4.6 KiB
Which pieces of “philosophically interesting” science fiction do professional philosophers recommend? - Very exhaustive list of great SF.
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Author: u/None *
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URL: http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~eschwitz/SchwitzPapers/SF-MasterList-141103-byauthor.pdf
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Score: 21
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Created: 2014-11-23T14:43:41
Post:
Comments:
u/Sylocat [+6] Canterlot Campaign (an hour later)
I like some of the counterintuitive choices like Lewis and Adams... there's more to rationality than just atheism and mundanity.
u/None [+7] (2 hours later)
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u/alexanderwales [+5] Time flies like an arrow (4 hours later)
I read quite a bit of translated work, and I think translation can be really tricky thing. A bad translation can destroy tone and beauty of the language, as well as stripping out a lot of the idioms, puns, etc. Douglas Hofstadter (of Gödel, Escher, Bach fame) writes about this a lot in Le Ton beau de Marot, which I recommend.
u/None [+1] (20 hours later)
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u/ajuc [+4] (a day later)
I thought Lem robot stories series can't be translated. Especially the ones with Trurl and Klapaucius. Then I read Kandel translation. This is masterpiece. Like writing the book a second time, in another language.
BTW I just learned he is translating Jacek Dukaj. I'm happy.
u/ZombieboyRoy [+3] (4 hours later)
And don't forget all the stories, fables, legends, and oral traditions lost in the currents of time, which no translator can ever revive.
u/None [+3] (19 hours later)
This is a problem with fiction, I think. Niche fiction (like sci-fi) has this problem to a greater extent.
It also created another problem: Hardly anyone writes sci-fi or fantasy in Dutch (to give one example) because the market isn't big enough.
u/noggin-scratcher [+2] I am a happy tree (10 hours later)
Robert Zemeckis, Back to the Future 2 (movie, 1989). Another complex model of metatime -- I set my students to work trying to figure out the model of time travel here, and they at least got close. (Chalmers)
That's always a high-scorer for nerd-sniping... always feels like a consistent model is just slightly out of reach; that you could hammer out the last details with a little bit more thought.
u/xkcd_transcriber [+1] (10 hours later)
Title: Nerd Sniping
Title-text: I first saw this problem on the Google Labs Aptitude Test. A professor and I filled a blackboard without getting anywhere. Have fun.
Stats: This comic has been referenced 60 times, representing 0.1443% of referenced xkcds.
^xkcd.com ^| ^xkcd sub ^| ^Problems/Bugs? ^| ^Statistics ^| ^Stop Replying ^| ^Delete
u/None [+2] (19 hours later)
Copy-pastes half of that list onto my wishlist.
Thanks for posting this.
u/None [+4] (4 hours later)
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u/alexanderwales [+3] Time flies like an arrow (7 hours later)
It's probably included there because a fair portion of the plot is devoted to a version of the Prisoner's Dilemma.
u/poliphilo [+2] (15 hours later)
If that scene had actually had a Prisoner's Dilemma dynamic it would have been a lot more interesting.
u/None [+1] (17 hours later)
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u/FeepingCreature [+2] GCV Literally The Entire Culture (21 hours later)
press the button instantly or not at all.
Give it to me. You can tell 'em I took it by force. Give it to me, and I'll do what you shoulda did ten minutes ago.
u/None [+1] (a day later)
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u/FeepingCreature [+2] GCV Literally The Entire Culture (a day later)
The point of the scene was that the Tattooed Prisoner is more rational than the whoever held the button. Thus the "what you shoulda did ten minutes ago"; it's an object lesson in precommitment.