The Aesthetics and Beauty of Knowledge
Shih was the opposite of facts and raw information; shih was the elegance of knowledge, the insight and skill to organize knowledge into meaningful patterns. As an artist chooses colours or light to make her pictures, a master of shih chooses textures of knowledge – various ideas, myths, abstractions, and theories – to create a way of seeing the world. The aesthetics and beauty of knowledge – this was shih.
– David Zindell, The Broken God, 1993
Geek Attitude
The attitude thing is about flexibility, portability, creativity, sociability and jamming (ran out of suitable “ity” words!). It’s about improvising – in the practical and musical senses of the word; not getting tangled in boundaries and the “right” way to do things.
Definitely the only way to travel.
– Martin Delaney – “Laptop Music”.
Kuehleborn's Unfathomable Thoughts
New Science Fiction magazines
Two science magazines – New Scientist and MIT Technology Review have recently announced to publish their own science fiction magazines.
From the editors of Technology Review comes TRSF, an 80-page anthology of original near-future science fiction stories.
The first issue promises “12 visions of the future of computing, biotechnology, energy, and more”, written by, among others, Cory Doctorow, Joe Haldemann and Ken MacLeod. They also did a good publicity stunt by contracting Chris Foss to design the cover for their first issue.
NewScientist has now published “Arc“, ‘A new digital magazine about the future.’ Arc features stories by well-known writers like Bruce Sterling, Stephen Baxter and Margaret Atwood, and Hannu Rajaniemi, of whom I read his first science fiction novel The Quantum Thief, a very interesting book – IMO.
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Both magazines are published as e-books, although the first (‘collectable’) issues are also printed on paper.
With my running subscriptions to Asimov’s Science Fiction and Analog Science Fiction and Fact, ánd my e-reading of science fiction books (not to mention the pile of “normal” literature and popular science books and magazines I like to read) it will be clear that there will always be more interesting stuff to read than time permits – you can’t have all the candy in the store; I also have a life to live. However, I couldn’t resist the temptation to order the kindle versions of the new magazines, and load them into my E-reader, hoping there will always be some bonus time when waiting in line. In fact I like queues, because they solve my problem with not having enough time to read.:-)
The buying of more books than one can read is nothing less than the soul reaching toward infinity, and this passion is the only thing that raises us above the beasts that perish. – A. Edward Newton (1863-1949).