Between Planets

What Hacker News says

1. spiggytopesJan 2019
   Robert Heinlein, 'Between Planets'

   'A few hundred yards further on Lazy shied again, not from a snake this time but from an unexpected noise. Don pulled him in and spoke severely. "You bird-brained butterball! When are you going to learn not to jump when the telephone rings?"

   Lazy twitched his shoulder muscles and snorted. Don reached for the pommel, removed the phone, and answered.'

   Nothing unusual there - except that this was published in 1951. Heinlein was extrapolating one particular technology trend and got it spot-on, 60+ years before it happened.

   There are so many others - H.G.Wells' 'World Brain' for one (aka the Web)

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2. amysoxNov 2018
   You mean the alarm clock system that Don uses at the hotel that has settings ranging from "Gentle Reminder" to "Earthquake"? That'd be fun. :)

   Interesting you bring up Between Planets, because that shows a prediction Heinlein made that isn't covered in this article. Read the description of the "crazy wagon," and, specifically, the conical metal cover it has that reflects away all incoming radar beams. Heinlein was basically describing stealth technology in 1951, six years before Pyotr Ufimtsev's paper on the subject...and it wasn't until 1976 that development started on the F-117, a real implementation of his idea.

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3. kizz246Dec 2016
   Most Highly Recommended:

   Cosmos - !!!

   The Measure of Reality - How quantification has completely changed the face of society. Very interesting stuff. This has probably been my favourite read this year.

   Nightfall - Interesting ideas of the role of religion in society and mass hysteria

   Speaker for the Dead - Really fascinating book. I love sci-fi where there is an alien species that humans have trouble understanding for whatever reason

   Books I unrecommend:

   Heretics of Dune - Ugh. Tedious. I actually couldn't finish it. Didn't start Chapterhouse either.

   Information Doesn't Want to be Free - Pretty basic. How many footnotes do you really need before you just include them in the text?

   Was on maternity leave this year so there are quite a few. Those marked * are also recommended.

   Guns Germs and Steel - Jared Diamond *

   The Vital Question - Nick Lane *

   The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath *

   Convergent Series - Larry Niven *

   Cosmos - Carl Sagan *

   World of Ptaavs - Larry Niven

   The Integral Trees - Larry Niven

   The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins

   The Girl with Seven Names - Hyeongseo Lee *

   Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values - Robert M Pirsig *

   The Thrilling Adventures Of Lovelace And Babbage (Comic) - Sydney Padua

   The Great Book of Amber: The Complete Amber Chronicles, 1-10 - Roger Zelazny

   The Measure of Reality: Quantification in Western Europe, 1250 - 1600 - Alfred W. Crosby *

   Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C Clark *

   The Time Dweller - Michael Moorcock

   Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne

   Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card *

   Speaker for the Dead - Orson Scott Card *

   Tim Gunn's Fashion Bible - Tim Gunn *

   The Gods Themselves - Isaac Asimon *

   The Hugo Winners vol. 3 - Various

   Between Planets - Robert A. Heinlen

   The Martian - Andy Weir *

   Perelandra - C S Lewis

   Heretics of Dune - Frank Herbert (Unfinished, couldn't do it.)

   Nightfall - Isaac Asimov *

   Foundation's Edge - Isaac Asimov *

   Foundation and Earth - Isaac Asimov *

   Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heinlen *

   Information Doesn't Want to be Free - Corey Doctorow

   Currently Reading

   Engines of Creation: The Coming Era Of Nanotechnology - K. Eric Drexler *

   Planets for Sale - A.E. van Vogt

   For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway

   Tender is the Night - F. Scott Fitzgerald

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