Brave New Blog: September 2003

Wednesday, September 17, 2003

I just finished reading Timeline by Michael Crichton. It was a very interesting book, in which a team of graduate students travel back to thirteenth-century France to rescue their professor. Its plot resembled that of Jurassic Park, and I couldn't put it down.

The author explained the time-travel science through an advanced use of Quantum Physics, in which a wormhole is found in quantum foam which can predictable lead to another point in the multiverse (a collection of multiple universes.) I'm sure that's not possible yet, being purely a work of science fiction, but it has piqued my interest in quantum physics at large. Perhaps I'll go to the library and check out a book on the subject.

Meanwhile, I just bought 6 more months of automobile insurance. I can't help but feel like I'm being cheated somehow. Ideally, I'd like to have enough money sitting in the bank that I could afford to go without insurance--it would be much more cost-effective in the long run, as I wouldn't be paying for paperwork and insurance company overhead. But, what can one do?

Tuesday, September 02, 2003

My wife thinks we have too many science fiction movies. I would beg to differ. I find something fantastically interesting about the genre--and whether it is in movies, books, or games, it is my favorite.

I've also found that the best science fiction deals with human and social issues. George Orwell's 1984 or Animal Farm, Ayn Rand's Anthem, Ray Bradbury's Farenheit 451, or Aldous Huxley's Brave New World are some examples. I value them more because, not only are they well-written, quality literature, but they transcend the cliche of "spaceships, robots, and aliens" to describe the human condition.