Comment on I'll share a troubling fact with you if you share one with me
eightpix@lemmy.world 3 weeks agoI guess we are going to have to disagree. The writing style and, as I perceived it, motivations within the text were clearly not of the Western tradition. It’s true, in lending the benefit of doubt, I may have enjoyed it more precisely because I disregarded standard writing mores, tropes, and conventions because it was a translated work.
I’m curious: Did you also try Murakami’s 1Q84? I found that I had to suspend expectations there in much the same manner.
I think I’d agree with you wrt. short species lifespans after developing telecommunications, space flight, and highly concentrated energy sources. The leap in capacity for attendant social distortion — and extortion — has brought us to the brink of global destruction many times since Signal Hill in 1901. The Kardashev Scale comes to mind here. The leap from about Type 0.73, ostensibly where we are now, to Type 1.0 is fraught.
As for the communications we have sent, the early ones were low-power and, over a distance of 100 ly, would significantly degrade against background EM radiation. At a range of 50 ly, where our first, more powerful and higher fidelity digital transmissions have reached, there are relatively few star systems — about 1300 (source). This source uses data from 1991, so there may be more, but not many, that are magnitude 6.5 or brighter.
ikidd@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
1Q84: never ran across it, but from the wikipedia article:
Which is pretty much where I was with TBP, so I can’t imagine I’ll rush out to read this.
Regarding translation: www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/…/izxm5l2/
I’ve read other chinese authors translated by the likes of Ken Liu and I see nothing like that, enjoy them well enough, before and after reading TBP. So the usual “your closed western mind can’t conceive of the Chinese style” argument kinda pisses me off when I get it back in discussions of these books. But I’m used to that reaction, so I don’t take it personally anymore.
Yah, I was thinking of the attenuation issue there, and not to mention that eventually the powerful transmissions go away in order to use low-power, high-bandwidth satellite bouncing instead of blaring away at 1kW to communicate. I imagine we’re already much quieter than we were 20 years ago.
eightpix@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
No accusation intended. Related my experience and seeking yours. Thanks for sharing what you have read about it.
Then, help me out if you feel inclined. Point me in the direction of some solid sci-fi, written in another language, with good translation to English. I’m always looking for the next read. I could Google it. But, instead, I’m looking for a recommendation from a strong critical eye. As guidance, I’m a pretty big fan of space epics, political intrigue, and/or social
Also, thanks for the language on attenuation. I’ve done a bit more reading on it, and I’ve seen the math. What I’ve learned is that most regulated radio transmissions in the Western hemisphere are capped at 50 kW. There are several transmitters that are in the 150 kW range, and, back in the 30s, there was that one titanic tower in Florida that kicked out 500 000 kW.