"The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood" by James Gleick

 

Publisher: Pantheon Books

Copyright: 2011

ISBN: 9780375423727

This is a very interesting book that takes a in-depth look at the history of information from the very beginning of humankinds existence to the modern day (or at least 2011 when it was published).

Mr. Gleick looks at such topics as drum speaking, cryptography, the telegraph and development of morse code etc., modern day communications using things such as memes, and much more.

There is so much information in this book that a times it is rather daunting to read, but at the same time the amount of research the author has done to support his conclusions is amazing. A book such as this could easily (at least in my humble opinion) form a good portion of a master's thesis.

Admittedly, it did take me some time to read this book but a lot of that was due to the fact that not only was I reading other books at the same time, but the majority of the world at the time was trying to get things back to normal after the Covid outbreak.

Overall, and extremely well written and researched book that is recommended for anybody who is studying communications theory, and do some sand anthropology as well.

"How We'll Live on Mars" by Stephen L. Petranek

 

Publisher: TED Books
Copyright: 2015
ISBN: 9781476784762

This book is extremely informative and provided the source material for the docu-drama "Mars" which gives a fictional review of what might be encountered by astronauts going to the Red planet, interspersed with an examination of the current rather sad state of the space program.

Mr. Petranek begins with a basic overview of the space program from its impetus to approximately the 1980s. He deals a fair bit of time with Werner von Braun’s proposal “Das Marsprojekt” for missions to Mars that he began promoting in 1948 (I’ll be looking for a copy of this book as it sounds fascinating). After this he goes on to outline a very logical and in my opinion workable method of how we might actually make it there, and  why we should go.

A portion of the main narrative revolves around the work of Elon Musk and his Space Exploration Corporation aka SpaceX, but Mr. Petranek also looks into the various big questions such as will a small group of people be able to get along with each other, is anybody willing to pay for the project, the safety of the project, effects of prolonged exposure to micro-gravity, medical issues that might come about, and lastly the radiation the astronauts will be exposed to.

He then goes on to look at the economics of the project, the factors that will have to be taken into account if astronauts actually want to live on Mars, terra-forming, and other topics.

The only thing in this book that I found detracted from the overall plan is that it was written in 2015, and in the 6 years since then a number of major advances have been made, so it is hoped that the author will consider writing an updated second edition.