Mitch's Blog

I’m re-reading the first volume of the Aubrey-Maturin series, “Master and Commander.” I think I read the first three volumes 25-30 years ago, and then stopped for some reason. I barely remember any of it.

I’m enjoying the book but I also find it overwhelming. The author, Patrick O’Brian, throws out a lot of nautical terms and rarely explains any of it.

So I did a web search on “how to read Patrick O’Brian,” and saw this advice:

First read-through just enjoy the ride and feel the ambience. You can enjoy the story without understanding all details. Looking up everything just makes reading too slow for a first pass.

Next circumnavigation you can start looking up things and understand the subtle jokes. After the tenth round there are still some that you missed.

And that’s what I’m doing.

I don’t know whether I’ll read the series again — let alone ten times!

Physics operates on the reductionist principle that the universe can be entirely explained by the interactions of particles and forces. But that principle breaks down for living things, writes Adam Frank at The Atlantic:

Give me a simple cell from the early days of Earth’s history, and I could never predict that some 4 billion years later it would evolve into a giant rabbit that can punch you in the face. Kangaroos—like humans—are an unpredictable, emergent consequence of life’s evolution.

This is an interesting article, but I fear it might also be junk science.