Maxim started reading Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
Valentine Michael Smith is a human being raised on Mars, newly returned to Earth. Among his people for the first …
Software PM, bridge teacher, board game geek. Interested in stock markets and rational thinking.
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48% complete! Maxim has read 13 of 27 books.
Valentine Michael Smith is a human being raised on Mars, newly returned to Earth. Among his people for the first …
Valentine Michael Smith is a human being raised on Mars, newly returned to Earth. Among his people for the first …
Engineered from the finest genes, and trained to be a secret courier in a future world, Friday operates over a …
The fiction is okay, not Heinlein's finest – but the social aspect feels eerily relevant today. Just two quotes (the novel is from 1982!):
"Pick one. A theocracy ruled by witchburners. Or a fascist socialism designed by retarded schoolboys. Or a crowd of hard-boiled pragmatists who favor shooting the horse that misses the hurdle. Step right up! Only one to a customer!"
"Only in California will you find the clear-quill, raw-gum, two-hundred proof undiluted democracy. The voting age starts when a citizen is tall enough to pull a lever without being steadied by her nurse. <...> Three years ago a grassroots economist noticed that college graduates earned, on the average, about 30 percent more than their fellow citizens who lacked bachelor's degrees. Such an undemocratic condition is anathema to the California Dream, so with great speed, an initiative was qualified for the next election, the measure passed, and all California …
The fiction is okay, not Heinlein's finest – but the social aspect feels eerily relevant today. Just two quotes (the novel is from 1982!):
"Pick one. A theocracy ruled by witchburners. Or a fascist socialism designed by retarded schoolboys. Or a crowd of hard-boiled pragmatists who favor shooting the horse that misses the hurdle. Step right up! Only one to a customer!"
"Only in California will you find the clear-quill, raw-gum, two-hundred proof undiluted democracy. The voting age starts when a citizen is tall enough to pull a lever without being steadied by her nurse. <...> Three years ago a grassroots economist noticed that college graduates earned, on the average, about 30 percent more than their fellow citizens who lacked bachelor's degrees. Such an undemocratic condition is anathema to the California Dream, so with great speed, an initiative was qualified for the next election, the measure passed, and all California high-school graduates and/or California citizens attaining eighteen years were henceforth awarded bachelor's degrees. A grandfather clause backdated this benefit eight years. This measure worked beautifully: the holder of bachelor's degree no longer had any undemocratic advantage".
Engineered from the finest genes, and trained to be a secret courier in a future world, Friday operates over a …
Written in 1973, a massive 50 kilometre long alien cylinder begins to pass through the solar system provoking a hurried …
Written in 1973, a massive 50 kilometre long alien cylinder begins to pass through the solar system provoking a hurried …
In reality, Hiro Protagonist delivers pizza for Uncle Enzo’s CosaNostra Pizza Inc., but in the Metaverse he’s a warrior prince. …
Written in 1973, a massive 50 kilometre long alien cylinder begins to pass through the solar system provoking a hurried …