Analogia

It's as if Neal Stephenson wrote a book about AI without knowing what AI stands for. Still, some interesting bits even though I wasn't interested in most of them.

3.5 feels like i should've taken a physics course before i started this. really a case where i had to try and stay concentrated on every single sentence (hard) or try to dodge and weave myself through technical explanations to see if i could understand without understanding (also hard). with my dad sitting next to me to explain in terms that even zilvers can understand it becomes a lot easier. feels like actually a great book club book, if your book club enjoys hard-hitting historical books about the technical revolution. there's a lot here and dyson is very good at finding clever metaphors that help the reader grasp the enormity, almost other worldliness of some of the concepts and ideas he's getting across here. but without some pretty solid prior knowledge it's still a tough nut to crack. personally i would've liked a bit more hand holding throughout. the parts i could get through on vibes alone were my favourite, specifically the middle section which ties in dyson's own parents, his own growing up at princeton (!!), and the years that followed where he lived in a TREEHOUSE (what kind of boyish dream) and built kayaks. these chapters feel really grounded in their more personal nature, and because dyson's own history is so closely tied to the subject he's writing about throughout this book, it doesn't feel disconnected but more like a nice reprieve. i also love a book with pictures, especially if those pictures include both interior and exterior shots of tree houses.