News about icarus [the book]
My new book is out! A collection of essays from Icarus, fully revised and updated, and new material.
We are all the Tin Woodman [Revised]
In what sense are we the same person today as yesterday? (Sample essay from my new book; 4100 words)
How much can we afford to forget, if we train machines to remember?
Without food we starve, without energy we huddle in the cold. And it is through widespread loss of memory that civilisations are at risk of falling into a looming dark age. (Sample essay from my new book; 1400 words)
A physics without time [Aeon]
From past to present, into the future: the flow of time is central to human experience. Why isn’t it central to physics? (Sample essay from my new book; 3600 words)
What We Lose When We Don’t Look At The Night Sky [Wisconsin Public Radio]
An interview with Rob Ferret of Wisconsin Public Radio. The stars, Polynesian voyaging, human exploration of the solar system. It’s all here. (12 mins. listening time)
Sky Readers [Aeon]
For most of human history, the stars told us where we were in space and time. Have we forgotten how to look up? (Sample essay from my new book; 3600 words)
The Guardians of the Memory Palace
What if you tried to reconstruct a prophet after a thousand-year absence? (As T Rix; 11,800 words)
Small Bites of Tasty Bits [Fiction]
Short reviews of fiction. Updated from time to time. [Last updated Oct. 30, 2023.]
Cosmology and the History of Wonder
A reading list for a liberal arts course I taught on the history of astronomy and cosmology. For curious readers…
How to be a liberal
A review of the book How to be a Liberal, by Ian Dunt (700 words)
Who’s Afraid of Alfred North Whitehead?
Some thoughts upon rereading The Function of Reason. (2700 words)
Singularities
What use is eternal digital life, if we can’t forget the sins we committed to achieve it? (As T Rix; 900 words.)
Bear Stew
What if you created a time machine solely for the purpose of revenge? (As T Rix; 950 words.)
How Gabby Won the Neo-Iditarod and Cured my Cyborg Blues
In the multiverse, entanglements can be both quantal and emotional. (Sci-fi short story, as T Rix; 6000 words)
The Icarus Question 