Unofficial What are you Reading Thread?

[Waffles, Viking Princess of Northern Belgium]

I bowed to the pressure and started reading House of Leaves.

[M. Nigel Salt]

I just cracked open "The Coming Plague".

[Juana Go?]

PMing it you.

[M. Nigel Salt]

WhoooO!

[Phosphatidylserine]

The other side of it is the self congratulatory wank, how he insinuates inspiring such titles as the dark knight returns and watchmen while agreeing they are among the best comics while at the same time attacking them and calling them the dark age of comics.

I didn't catch that at all while reading it. I remember that he said he gave Watchmen a terrible review, and then Alan Moore turned around and gave Arkham Asylum a terrible review. However, I got the impression that he was claiming that comics of that era were dark for the sake of dark, and that he was a part of the problem. In other words, I interpreted Supergods as the comic book equivalent of the Heiroglyph Project announcement, and his work on All Star Superman appears to be in-line with that.

Speaking of comic books, has anyone else seen GM's work on that other franchise named 'The Avengers'? I scored the first issue, but it finished while I wasn't looking and so far as I can tell it hasn't been released as an anthology yet.

[Lenin McCarthy]

The Uncertain Mind: Individual Differences in Facing the Unknown. Should be an interesting read.

[Cainad]

Cainad, it occurs to me: Kellhus is an AI, the Inchoroi are transhumanists.

Not literally, but you know what I mean, yes?

Oh shit, yeah! An intellect that can wholly comprehend and optimize itself, and people that are focused entirely on transcending the mortal condition. Good catch.

[Waffles, Viking Princess of Northern Belgium]

Finished House of Leaves.

Reading Focault's Pendulum.

[six to the quixotic]

Finished The Unicorporated Man
It half way read like some kind of weird Libertarian wet dream. This novel takes a billionaire from the early 21st century, cryogenically suspends him for 3 centuries, to be revived in a world with a universal government that spans the solar system but is extremely weak. Everything the government is considered to be the primary supplier of, police, utilities and the like, is open for competition from corporations, of which there are a lot, in a weird turn of events. However the oddest thing is this social norm of EVERYONE being an incorporated person, with the government having 5%, and the parents starting with 20% of the shares of the individual, and gaining education and the like by selling shares of yourself to corps, universities and other people. You are free to do what you want, provided you have a majority of your shares.
The future seems very uptopian, and made me question the validity of not doing things that way. When you look at it from a social standpoint, it makes other people financially invested in your well being, and like wise makes you financially invested in other people. There is also no government central currency, instead the corporations issue their currencies. And in the end it doesn't seem to be a Libertarian wank book.

There is also emergent AIs, and cheap nanotech.

I also read Someone Come to Town, Someone Leaves Town. It was weird. The protagonist is the son of a mountain and a washing machine.

[Freeky Queen of DERP]

You have to sell yourself off to corporations in order to get educated?  How does that seem reasonable in the current light of day?

[six to the quixotic]

You have to sell yourself off to corporations in order to get educated?  How does that seem reasonable in the current light of day?

Did I say it was?

[six to the quixotic]

FUck, That was flippant. And I apologize.

Ok, from my viewpoint, everyone in society is invested in one way or the other in other people in their society, and many of the people you are invested in have ties to you that they can use to push you around. The only difference is in the novel makes it a blatant (mostly) financially motivated system.

Now I don't want to spoil the book, but while it shows all the positives that came about through this incorporated person idea, there is the obvious contrast of the horrible downsides of not having a control of your life, and the extent that those in power (wealthy) will go to secure a share in someone's life and earnings, as well as the invasiveness of some of the laws regarding incorporation. It actually serves to illustrate how bad things could get under Libertarians, while still seeming all roses.

[stelz]

I saw an actual theory something like that, it say that when you're issued a birth certificate or social security number, I don't remember which, there's a corporation created in your name but you don't own it. I think it was Alex Jones or David Icke or one of those guys, so I didn't pay rapt attention but in some ways it's semi-plausible.

And who was on top, the washing machine or the mountain? 

[six to the quixotic]

I saw an actual theory something like that, it say that when you're issued a birth certificate or social security number, I don't remember which, there's a corporation created in your name but you don't own it. I think it was Alex Jones or David Icke or one of those guys, so I didn't pay rapt attention but in some ways it's semi-plausible.

And who was on top, the washing machine or the mountain? 

The washing machine lived inside the mountain 

[stelz]

I saw an actual theory something like that, it say that when you're issued a birth certificate or social security number, I don't remember which, there's a corporation created in your name but you don't own it. I think it was Alex Jones or David Icke or one of those guys, so I didn't pay rapt attention but in some ways it's semi-plausible.

And who was on top, the washing machine or the mountain? 

The washing machine lived inside the mountain 

Nassssstaaaaaaay.