Liedzeit (Author of Kontingente Korrespondenz)

Liedzeit Liedzeit started reading Only A Trillion by Isaac Asimov	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Dec 31, 2025 06:36AM · like
Liedzeit Liedzeit and 2 other people liked G. Branden's review of Only A Trillion: "The first of Asimov's many science essay collections is a strong, well-structured entry, and boasts virtues not often seen in anthologies, namely foreshadowing, momentum, and a big payoff at the end. That said, my overall attitude toward Asimov's nonf" Read more of this review »
Dec 31, 2025 06:34AM · see review
Liedzeit Liedzeit and 6 other people liked Dan's review of Stories of Your Life and Others: "These stories follow some modern, scientific, or ancient principle to its ultimate, unexpected, and very strange conclusions. In this respect - of logically following a principle to its final conclusions - these stories are modern and quite unsettlin" Read more of this review »
Dec 30, 2025 12:47AM · see review
Liedzeit Liedzeit rated a book really liked it The Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton Volume 05: The Outline of Sanity; The End of the Armistice; The Appetite of Tyranny; Utopia of Usurers and Other Essays by G.K. Chesterton	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This volume contains a number of books by Chesterton. Normally I would read them on their own and write a review for each. For some reason I did not in this case. And it makes reviewing the book awkward. The writings of this collection come from diff ...more
Dec 29, 2025 08:24AM · 3 likes · like · see review
Liedzeit Liedzeit and 34 other people liked Katia N's review of Finding Time Again (In Search of Lost Time, #6): " I did write this on Christmas Day. But then I went away and editing it on the phone is difficult, so apologies just in case. Happy Holidays and all the best in New Year! It is a bright morning on a Christmas day. And when many people running around t" Read more of this review »
Dec 29, 2025 08:22AM · see review
Liedzeit Liedzeit rated a book it was ok The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Nathan Glass, the narrator, promises at the beginning that the book would not about him. But I would say, it basically is. He comes back to the place of his childhood, Brooklyn to die. He has cancer and a broken marriage. In the end he still lives, w ...more
Dec 29, 2025 06:41AM · 1 like · like · see review
Liedzeit Liedzeit rated a book really liked it Lesen ist Denken mit fremdem Gehirn: Gespräche mit Osvaldo Ferrari (Kampa Salon) (German Edition) by Jorge Luis Borges	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This book contains short conversations of Borges with Ferrari (a lyricist and journalist) that were taped in between 1984 and 1986, shortly before Borges died. They were broadcasted on Radio and later published in newspapers. Which means they were no ...more
Dec 28, 2025 08:39AM · 1 like · like · see review
Liedzeit Liedzeit rated a book liked it How To Think About AI: A Guide For The Perplexed by Richard Susskind	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
What made me buy this book was the epigraph: “None of this book was written by AI (for better or for worth).” As it is a brand new book, not everything is hopelessly outdated. The main reason for this is that Susskind does not attempt to define AI. He ...more
Dec 28, 2025 07:24AM · 2 likes · like · see review
Liedzeit Liedzeit is on page 166 of 298 of Lesen ist Denken mit fremdem Gehirn Lesen ist Denken mit fremdem Gehirn: Gespräche mit Osvaldo Ferrari (Kampa Salon) (German Edition) by Jorge Luis Borges progress:	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Dec 27, 2025 06:44AM · 1 like · like · see status
Liedzeit Liedzeit is currently reading Lesen ist Denken mit fremdem Gehirn: Gespräche mit Osvaldo Ferrari (Kampa Salon) (German Edition) by Jorge Luis Borges	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Liedzeit Liedzeit and 2 other people liked G. Branden's review of Only A Trillion:

"The first of Asimov's many science essay collections is a strong, well-structured entry, and boasts virtues not often seen in anthologies, namely foreshadowing, momentum, and a big payoff at the end.

That said, my overall attitude toward Asimov's nonf" Read more of this review »

Liedzeit Liedzeit and 6 other people liked Dan's review of Stories of Your Life and Others:

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

"These stories follow some modern, scientific, or ancient principle to its ultimate, unexpected, and very strange conclusions. In this respect - of logically following a principle to its final conclusions - these stories are modern and quite unsettlin" Read more of this review »

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The Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton Volume 05 by G.K. Chesterton

The Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton Volume 05: The Outline of Sanity; The End of the Armistice; The Appetite of Tyranny; Utopia of Usurers and Other Essays
by G.K. Chesterton

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This volume contains a number of books by Chesterton. Normally I would read them on their own and write a review for each. For some reason I did not in this case. And it makes reviewing the book awkward. The writings of this collection come from diff This volume contains a number of books by Chesterton. Normally I would read them on their own and write a review for each. For some reason I did not in this case. And it makes reviewing the book awkward. The writings of this collection come from different periods of time and handle a range of topics and are of of very different value.

The first text, written in 1926, The Outline of Sanity was to me almost not recognizable as Chesterton. The only thing Chestertonian in it is the title. It is a long essay on the ideal economy, as far as I understood. Chesterton came up with something he called distributism. It is of course neither capitalism nor communism, he dreams of a society that is self-determined. No goods are to be imported, if I remember correctly. This theory (or doctrine?) must have meant a lot to him as he avoids using any humour.

A lot of the books/essays in this volume were quite disturbing. There is a contempt and hatred for Germany (or Prussia in particular) that I thought he would be incapable of having, or of allowing himself to have. Even the book The Crimes of England (written in 1916) is mostly about the crimes of Germany/Prussia.

But, of course, you will find truly excellent essays in here, for example the one about racism (The Heresy of Race), or the one about eugenics, which should be required reading for everyone: Science and the Eugenics.

I also really liked a short piece called On Throwing Stones. We all know the wise saying “Let him that is without sin among you cast the first stone.” Chesterton reminds us that the story does not end there. Jesus says to the sinner: “Go and sin no more”. To judge by many modern references, Chesterton continues, the whole scene endend with the words, “Go on and sin as much as you like”.
Chesterton in a nutshell.

For a book with more than six hundred pages of Chesterton there are surprisingly few aphorisms that are worth repeating. Maybe these:

The civilsed man, like the religious man, is one who recognises the strange and irritating fact that something exists besides himself.

A Frenchman is proud of France, but a Prussian is not proud of Prussia. He is simply proud because he is Prussian.

But the Germans will to find it difficult to persuade any German, let alone only European who is fond of Germany that Schiller is a poet and Heine is not.

This is the great Prussian illusion of pride for which thousands of Jews have recently been rabbled and ruined or driven from their homes. I am certainly not enough of an antisemite to say that it serves them right.

In the crusades they spread Christianity in the Napoleonic wars they spread equality but both these ideas when accepted, are applicable to all races. This sort of Crusade may be a mistake but it's a real mistake and it's a Christian mistake; Race is not.

I do not doubt for a moment that we were right (WWI) I know of no course in history that was so right. But I have sometimes come to doubt whether we had any right to be so right.

Everyone who knows any history, knows that the French and English understood each other far better when they fought each other at Crezy and Agincourt, then when they fought side by side at Mons and the Marne.

...more

Liedzeit Liedzeit and 34 other people liked Katia N's review of Finding Time Again (In Search of Lost Time, #6):

" I did write this on Christmas Day. But then I went away and editing it on the phone is difficult, so apologies just in case. Happy Holidays and all the best in New Year!

It is a bright morning on a Christmas day. And when many people running around t" Read more of this review »

Liedzeit Liedzeit rated a book it was ok

The Brooklyn Follies
by Paul Auster

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Nathan Glass, the narrator, promises at the beginning that the book would not about him. But I would say, it basically is. He comes back to the place of his childhood, Brooklyn to die. He has cancer and a broken marriage. In the end he still lives, w ...more

Liedzeit Liedzeit rated a book really liked it

Lesen ist Denken mit fremdem Gehirn by Jorge Luis Borges

Lesen ist Denken mit fremdem Gehirn: Gespräche mit Osvaldo Ferrari (Kampa Salon) (German Edition)
by Jorge Luis Borges

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This book contains short conversations of Borges with Ferrari (a lyricist and journalist) that were taped in between 1984 and 1986, shortly before Borges died. They were broadcasted on Radio and later published in newspapers. Which means they were no This book contains short conversations of Borges with Ferrari (a lyricist and journalist) that were taped in between 1984 and 1986, shortly before Borges died. They were broadcasted on Radio and later published in newspapers. Which means they were not meant to be published in book form. And one can see it. They seem to have not been edited.

We read a book, Borges says, with respect. And maybe with too much respect.

It is always a joy to read Borges. And (I said this before) even if he repeats things, and he does this a lot, it always seems light and deep at the same time. Ferrari gives Borges an opportunity to speak about his favourite subjects again. About Chesterton and Shakespeare, Swedenborg, Kipling and Poe. Borges does not need more than a cue. And then his marvelous mind produces all theses incredible pieces of wisdom. For example on the topic of Flaubert he says that when he searches for the “mot juste” it is not a sign of vanity but of of modesty. When he talks about Dante he contrasts him with Swedenborg preferring the view of Swedenborg that we freely choose heaven or hell, instead of having this judge who rewards and punishes.

In nearly every dialog there is something to admire. Right in the first one he says that he talks and writes only about things he likes, because if he dislikes something he is afraid that it would only prove his incompetence and clumsiness. (A lesson, I should certainly learn.)

And yet the dialog that I found most deeply satisfying is the one on Kipling. Because nearly every factual claim Borges makes is wrong. Kipling did not have cancer. His son was not one of the first hundred thousand (to volunteer for World War I). Kipling was not shy as Borges claims (avoiding a discussion with Shaw). A poem Kipling wrote was called A song of seventy horses not of fifty. Kipling did write sonnets contrary to what Borges says. (I know all this from the notes of this edition.) Now all this is trivial, of course. But it also means that the wonderful memory (and he says that he had a bad one himself, a memory consisting only of quotes and verses) was not infallible. But what I liked was that he is not making any cautionary remarks. He says something and if not for the notes I would take it as gospel truth.

The amazing thing is that there are two lessons to be learned. Firstly, do not trust even the most respected people. Secondly, facts are not that important. At least, not in this case, as I hasten to add.

9/10 ...more

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How To Think About AI by Richard Susskind

How To Think About AI: A Guide For The Perplexed
by Richard Susskind

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What made me buy this book was the epigraph: “None of this book was written by AI (for better or for worth).”

As it is a brand new book, not everything is hopelessly outdated. The main reason for this is that Susskind does not attempt to define AI. He What made me buy this book was the epigraph: “None of this book was written by AI (for better or for worth).”

As it is a brand new book, not everything is hopelessly outdated. The main reason for this is that Susskind does not attempt to define AI. He mentions that, at one conference, no definition received more than 54% approval. However, he also does not attempt to explain how AI works. For a book promising to be a “Guide for the Perplexed”, this is a bit disappointing.

He contrasts process thinking from outcome thinking. This might be a good idea, explaining what AI is capable of doing instead of trying to explain how it is doing it. There is a little bit of history of AI but not enough to give the reader an idea what was going on. For example mentioning ELIZA without telling that all its answers were canned means hiding the most important information from the reader.

He obviously knows what he’s talking about, and he’s not shy to tell us (again and again) that he was one of the early developers of AI. That was back in the days of expert systems, which means the early bronze age. He is a lawyer, and his programme could follow handwritten paths to reach conclusions on legal questions. This was undoubtedly a significant achievement, but perhaps not what we mean today when we talk about AI. To his credit, he is honest enough to admit that when machine learning emerged, he could not conceive of using it for his purposes.

Susskind is not a young man as you can guess, (but depressingly, younger than I am), so it is kind of funny that he chooses two even older men to explain the two cultures of AI, namely Kissinger and Chomsky. Kissinger was saying that AI “will redefine human knowledge [...] and reorganize politics and society.” Whereas Chomsky thinks that AI means amorality, faux science and linguistic incompetence. And is, of course, trivial compared to the human mind.

There are some interesting thoughts in the book. For example the chapter where he talks on the lack of adequate vocabulary (an obvious example is the misnomer hallucination . I liked his reply when at a conference he was asked for the first robot being able to iron shirts. He said that AI would get us shirts that do not need ironing. An in a similar vein: He was at a conference talking about the future of neurosurgery. He said that people don’t want neurosurgeons. The neurosurgeons in the audience did not like that. They wanted to hear that their jobs were safe. However, neurosurgeons are the best solution to a problem we have right now. AI will not help them do their job. AI will make their job obsolete because people will no longer suffer from damage that needs fixing.

The chapter on the question of AI consciousness is quite good. Which means not obviously nonsensical.

Overall, it's a good book, but I don’t know anyone I would recommend it to. Perhaps, given the topic, it is impossible to write a book that is neither too shallow nor too deep. However, I would say that it leans towards being too shallow. ...more