🚀 go-pugleaf

I saw Connections and read the book and enjoyed both very much.
Though, as has been pointed out here, he oversimplifies and even lies
a little bit.  This is less pronounced in the book, however.  (The
posting that mentioned movable type was interesting.  I think in
Connections he gives a slightly different story than in The Day the
Universe Changed.  Might be interesting to compare the two.)

I have not read The Day the Universe Changed, but I enjoyed the
series.  However, he's much too much of a relativist.  He sounds like
somebody who has just read Kuhn and was struck by the rightness of it
all without stopping to be critical.  The book lists two or three
references by Kuhn and one or two by Feyerabend.  It would be nice to
see some balanced consideration of scientific realism (though realism
seems to be out of fashion in science).  There's only so much you can
do for a popular audience, I guess.  Maybe he overstated his case a
bit just to make the point to those who've never thought of things in
quite that way.

He also seems to be too much in love with computers.  Those of us who
know something about them may tend to down-play their importance.  But
people who know a little bit tend to attach too much importance to
them.  

UUCP:  ...cbosgd!osu-eddie!tanner
ARPA:  tanner@ohio-state.arpa