Monthly Archives: September 2015

Rereading Isaac Asimov, part 3: “Reason” — a Creationist Robot!

Posted on 21 September 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

Asimov began writing stories about robots very early in his career; the first one, “Robbie”, was published in September 1940, only a year and a half after his first-published story, “Marooned Off Vesta”, in March 1939, and the second robot … Continue reading →

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We Are in a Post-Reality [Science-Fictional!] World

Posted on 19 September 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

I saw (part of) the Republican debate this past week, and the responses, and saw how the obvious lies and misrepresentations did not seem to matter to the crowd; it was how the candidates played to the crowd. This seems … Continue reading →

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Rereading Donald A. Wollheim’s THE UNIVERSE MAKERS

Posted on 18 September 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

Donald A. Wollheim’s The Universe Makers, published way back in 1971, is one of the earliest books that could be described as a history of SF, though Wollheim’s take is distinctly personal and even partisan. Wollheim was an occasional writer … Continue reading →

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Frank M. Robinson’s SCIENCE FICTION OF THE 20TH CENTURY: AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY

Posted on 16 September 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

I’m beginning to explore and read or reread various histories of science fiction. Robinson’s is a coffee-table book, published in 1999, that had sequels from the same publisher about fantasy and horror, by different hands: Randy Broecker and Robert Weinberg, … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: Scale of the Universe; Core SF novels and stories and media

Posted on 15 September 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

I’m in a gradual process of compiling links and references to my Provisional Conclusions, including a number of sites I’ve bookmarked in various places about the size of the universe. Today, David Brin has posted a set of links about … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: Scientism; the Arc of Moral Progress; Conservative Resistance and Certain Republicans

Posted on 13 September 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

What we read from this morning’s newspapers… New York Times, Simon Critchley, There Is No Theory of Everything. An essay (which is longer online than the version in print) about science and the humanities and about a teacher of his, … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: Conservative Resistance and Fears; Narratives; Reality Checks

Posted on 12 September 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

Salon: Kim Davis is the new face of the religious right: Angry, marginalized and increasingly desperate No doubt Davis is a comical figure whose self-righteousness is only equaled by her ignorance both of the text of the Bible she clings … Continue reading →

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Rereading Isaac Asimov, part 2

Posted on 11 September 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

So over the past four or five weeks, I’ve read (or re-read, in most cases, some 40 years or so since I first read most of these stories in the late-’60s/early-’70s) some 100 Isaac Asimov stories, including the complete contents … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: Lawrence M. Krauss, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, confirmation bias

Posted on 9 September 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

A fine essay by Lawrence M. Krauss, at The New Yorker: All Scientists Should Be Militant Atheists. He’s reacting both to the current embarrassing kerfuffle about Kim Davis, the Kentucky court clerk who thinks her sincerely held religious convictions trump … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: Religion and Science

Posted on 8 September 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

The latest essay by Jeffrey Tayler at Salon, Bill O’Reilly’s nonsense “nihilism”: Now the Fox News host is even lying about God, addresses common misperceptions not just about the abstruse philosophical concept of nihilism, but about the general perception that … Continue reading →

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