The math fun fact I remember best from college is that Charles Boole invented Boolean algebra for his doctoral thesis and his goal was to create a branch of mathematics that was useless. For those not familiar with boolean algebra it works by using logic gates with 1s and 0s to determine a final 1 or 0 state and is subsequently the basis for all modern digital computing

I’ve been listening through all of the audiobooks since December and just finished this one. I never managed to get through the whole series as a kid, so this one was a first for me and Wow.

Safe to say after this one that the safe episodic status quo has been completed shattered, I know the series does a good job with serializing most of its big elements to be regular parts of the series like the chee and the elemist and krayak etc, but this one definitely feels like the start of the end game

The short story version is called Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang

I would think that the Miller ghost that the protomolecule uses to interface with Holden is a perfect example of it being changed by the process of outcompeting. The interludes in Cibola burn are a very good example of how despite still functioning the protomolecule has been permanently changed by what it did in Sol system and the humans it assimilated in the process

If i had to guess I would say it likely comes down to how the rice and bean plants fair in low G. If they’re eating real rice and fake beans I would think its because the rice is either grown on or near ceres as well as the yeast and fungus substitutes that make up the fake beans, whereas real beans would have to be imported in

While possible I think the relative acceleration and maneuverability of a ship constrained by human passengers compared to a missile means that you can point your drive plume at it but the missile will already be programmed to come in on an arc intended to avoid the plume and with its better maneuverability it will still be able to hit its target effectively.

Would you care to elaborate on why that is? I would say it’s easily the best piece of star wars media to come out since Disney took over, and arguably prior to that. It doesn’t get overly bogged down in trying to reference or shoehorn in references to other star wars characters like parts of The Mandalorian or the sequel trilogy and it tells a compelling and emotional narrative about the path one man takes to become a dedicated member of the resistance