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[Technology] The end of human kind as we know it by 2050









Papa Lazarou

Living in a De Zerbi wonderland
Jul 7, 2003
19,361
Worthing
Angels and Demons ending was absolute gash they still did that one.


I know one of his recent books (Inferno?) they changed the ending for the movie.

I won't go into spoilerific details as to why the ending of the Last Symbol disappointed me so, but it did, greatly.
 




Bob'n'weave

Well-known member
Nov 18, 2016
1,972
Nr Lewes
Dan Brown is up there, or should I say, down there, with fellow fantasist L Ron Hubbard. Takes some factual premise and ruins it with his own inept ramblings, fishing for guru status. Spoils a decent yarn by alluring to some kind of truth/prophecy. Bell end of the highest order.
 




The Kid Frankie

New member
Sep 5, 2012
2,082
I know one of his recent books (Inferno?) they changed the ending for the movie.

I won't go into spoilerific details as to why the ending of the Last Symbol disappointed me so, but it did, greatly.

I haven't read Inferno is it any good? I know they changed the ending to Angels and Demons very slightly from the book - because the ending in the book was complete and utter ****. Whereas the film was only moderately ****.

To be quite honest I read the Lost Symbol about 7 or 8 years ago so can't remember the ending clearly. I remember liking the baddie.
 




FatSuperman

Well-known member
Feb 25, 2016
2,923
So we'll never know what happened to Ulloa's penalty?

Kalimantan Gull has thrown you all off the scent with his fake news about Dan's book. The true world ending event IS the return of Ulloa's penalty. It's been on a long orbit around the solar system, picking up dust, water vapour and general space debris. The first time past us it missed by miles, but sling-shot around the sun and got a massive boost from a near miss with Jupiter, it's currently swinging about and headed directly for Earth. Absolutely all life is destroyed, according to the book.

The only positive is that Selhurst Park is finally improved.
 




brakespear

Doctor Worm
Feb 24, 2009
12,326
Sleeping on the roof
So I read the review of Origin in the Guardian, because, well, you would wouldn't you, and is this the main theory that is hard to shake off..?

"here the human race is warned of its imminent redundancy, as machines with synthetic brains prepare to take control of us."

???


"As usual with Brown, the end of history approaches at high speed. The “reveal”, as they call it in Hollywood, is delayed for 400 pages, but I doubt that I’ll spoil anyone’s enjoyment if I disclose that it turns out to consist of gobbledegook about “nucleotides” and “obligate endosymbiosis”.

....

"Though his denouement piously drones on about the scientific amelioration of human ills and the need to replace warring religions with an all-purpose spirituality, Brown’s true aims are more devious and deviant. His cryptic hints about malevolent global forces ratchet up our anxiety; blending the testimony of actual scientists such as Hawking and Dawkins with his own dotty or loony inventions, he produces a mentally corrosive mixture of truth and falsehood. Why should we trust a writer who thinks that Spain has a president not a prime minister, and who spells one of his favourite adjectives “collosal”?

Here, to set beside the fake news that warps election results in what’s left of the real world, is a specimen of phoney fiction, expertly designed to confuse the credulous. Yes, Brown is a prophet, and a false one – a Nostradamus for our muddled, crazed and probably terminal times.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/oct/08/origin-dan-brown-review


Fun review to read that (*and yes, I get the irony about the Guardian complaining about spelling)
who'd have thought? :)
 


brakespear

Doctor Worm
Feb 24, 2009
12,326
Sleeping on the roof
Where have we come from? Where are we going?

Sounds much like "we're on our way......"

You should try reading 'Origin' by Stephen Baxter instead :thumbsup:

(edit: in fact the entire Manifold series plus the 'Phase Space' short story collection - proper hard science fiction with imagination :thumbsup:)
 
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The Clamp

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jan 11, 2016
26,197
West is BEST
Stephen Hawking has today announced we have 600 years before our planet is engulfed in a catastrophic ball of flames. He proposes we take a flight on a nano-craft travelling along a beam of light enabling us to reach Mars in an hour if we want any hope of the human race surviving, with a view to reaching Alpha Centauri in some 10 years or so using the same method. 600 years? I'm not going to lose much sleep.
 




Wrong-Direction

Well-known member
Mar 10, 2013
13,638
Stephen Hawking has today announced we have 600 years before our planet is engulfed in a catastrophic ball of flames. He proposes we take a flight on a nano-craft travelling along a beam of light enabling us to reach Mars in an hour if we want any hope of the human race surviving, with a view to reaching Alpha Centauri in some 10 years or so using the same method. 600 years? I'm not going to lose much sleep.
That's great and everything but most of us will be wiped out by war in the next ten years

Sent from my SM-A310F using Tapatalk
 


Kalimantan Gull

Well-known member
Aug 13, 2003
13,441
Central Borneo / the Lizard
You should try reading 'Origin' by Stephen Baxter instead :thumbsup:

(edit: in fact the entire Manifold series plus the 'Phase Space' short story collection - proper hard science fiction with imagination :thumbsup:)

I'm a big fan of 'Evolution' by Baxter - its one of the best treaties of evolution I've come across, turns it from something abstract into something real, and then goes off into wonderful, and ultimately uneasy, imaginations of the distant future. I haven't read any of his other stuff and I probably should
 






brakespear

Doctor Worm
Feb 24, 2009
12,326
Sleeping on the roof
I'm a big fan of 'Evolution' by Baxter - its one of the best treaties of evolution I've come across, turns it from something abstract into something real, and then goes off into wonderful, and ultimately uneasy, imaginations of the distant future. I haven't read any of his other stuff and I probably should
I haven't read any of his other solo stuff (I probably should) but read a couple of collaborations as well. The Manifold trilogy ('Time', 'Space' and 'Origin') are brilliant books imo, real big concept stuff, lots of science but none of it there to mask a lack of ideas. 'Phase Space', the short story collection is also very good if a bit depressing in places :)

edit: I'd read them in that order as well, just in case you were considering it :)
 


Harry Wilson's tackle

Harry Wilson's Tackle
NSC Patron
Oct 8, 2003
56,146
Faversham
Anyone else read the new Dan Brown book, Origin?

Some interesting theories and the main one is hard to shake off easily. The end of the Homo Sapien by 2050.

If true, and I can see the logic behind it, is this a good or bad
thing?

Spoilers! I have just started reading it so won't read his thread. I know he is famous for poor txt but I find all his yarns eminently entertaining.

But....they are all Fiction (aka not real, made up, bollocks). Fact.
 


Lady Whistledown

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 7, 2003
47,639
Stephen Hawking has today announced we have 600 years before our planet is engulfed in a catastrophic ball of flames

Pffft, I've seen Neil Warnock's teams take longer than that on a throw-in when one nil up away from home.
 


Winker

CUM ON FEEL THE NOIZE
Jul 14, 2008
2,525
The Astral Planes, man...
Kalimantan Gull has thrown you all off the scent with his fake news about Dan's book. The true world ending event IS the return of Ulloa's penalty. It's been on a long orbit around the solar system, picking up dust, water vapour and general space debris. The first time past us it missed by miles, but sling-shot around the sun and got a massive boost from a near miss with Jupiter, it's currently swinging about and headed directly for Earth. Absolutely all life is destroyed, according to the book.

Don't worry - Duffy will head it away!
 




vegster

Sanity Clause
May 5, 2008
28,273
So I read the review of Origin in the Guardian, because, well, you would wouldn't you, and is this the main theory that is hard to shake off..?

"here the human race is warned of its imminent redundancy, as machines with synthetic brains prepare to take control of us."

???


"As usual with Brown, the end of history approaches at high speed. The “reveal”, as they call it in Hollywood, is delayed for 400 pages, but I doubt that I’ll spoil anyone’s enjoyment if I disclose that it turns out to consist of gobbledegook about “nucleotides” and “obligate endosymbiosis”.

....

"Though his denouement piously drones on about the scientific amelioration of human ills and the need to replace warring religions with an all-purpose spirituality, Brown’s true aims are more devious and deviant. His cryptic hints about malevolent global forces ratchet up our anxiety; blending the testimony of actual scientists such as Hawking and Dawkins with his own dotty or loony inventions, he produces a mentally corrosive mixture of truth and falsehood. Why should we trust a writer who thinks that Spain has a president not a prime minister, and who spells one of his favourite adjectives “collosal”?

Here, to set beside the fake news that warps election results in what’s left of the real world, is a specimen of phoney fiction, expertly designed to confuse the credulous. Yes, Brown is a prophet, and a false one – a Nostradamus for our muddled, crazed and probably terminal times.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/oct/08/origin-dan-brown-review


Fun review to read that (*and yes, I get the irony about the Guardian complaining about spelling)

But, it's only a book, fiction in fact. Now if it had been written by Nostradamus in quatrains it would be far more credible.
 


vegster

Sanity Clause
May 5, 2008
28,273
Dan Brown is up there, or should I say, down there, with fellow fantasist L Ron Hubbard. Takes some factual premise and ruins it with his own inept ramblings, fishing for guru status. Spoils a decent yarn by alluring to some kind of truth/prophecy. Bell end of the highest order.

I'll raise you, Erich von Daniken
 


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