#anathem — Public Fediverse posts

Can't stop thinking about the world building exercise/setup in Stephenson's Anathem where the "avout" (aka intelligentsia) were forced to live in gated monastic communities isolated to varying degrees (and by rank[1]) from secular society. This setup was decided on for a number of self-serving reasons (by the avout), but also largely imposed on them due to a long history where technology & academic pursuits led to several catastrophic events, incl. periodic civilizational collapses triggered by knowledge/research either being weaponized, irresponsibly commercialized and/or unleashed at a rate which society simply couldn't culturally/ethically/politically handle...

He (Stephenson) termed these events "Praxic crises" to emphasize that these kinds of disaster happen when purely theoretical insight is employed as real-world technology (praxis) without any restraint. In reality, there obviously isn't such a clear-cut separation between "purely theoretical knowledge" and its applications (POSIWID etc.) and that also forms part of the basis of this book's premise... I think we also very well know all the causes for such crises: From extreme short-term incentives (profit, war, perceived control/power), lack of ethical/philosophical grounding among decision makers (amplified by political power hierarchies), first-to-market pressures vs. deep understanding & balancing of impacts, but also severe lack of institutional regulation & memory (partially due to cyclic collapse and social amnesia)...

Food for thought...

[1] Monastic rank influenced degree of isolation: Unarians were allowed a few days outside each year, Decenarians every 10 years, Centenarians every 100 years, Millenarians only opened every 1000 years...

#Anathem #Stephenson #Technology #Science #Praxis #Collapse

@dgar #SciFi the author #NealStephenson introduces someone's #steelyard test for the same purpose. In another of the hypothetical #ManyWorlds

#Anathem

@cathill one of our local stars tends to use a wide angle.
A larger #sensor will show less #noise on long exposures.
In #SciFi a fisheye telescope sits atop the math in #Anathem by #NealStephenson recording 180° of the sky all round. #Clepsythra's Eye.

@AkaSci
#NealStephenson the #SciFi author makes some use of them in his large interesting novel #Anathem

Which also has some echoes of what, perhaps, scientists might consider around this period of Administration of the USA.

#Analemma #Solstice

The Steelyard vs the Razor

http://waitingforabettertitle.blogspot.com/2009/11/saunt-gardan-steelyard.html

#Anathem #Ockham

Neal Stephenson – Announcing Polostan
https://nealstephenson.com/news/2024/04/25/announcing-polostan,-on-sale-october-15,-2024/
#ycombinator #Neal_Stephenson #SEVENEVES #Reamde #Anathem #Baroque_Cycle #Quicksilver #Cryptonomicon #The_Diamond_Age #Snow_Crash #Subutai #Magic_Leap

Ho pre-ordinato l'ultimo libro di #NealStephenson (versione italiana) #TerminationShock

Dello stesso autore ho adorato alcuni libri, ma alcuni li ho trovati un po' mal riusciti. Molto belli #Cryptonomicon e il #Ciclobarocco ; simpatico #SnowCrash (IMHO sopravvalutato dalla critica) e #Zodiac, tra l'altro come l'ultimo è un eco-thriller, ma si vede che è un'opera giovanile.
Il suo migliore IMHO è #Anathem 👍

Vediamo come andrà. Tengo le aspettative basse, così magari ci rimango meno male

Trying, but failing, to knock myself out by reading Neal Stephenson's #Anathem
While it's got some good ideas (Time Monks! Meme Hygiene!), it's awfully kludgy and slow. Especially compared to #SnowCrash or #Seveneves which are both dense, but move along at pace.

#bookstodon