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Oh, yeah. As amazing as the Baroque Cycle Movie or series could be, or Cryptonomicon, or Diamond Age, etc... I'd vote for Seveneves over everything else.
Seveneves has been in my reading queue for quite awhile... I think I might go ahead and move it to the top of the stack. Thanks for posting this!
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"They" had analogue computers [1] and steam turbines [2] two millenia ago. Power hammers a few centuries ago seem pretty mild by comparison. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeolipile
I don't think I'd really call that a computer any more than I'd call an old watch a computer.
Even plastic circles with writing on them designed to compute the effects of a nuclear bomb's blast:
https://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/sliderules/nucbombeffcom...
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As an aside: I really wish someone would produce The Baroque Cycle as a GoT scale epic.
Cryptonomicon, should be easier.
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Seveneves has been in my reading queue for quite awhile... I think I might go ahead and move it to the top of the stack. Thanks for posting this!
One of the best books I've read in years. If you have any space-geek in you, you won't regret it.
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Cryptonomicon, should be easier.
Can't wait for the whole episode dedicated to Lawrence's musings on the importance of reliable access to prostitutes for cracking ciphers and the international female conspiracy to control ejaculation and thus the mood of the world.
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Seveneves has been in my reading queue for quite awhile... I think I might go ahead and move it to the top of the stack. Thanks for posting this!
One of the best books I've read in years. If you have any space-geek in you, you won't regret it.
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I think it's a good thing. If I'm not knowledgeable about the topic, I read the article. If I feel like I am knowledgeable about it, I jump straight to the comments. There I either learn something, or share knowledge. It's one of my favorite types of HN posts :)
As a counterpoint, I think it drops the signal to noise ratio and makes HN less useful. If I want to read a random Wikipedia article I can use the "Random Article" link on their website. I don't think it's too much to ask for people posting random wiki links to explain why the article is worth reading about and discussing. Especially in cases like this one, where the linked article (apparently?) has little or nothing…
Ah, but that's the thing - it's not "random". It's an article that someone who likely shares many of my interests found interesting. That's valuable enough for me :)
Have you considered adding a user stylesheet that hides or minimized submissions that link to Wikipedia? It shouldn't be difficult.