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Reed Fagan
is on page 14 of 456
"In more ways than one, π was tied to infinity.
She had caught a glimpse of something majestic. Hiding between all the ordinary numbers was an infinity of transcendental numbers whose presence you would never have guessed unless you looked deeply into mathematics. Every now and then one of them, like π, would pop up unexpectedly in everyday life. But most of them ... were hiding, minding their own business..." p.11
— Nov 25, 2025 07:20PM
She had caught a glimpse of something majestic. Hiding between all the ordinary numbers was an infinity of transcendental numbers whose presence you would never have guessed unless you looked deeply into mathematics. Every now and then one of them, like π, would pop up unexpectedly in everyday life. But most of them ... were hiding, minding their own business..." p.11
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Reed’s Previous Updates
Reed Fagan
is on page 169 of 456
It's fun reading & learning Sagan was obsessed w/ "noise", the idea that in any smattering of data, often acoustical, if you listen close enough you hear some story being told. When I learned about dendritic patterns, I got similarly obsessed w/ them & their ubiquity.
A good philosophical problem posed in this ch.: that the "Message" is plans for a Trojan Horse/Doomsday Machine. Plot hasn't resolved this yet.
— Dec 11, 2025 11:02AM
A good philosophical problem posed in this ch.: that the "Message" is plans for a Trojan Horse/Doomsday Machine. Plot hasn't resolved this yet.
Reed Fagan
is on page 157 of 456
"After 1945...leaders changed, weapons systems changed, strategy changed, but the # of [nuclear] weapons only increased. The time came when there were more than 25,000...10 for every city... Only so monumental a danger could undo so monumental a foolishness, endorsed by so many leaders in so many nations for so long... But a sentence of death, as Samuel Johnson had noted, concentrates the mind wonderfully." – p. 157
— Dec 09, 2025 11:00AM
Reed Fagan
is on page 150 of 456
So far much of Sagan's symbolism has been very blatant/on the nose. I know many find such writing sophomoric but I appreciate it; my own art attempts have had similar overt symbols.
Coming to see more of his thoughts about religion & its role in history/society. It interests, maybe even appeals to, him. He deals with some of the inherent problems of Christian faith facilely, but may deal w/ more sophistication ahead.
— Dec 06, 2025 02:22PM
Coming to see more of his thoughts about religion & its role in history/society. It interests, maybe even appeals to, him. He deals with some of the inherent problems of Christian faith facilely, but may deal w/ more sophistication ahead.
Reed Fagan
is on page 135 of 456
""[Rudolph Otto] thought of the numinous as a thing 'wholly other,' and the human response to it as 'absolute astonishment'. Now, if that's what religious people talk about when they use words like sacred or holy, I'm with them. I felt something like that just in listening for a signal, never mind in actually receiving it. I think all of science elicits that sense of awe." - pp. 131-132
— Dec 05, 2025 01:53PM
Reed Fagan
is on page 130 of 456
"She began to understand why lovers talk baby talk to one another... If the 1-year-old, the 5yo, the 12yo, and the 20yo all find compatible personalities in the beloved, there is a real chance to keep all of these sub-personas happy. Love ends their long loneliness. Perhaps the depth of love can be calibrated by the number of different selves that are actively involved in a given relationship."- p. 131
— Dec 05, 2025 01:38PM
