evolution – Made by Mikal

Children of Memory

Post author:mikal
Post published:February 12, 2025
Post category:Book

This is the third book in this series, coming after Children of Time and Children of Ruin. While I really liked the first of the books in the series, the second felt weaker. While this one doesn't review as well as the second I think it's actually a stronger book. Whilst sometimes a bit repetitive I think the ideas presented here are novel, and the book does a good job of finding a new way of discussing the tensions that refugees and mass immigration create for societies. This book is also an interesting combination of science fiction and fantasy -- the familiar territory of a failing colonization ship sent out on a hope and a prayer, and then a fantasy story about a little girl trying to save her family and a group of strangers come to town. Overall, I enjoyed this book.

Children Of Ruin

Post author:mikal
Post published:November 3, 2024
Post category:Book

This book did not go where I expected it to. Sure, it has a species uplift plot which is similar to Children of Time, but that's not all that's happening here. If the previous book was about refugees and redemption, this book is about alternative ways of structuring societies (I don't want to ruin the surprise by being too specific). Let's just say some of these societies are small and some are big, but they both cooperate to achieve their goals better than perhaps our society does. There's definitely a pattern forming about how books in this series resolve their conflicts. I'm not normally into horror as a genre, and there are definitely horror elements to this story. I probably wouldn't have bought this book if I'd known how it was going to be different from the previous one. That said, the horror element decreases after a mid-book peak and overall I enjoyed the story although not as much as that of the first book in the series.

Children of Time

Post author:mikal
Post published:August 19, 2024
Post category:Book

While being a fairly transparent metaphor for refugees, this book is also an excellent read with a relatively believable premise. I especially like the ending, which I thought was quite unexpected. I don't want to ruin any of this for anyone, but I really really enjoyed this book.

New Scientist Instant Expert: Human Origins

Post author:mikal
Post published:June 16, 2024
Post category:Book

This book triggered my weak spot. There I was wandering in a book store and it caught my eye. The combination of the promise of instant expertise and and interesting topic area was too much for my already notably poor impulse control with books and a purchase was made. Covering from our distant origins from probably Asia, to stone tool use on African grasslands, to the invention of cooking and farming. The book asserts that 20% of our basal calorie burn is our brain, which drove the adoption to eating meat. While I'm not disputing the number, 20% seems like a lot to me. I wonder if that explains why I find training courses so tiring, my brain is literally consuming extra energy? As an aside, a study by Richard Wrangham mentioned in this book asserts that to live a leisurely western lifestyle using only raw vegetarian food, you'd have to consume 9% of your bodyweight a day. That certainly meshes with the "eat a salad" weight loss advice! So in the end, do I think I am an expert on human evolution? No, not really. The book was an interesting read and I enjoyed it, but perhaps the title…

Damn Interesting

Post author:mikal
Post published:July 29, 2007
Post category:Link

I'm killing time at my mother in law's at the moment, before bussing it back to Sydney (on the way back to the US) tomorrow, and I figured I'd visit Damn Interesting again. Some of the gems from this trip: An article on the use of deliberately introduced infections to treat tumours. How about a research who uses evolution to improve his FGPA code? In the end, he can't even fully explain why the circuit works, but it does... Freezing hamsters and then reanimating them! How about a fellow who can't remember anything since he was 15?