but the amount of calories your digestive system can process — about 4,000 calories per day. Link.

E-sports are huge, mostly in Asia, but worldwide. This illuminating video explains the financial landscape of e-sports.

The perennial question of why ancient China, which invented most important inventions centuries before the West did, did not invent the most power invention of the scientific method, gets a summary answer here.

“The new American religion of UFOs. Belief in aliens is like faith in religion — and may come to replace it.” I believe this. This is the headline of a Vox article. Link.

To my ear these AI-generated voices of famous thinkers are a completely convincing simulation. You can make Bill Gates, or Jane Goodall, or Stephen Wolfram say anything you want. Go to the Select Speakers section and pull down a pundit’s voice sample. Link.

Awareness of Chinese science fiction is beginning to rise in the west, and this tide is swelling in China as well. At the forefront is the author of The Three Body Problem. Two articles delve into the new wave. A New Yorker profile of Liu Cixin is gracefully done and incredibly revealing about Chinese society. The second is an Economist round up of other Chinese sci-fi just behind Mr. Liu.

 




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