How we should never have to say"I wonder what if".
353850
This song hit home. It is incredible,it's funny how fast life passes by and we find ourselves  wondering what if. All kids should be raised in a manner so they never have toask themselves that. ThankYou Oscar for the awesome  reminder there were really specoal people we "never had".
3248075
This guy is, for me, a breath of fresh air.  Wish I had the courage and ability to do what he does.  Everyone....  Just take a moment in time and think about what he is saying.  Perhaps you will come away with a different way of thinking.  Even if you don't think differntly- Isn't it our God's gift that you can think differntly, yet still hear differnt thoughts without being afraid of being imprissioned?  That's what America is all about!  We can differ about what we believe is true, yet allow others to believe what they believe is true.  The whole point is:  after death we are obliged to discover what is or is not true.  Meantime, our friends and  others should be allowed to believe as they do.  The ends will tell it all!- In the meantime; laugh at those things which make us laugh, scowl at those thing which make us scowl.  However, in the meantime,  try and be as good a human being as is possible for you to be.... .
386589
Almost all science fiction novels are built, explicitly or implicitly, around the question, "What if" What if we could fly to the Moon? What if there are other people out there? What if we could go back in time? Damon Knight, one of the most inventive authors of the second half of the 20th century, starts this one with "What if you could have any physical item you wanted just by flipping a switch?" Imagine receiving a box in the mail containing a device made of two wooden bars fastened in a "T" with a hook dangling from each arm, and a small, completely unknown metal and glass object attached to each. And a couple of batteries and a switch and that's it. Hang something from one hook, press the switch, and an identical copy appears on the other arm. Anything, inanimate or alive. We would live in Eden, right? No starvation, no need for war, no unhealthy competition, right? Also, as people quickly realize, no way to reckon relative wealth. When you can have all the food you want -- or all the diamonds, or rifles -- the only thing left is personal service and control of those who provide. And that means slavery.

Dick Jones is the teenage scion of a family in the Poconos that controls the surrounding countryside a few generations following the introduction of the Gizmo. He lives in a world of physical comfort and plenty, at least for those who run things by controling the Gizmos, a world with fifty slaves for every free man, a world in which personal honor and position means everything. Sent off to Colorado for four years of military training and social polishing under the authority of The Boss, he discovers a very different world among those who compete for real power, and also among those at the very bottom of the ladder.

I first read this book in high school in 1959 in its original incarnation as _The People Maker_ (actually, it had appeared in shorter form in F&SF two years earlier) and its philosophical proddings made me think about a lot of new things. In fact, it stuck with me so thoroughly, I finally had to chase down a copy so I could renew my acquaintance with it. I don't know if Knight's predicted results from such an invention are the only option, frankly, but it's still a first-rate intellectual adventure.
2563239
"The Black Swan" is one of the most thought-provoking books I've read (or almost read -- I'm 3/4 through). Yes, we all know that large unexpected events can change everything. But do we act like we know it? Do we insure ourselves in some way against 1929-type crashes? Few do. Why? Because we don't fully understand and take seriously the nature of the Black Swan -- the large, unexpected event.

Thus, the market crash of 2008. We are swayed by a number of fallacies that human thinking is subject to, like buying the "story" (the latest fad in thinking like "Nobel Prize winners have developed the math model that shows sub-prime mortgages are safe.")

Yes, the book could have been written more clearly and in a more neutral style. True, one must take action when faced with uncertainty, something Taleb doesn't focus a great deal on. And I've not read "Fooled by Randomness," so can't judge the amount of overlap. But developing deep understanding of common fallacious lines of thought is priceless. That's what "The Black Swan" helps one with. Yey, Taleb! Your excessive ego is totally justified!
3607411
I think all deep thinking adults should read this book, to help insure that this can never happen again.  Wouk is a super writer.
2095611
The author does not propose to answer the question. Rather he hits the road and asks the experts: philosophers, mathematicians, physicists, religious types. I liked this style, it kept things moving and allowed me to absorb the material gradually.

If you are like me, you have in mind some sort of answer to the question as you go along for the read. By the end of the book, my thoughts had been refined quite a bit.

As a meteorologist I have always said "Why" is the wrong question. Don't ask me why it rains, ask me how. If you want to know why, ask your priest or rabbi. "How" is the question a scientist can answer. Here the mathematicians and physicists -- same thing really -- were like me, "It just happened, that's all," "A slight fluctuation in the false vacuum," "Probabilistic."

That is not very satisfying, is it. Might've, might not've, is not very helpful.

The philosophers were even less helpful. They're groping. One hypothesized an innate urge to "goodness" as the proximate cause. Another felt "God" was the simplest answer, which echoed the great religions. Yet note that the Hebrew Bible, for instance, is silent on the "Why" question and just begins with God creating the universe. Why ain't in it.

This is where the author sort of leaves us. Many answers, none of them good.

For me, the answer is contingent. The question is contingent. If there was nothing, the question would not arise, would it. The whole matter is contingent on there being something -- us. From my observations of meteorological phenomena, which are all contingent and moreover subject to the laws of chaos, it seems to me there was no choice.

Consider an air parcel that can go left or right, or a cloud that can form or that might not form. We see it as a matter of chance; while most clouds evaporate there might be one particular cloud that does not, that grows and becomes a storm. However I believe that the individual air parcels had no choice, that at bottom the thing is deterministic once the process is begun.

So it was in the beginning. Maybe there was nothing, maybe for a long time although time itself would have no meaning without motion, would it. Whatever happened to create the cosmos, it HAD to happen.

This, too, does not really satisfy. But I think the philosophers and priests can never give us the answer. Our best hope probably lies with the physicists and mathematicians but I'll tell ya, they're getting close to Fairy Land with string theory and the multiverse.

Someday maybe...
187778
We don't want to believe it could happen.  This set of stories show all too realistically how it really could.  They reveal a few things we might do in advance to lessen the impact.  Will the tales not motivate us to do something?
4111840
This is a great book that really asks great questions. Many of them you would never think to ask and what I really like is that some of them you would never want to answer!

They make you think.

Very good.
2181465
For children with hair loss ( think CANCER/ALOPECIA) how devastating to be told that it could be worse: she could be bald. How do you think the "bald" little girl feels after hearing these cruel words? I don't advocate banning books, but honestly I wish this book would magically disappear from every shelf around the globe.  Does this book promote acceptance and tolerance of those who are different than us?  Indeed not! The implication is that nothing could be worse than a girl being bald -- would it be tolerated if the author had said it could be worse : you could be in a wheelchair. How about it could be worse: you could be a Christian. Or it could be worse you could be --- of a certain race or ethnicity? What were the author, editor, and publisher thinking? Evidently they weren't thinking at all. I would not buy the book and I hope our local school library and public library does not own it!
1374746
Probabilistic thinking does not come naturally to humans.  So we constantly need reminders like this.  Perhaps one of this book's more valuable features is its treatment of the tails of distributions.  (That's where the "improbabilities" occur.)
1838843
A must read for Christians that want to at least partially understand how our society have fulfilled the statement of thinking themselves wise, but being fools.

Ideas, and particularly world views, can be dangerous if they are not understood, but are merely accepted with no critical thought--which is the norm in today's modern world of sound-bites and short attention spans.
2846440
Very thought provoking.  We do not realize that the situations portrayed in this book could very well happen if/when we put the wrong people in charge of our country.  Other countries experience these situations on a regular basis and we think that they could not happen in the United States.  This book makes you think seriously about the future of our country!
3438009
We all say things without thinking.  Sometimes those things are hurtful to others.  We need to choose our words carefully and try to build up and not tear down.  This book will help you to think about the things you say and how you can be a positive force instead of negative.  Also, if you say something often enough, you can change your own behavior!
730463
What if?" I had taken the other job.. Gotten married. Had children. Didn't have children. Taken a different path in life, where would I be now. How different would my life be... Gold or bad. Suppose someone gave you a time machine that could jump to anywhere in the past and bring you back to the present. If you went back and made you changes what would your new present be like. Remember you life touches many others. Mr. Yancy's book gives us a taste of a couple people's uses of the machine. One supposed to be monitoring history who is actually using the machine to gain profit. ( The was discovered by the scientists who built the machine by checking the" flight data recorder" (ogre something similar that shows where the time machine has been.,) Hitting another pilot they saw many different time lines and finally the one they wanted. The one where President Obama dies. But it doesn't end there, they still have to save him and the rest of the timeline and get back to where the time machine is kept took be sure. They need to find out what changed and what didn't. This book was so well written, I didn't want to put it down. I really hope he writes a sequel.
3609587
Expect your thinking to be challenged by this book. Oh, if only there were an answer to end the pain forever.
2245536
Has thinking become a lost art? Are we drawing conclusions and making decisions without thinking through all the parts of the issues?

Jacobs notes, Relatively few people want to think. (17) It might make us uncomfortable. Our peers might not like our conclusions and disapprove of them. Thinking complicates our lives. And make no mistake, it is work!

Jacobs emphasizes that thinking is an art. He does not provide specific instructions in logic, inductive or deductive reasoning. He does not offer strict rules. He does suggest good, practical habits that can help the thinking process, such as the importance of self knowledge.

Rather than being a slave to pure logic, I like that Jacobs says thinking involves the entire person. Our feelings have an impact on our thinking. So do the our relationships with others, our moral views and our biases.

In light of recent American politics, the part of the book I found the most fascinating was about the outgroup. Some do not want to be outside the safety of a community that provides security, even if it is at the expense of thought. (35) Rather than think through an issue, the individual parrots the views of those offering the security.

I recommend this book to those who want to understand thinking and how to think without being confronted with the rules of logic and reasoning. You will find many insightful revelations about how you and others think, presented in a very readable form.

Food for thought: Dare to think.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.
1431243
The author of this book ask and answers an absorbing question: how would the world (and all the works of man) respond if suddenly we were not around to care for our creations (and the rest of the natural world) anymore?  Taking a tour around the world, looking at different ecosystems, environments and existences, Weisman offers a well-reasoned and researched prognosis for a world suddenly devoid of human interference and care.  While our species is damned with responsibility for many a ruined habitat (the description of the dangerous nuclear waste storage problem should make you shudder in horror) the book is oddly hopeful: our earth would survive, at least until the sun blinks out billions of years from now.  It even offers an idea to make the world a more pleasant place for future generations should we continue to exist (as we surely shall; even if 99% of humanity were eradicated, there would still be almost 700,000 human inhabitants gracing the planet.)  All in all, a good read that will give you plenty to think about.