Anathem

[Eldros]

I recently came upon Neal Stephenson's

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.
The thing is, it’s quite a challenging read - not least because it’s nearly 1,000 pages long.
It’s a work of hard sci-fi. The story takes place on a planet called Arbre.
The world's intellectuals lived in monastic groups and were called avout.
Avouts were not allowed to reproduce with one another and were "collected" from the outside world based on their accomplishments in areas like philosophy, mathematics and physics.
The main character and narrator is Fraa Erasmas.
Here are some videos about it:

I hope I'll finish this by the end of the year

 

[Robert Ramsay]

IMO It's his best book. It also contains, irritatingly enough, a clear description of how consciousness works that I was working up to putting in the second edition of my book...

 

[Eldros]

IMO It's his best book. It also contains, irritatingly enough, a clear description of how consciousness works that I was working up to putting in the second edition of my book...

I just read like 10 or 12 pages and got to the part where he mentions the clock - or maybe the clocks, I’m not exactly sure...
I Googled it out of curiosity, and apparently there are these walls around the clock, with different levels of isolation. And it says, and I quote: “concents separate the inhabitants from the outside ("saecular") world across different time commitments - some groups only interact with the outside world every year (Yearlings), every decade (Decenarians), every century (Centenarians), or every millennium (Millenarians).”
Sounds like an interesting idea…
Now I’m curious about your book too - it must be an interesting read!/

 

[Robert Ramsay]

Now I’m curious about your book too - it must be an interesting read!/

Well if you are interested, I was granted a Special Dispensation Thread

The Engineering of Coincidence: a scientific explanation of magic

What is magic? We all know that magic exists, but can it ever be explained? Over thirty years ago, I set out to answer these questions, and to look for a truly scientific explanation of magic. Now, I'm not bright enough to invent new physics, or dumb enough to try and pick loopholes in the...

wizardforums.com

 

[Eldros]

Well if you are interested, I was granted a Special Dispensation Thread

The Engineering of Coincidence: a scientific explanation of magic

What is magic? We all know that magic exists, but can it ever be explained? Over thirty years ago, I set out to answer these questions, and to look for a truly scientific explanation of magic. Now, I'm not bright enough to invent new physics, or dumb enough to try and pick loopholes in the...

wizardforums.com

Thank you! I might check that out!
The cover with the dice looks inviting.
/ What's inside the cover must be interesting to discover!

 

[Robert Ramsay]

I re-read Anathem a couple of years ago, and, as you might expect, got a lot more out of it. I don't want to say too much because there are definitely spoilers

 

[Eldros]

I re-read Anathem a couple of years ago, and, as you might expect, got a lot more out of it. I don't want to say too much because there are definitely spoilers

I’ll take it slowly then It’s obviously a very long book, so I’m in no rush. I’ll let myself discover it as I go../