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Roundworld is in trouble again, and this time it looks fatal. Having created it in the first place, the wizards of Unseen University feel vaguely responsible for its safety. They know the creatures who lived there escaped the impending Big Freeze by inventing the space elevator - they even intervened to rid the planet of a plague of elves, who attempted to divert humanity onto a different time track. But now it's all gone wrong - Victorian England has stagnated and the pace of progress would embarrass a limping snail. Unless something drastic is done, there won't be time for anyone to invent spaceflight and the human race will be turned into ice-pops. Why, though, did history come adrift? Was it Sir Arthur Nightingale's dismal book about natural selection? Or was it the devastating response by an obscure country vicar called Charles Darwin, whose bestselling Theology of Species made it impossible to refute the divine design of living creatures? Either way, it's no easy task to change history, as the wizards discover to their cost. Can the God of Evolution come to humanity's aid and ensure Darwin writes a very different book? And who stopped him writing it in the first place?… (plus d'informations)
Accidentally nicked this book from a friend after I started reading it at a party. That's right, I like to party hard.
This is the first Science of the Discworld I have read, but it doesn't seem to have mattered much. It was nice to catch up with Rincewind in his university role after his retirement from being chased all over the Discworld.
It was also fun to catch up with my old friend Darwin, whose [b:Voyage of the Beagle|183645|Voyage of the Beagle|Charles Darwin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1549710314l/183645._SY75_.jpg|177481] I'd read for my post where I roleplayed him on a New Zealand beach.
I enjoyed the mix of science, science history, time travel and narrative. I'm afraid I didn't understand a few of the more advanced concepts, but I did appreciate the way they were presented in an attempt to be accessible to the lay reader. ( )
A better text on the philosophy of science than anything I read in university. Paley's watchmaker isn't dismissed or treated with derision but rather an essential ingredient for understanding any theoretical breakthrough: context (with jokes!). ( )
I finished rereading this yesterday. I can't say I enjoyed it as much as the first Science of Discworld book, but the overview of evolution and tidbits about Darwin are good, and the story of how the wizards of Unseen University intervene in the affairs of their little Round World project is entertaining. ( )
Bugrit..!.....I came to write my review and find that austcrimefiction (below) has written exactly what I wanted to say about the book already (except for her last para' , of course).
A brilliant read that needs reading twice to take in some of the science. ( )
Not so long ago a past Prime Minister of ours declared that History teaching in schools should be more about learning dates and less about interpretation and analysis. Or something like that. I wasn't listening after the first bit about dates - I was curled up in a foetal position, fingers in ears, chanting "Make it Stop" "Make it Stop".
Much like most of my, thankfully short, school years.
THE SCIENCE OF DISCWORLD, might be fictional wrapped up with some science commentary, but to be frank - there were some explanations of scientific theory in this book - that a lot of years later, suddenly made some of the stuff they banged on about at school make sense.
Made me realise if they had given learning some narrative, actually chucked in a bit of fun, gave things some context and some interest ... I might have spent a lot less time fighting unconsciousness and a little more time actually learning something.
PS - himself who is a science nerd of the first order read the book at the same time as me and was equally impressed. They took some very complex scientific concepts and made them very accessible. (I think that's what he said... I've got my fingers in my ears chanting....)
Informations provenant du Partage des connaissances anglais.Modifiez pour passer à votre langue.
In crossing a path, suppose I...found a watch on the ground...The inference, we think, is inevitable; that the watch must have had a maker. - William Paley, Natural Theology
Divine Design, the conscious process of creation, which Paley discovered, and which we now know is the explanation for the existence and purposeful form of all life, always has purpose in mind. If the Deity can be said to play the role of Watchmaker in nature, He is an all-seeing Watchmaker. - the Rev. Charles Darwin, Theology of Species
There is grandeur in this view of life...and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved. - the Rev. Richard Dawkins, The Origin of Species
There is grandeur in this view of life...and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved. - Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species
Natural selection, the blind, unconscious automatic process which Darwin discovered, and which we now know is the explanation for the existence and apparently purposeless form of all life, has no purpose in mind. If it can be said to play the role of watchmaker in nature, it is the blind watchmaker. - Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker
In crossing a path, suppose I...found a watch on the ground. The inference, I think, is inevitable. Some careless chronometric surveyor must have dropped it. - Preserved J. Nightingale, Watches Abroad
Dédicace
Premiers mots
Informations provenant du Partage des connaissances anglais.Modifiez pour passer à votre langue.
Discworld is real. ("Concerning Roundworld")
It was raining. This would, of course, be good for the worms.
Citations
Informations provenant du Partage des connaissances anglais.Modifiez pour passer à votre langue.
It is always useful for a university to have a Very Big Thing. It occupies the younger members, to the relief of their elders (especially if the VBT is based at some distance from the seat of learning itself) and it uses up a lot of money which would otherwise only lie around causing trouble or be spent by the sociology department or, probably, both.
Derniers mots
Informations provenant du Partage des connaissances anglais.Modifiez pour passer à votre langue.
But then he sat up, feeling unaccountably exhilarated, and looked around at the tangled, busy bank, with its birds and flitting insects, and thought: Yes. That's right. That's how it is.
Roundworld is in trouble again, and this time it looks fatal. Having created it in the first place, the wizards of Unseen University feel vaguely responsible for its safety. They know the creatures who lived there escaped the impending Big Freeze by inventing the space elevator - they even intervened to rid the planet of a plague of elves, who attempted to divert humanity onto a different time track. But now it's all gone wrong - Victorian England has stagnated and the pace of progress would embarrass a limping snail. Unless something drastic is done, there won't be time for anyone to invent spaceflight and the human race will be turned into ice-pops. Why, though, did history come adrift? Was it Sir Arthur Nightingale's dismal book about natural selection? Or was it the devastating response by an obscure country vicar called Charles Darwin, whose bestselling Theology of Species made it impossible to refute the divine design of living creatures? Either way, it's no easy task to change history, as the wizards discover to their cost. Can the God of Evolution come to humanity's aid and ensure Darwin writes a very different book? And who stopped him writing it in the first place?
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This is the first Science of the Discworld I have read, but it doesn't seem to have mattered much. It was nice to catch up with Rincewind in his university role after his retirement from being chased all over the Discworld.
It was also fun to catch up with my old friend Darwin, whose [b:Voyage of the Beagle|183645|Voyage of the Beagle|Charles Darwin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1549710314l/183645._SY75_.jpg|177481] I'd read for my post where I roleplayed him on a New Zealand beach.
I enjoyed the mix of science, science history, time travel and narrative. I'm afraid I didn't understand a few of the more advanced concepts, but I did appreciate the way they were presented in an attempt to be accessible to the lay reader. (