Anmeldelse af “Kaffe !”, af Dennis Rosenaa. Novelle. 2024. Novum 152.
Skitse: Politifolk samles ved en kaffebar. En helt bestemt kaffebar. Med en helt bestemt barista.
Er det science fiction? Ja. Baristaen er ikke jordbo.
Temaer: Der er et helt ritual. Dato, klokkeslæt, antallet af politifolk. Der forventes respekt!
Desværre et vist antal bortløbne tegn. Til gengæld rigeligt med mellemrum.
Er det godt? Der var en lille overraskelse til sidst, men jeg kunne godt have tænkt mig noget mere. Den er til gengæld sjov og af en passende længde. 👽👽💀
Anmeldelse af “I syv sind”, af Peter Nørgaard. Novelle. 2024. Novum 152.
Skitse: Hovedpersonen ser fjernsyn, et talkshow, der gør sit bedste for at være meget eksklusivt og på forkant og alt det der. Seerne stemmer på mulige deltagere i showet.
Er det science fiction? Ja. Talkshow-genren og dens deltagere fremskrevet.
Temaer: Vi hører om forskellige mennesker og andet godtfolk (robotter, chatbots, kunstige intelligenser osv.), der kæmper med at finde den rigtige identitet. (Bliver der gjort grin med det her med at finde det rigtige navn, køn osv., der passer med ens personlighed?)
Uha. Korrekturlæseren i mig har det ikke godt med tegnsætningen. Og mange replikker, æh, smager også underligt.
Er det godt? Mja. Kunne vist godt have været kortere. Og jeg gættede slutningen. 👽👽💀
Anmeldelse af “Drømme”, af Jasmin Hansen. Novelle. 2024. Proxima 109.
Skitse: Felicia vinder måske en pris i aften, årets influencer. Bagest i lokalet sidder klonerne og kigger.
Er det science fiction? Ja. Kloner kloner dagen lang.
Temaer: Tja. Kloner. Og at man kan have en flok kloner af sig selv, der også i virkeligheden er ens slaver. I det her tilfælde i et miljø, hvor det gælder om at være perfekt på sociale medier og sådan noget.
Der er lidt med opsætningen, og nogle ret konsekvente stavefejl. Have/havde. Famle/falme.
Er det godt? Den primære slutning, der havde jeg 3 gæt, og ramte rigtigt. Den sekundære slutning var uventet. Novellen kunne forkortes? På den anden side er jeg ikke god til at vurdere angst og den slags. 👽👽💀
Anmeldelse af “Nej, Alphonse”, af Jesper Goll. Novelle. 2024. Proxima 109.
Skitse: Alphonse har en luftballon, der kan opvarmes med gas. Når han gør sig umulig ved hoffet i Paris, så rejser Madeleine med vestpå. Når ballonen går i stykker, så reparerer hun den, og sukker kun lidt.
Er det science fiction? Ja. Sådan på Niels Klim-måden. Videnskaben er lidt løs i det. Alternate history-agtigt.
Temaer: Alphonse har forelsket sig i, at man kan flyve vestpå, forbi kysten, ud at se hvad der er. Gæt hvem der er skeptisk.
En håndfuld fejl i opsætning og vist et par stavefejl.
This essay sort of wanders through concepts like prophecy, futurism, extrapolation, whether sf is about the future or the present, and even whether sf is literature. It’s hard to pick a quote, so here’s the whole thing. (No copyright infringement intended.)
You are waiting in line to be sorted into one of the four houses of Logwarts (a posh wizarding boarding school in the Scottish highlands) by an anthropomorphic sorting hat. The hat is a bit of a snob about the whole matter, and refuses to sort two students in a row into the same house. If a student requests a certain house, but the previously sorted student was already sorted into that same house, then the hat chooses randomly from among the three remaining houses. Otherwise, the hat grants the student’s request.
You are standing 10th in line, and you make plans to request Graphindor house for yourself. As for the other students in line, you can assume that they have random preferences from among the four houses.
The first student steps up, and has a brief, quiet conversation with the hat. After a few moments, the hat proclaims, “Graphindor!”
At this point, what is the probability that you will be sorted into Graphindor?
When a student isn’t sorted into Graphindor, they might end up in Hafflepuff instead. For symmetry reasons, the 3 non Graphindor houses behave the same way, ending up with the same probabilities, so I’m just going to track Graphindor and Hafflepuff.
Student #1 got G.
Student #2 may want G (p=1/4) or something else, like H (p=1/4). If G was requested, H might be granted (p=1/3). The total probability for H is therefore 1/4 + (1/4)*(1/3) = 1/3. The probability for getting G is 0.
This holds in general. A random student wanting something random will end up in a random house, p=1/3, where the previously granted house has p=0.
Student #3 may want H (p=1/4) or something else. The probability this student ends up in G is p(H) from the previous step, or rather p(H) * 3/3. The probability this student ends up in H is (p(G)+…)/3. Therefore p(G) = 1/3 = 3/9 and p(H) = 2/9.
This holds in general. If at a certain step, p(G) = a/c and p(H) = b/c, in the next step, p(G) = 3b/3c and p(H) = (a+2b)/3c.
Step
p(G)
p(H)
1
1
0
2
0
1/3
3
3/9
2/9
4
6/27
7/27
5
21/81
20/81
6
60/243
61/243
7
183/729
182/729
8
546/2187
547/2187
9
1641/6561
1640/6561
The general formula for step odd n+1 is p(G) = [3n/4, rounded down]/3n and p(H) = [3n/4, rounded up]/3n. For even n+1, reverse rounding up and down. Values verified via spreadsheet.
In step 10, I can get G, if G wasn’t granted in the previous step. The probability of this is (6561-1641)/6561 = 4920/6561 = 0.749886… or approximately 1/4.
Sure enough, the shape (or one very much like it) has four “sides” of equal length, with four right angles. However, two of these sides are curved (in particular, they are arcs of circles), and two of the right angles are exterior, meaning the interior angles measure 270 degrees (rather than the usual 90 degrees).
Let’s call shapes like this one “pseudo-squares.” A pseudo-square has the following properties:
It is a simple, closed curve.
It has four sides, all the same length.
Each side is either a straight line segment or the arc of a circle.
The four sides are joined at four corners, with each corner having an internal angle of 90 degrees or 270 degrees.
The pseudo-square pictured above has two straight sides, which run radially between arcs of two concentric circles.
Assuming this is a unit pseudo-square (i.e., each side has length 1), what is its area?
I’ve built a larger diagram with 2 circles and 3 variables.
The radius of the small circle is x.
The circumference of the small circle is 1 + y.
The radius of the large circle is 1 + x.
The circumference of the large circle is 1 + z.
The 2 straight lines in the original drawing lie on top of radii of the large circle.
Circumference of small circle: 2πx = 1 + y.
Circumference of large circle: 2π(1+x) = 1 + z.
Ratio between circumference and smaller arc: y / (1+y) = 1 / (1+z).
This is a system of 3 equations with 3 unknowns. Calculations tell me, that x = (1-π+√(1+π2))/2π (about 0.184), y = √(1+π2) – π (about 0.155), z = π + √(1+π2) (about 6.439).
The requested area is small circle + large circle sector – small circle sector. (Avoiding double counting.)
Small circle area: πx2.
Large circle sector: π(1+x)2 * 1/(1+z).
Small circle sector: πx2 * 1/(1+z).
Further calculations find this area is about 0.684.
It’s Halloween time! While trick-or-treating, you encounter a mysterious house in your neighborhood.
You ring the doorbell, and someone dressed as a mathematician answers. (What does a “mathematician” costume look like? Look in the mirror!) They present you with a giant bag from which to pick candy, and inform you that the bag contains exactly three peanut butter cups (your favorite!) [no, it isn’t!], while the rest are individual kernels of candy corn (not your favorite!).
You have absolutely no idea how much candy corn is in the bag—any whole number of kernels (including zero) seems equally possible in this monstrous bag.
You reach in and pull out a candy at random (that is, each piece of candy is equally likely to be picked, whether it’s a peanut butter cup or a kernel of candy corn). You remove your hand from the bag to find that you’ve picked a peanut butter cup. Huzzah! [Yuck!]
You reach in again and pull a second candy at random. It’s another peanut butter cup! You reach in one last time and pull a third candy at random. It’s the third peanut butter cup! [Triple yuck!]
At this point, whatever is left in the bag is just candy corn. How many candy corn kernels do you expect to be in the bag?
First let’s assume there is a finite number of kernels of candy corn (kcc), at most m. What is the probability I got 3 peanut butter cups (pbc) (and yuck)?
If I have n kcc, that’s 3+n pieces of candy in all. How many different ways can they be sorted? This is a stars and bars question, and the answer is C(3+n n) = (3+n)!/n!3!
Of these (3+n)!/n!3! permutations, only 1 is any good, because it has the 3 pbc at the top.
The expected number (E) of kcc is the sum of all n * P(n kcc | 3 pbc).
And I made a program to calculate that given m.
Varying m hopefully tells me something about the behavior of E. And yes, it seems to. When m grows, apparently E gets closer to 1. So my guess is the expected number of kernels of candy corn is 1.
Also, I’m still fascinated by the soup bowl last week. Here’s a video!
I have a large, hemispherical piece of bread with a radius of 1 foot. I make a bread bowl by boring out a cylindrical hole with radius r, centered at the top of the hemisphere and extending all the way to the flat bottom crust.
What should the radius of my borehole be to maximize the volume of soup my bread bowl can hold?
And for extra credit:
Instead of a hemisphere, now suppose my bread is a sphere with a radius of 1 foot.
Again, I make a bowl by boring out a cylindrical shape with radius r, extending all the way to (but not through) the curved bottom crust of the bread. The central axis of the hole must pass through the center of the sphere.
What should the radius of my borehole be to maximize the volume of soup my bread bowl can hold?
In my calculations I create a formula for the volume of the cylinder, depending on r. I then find the maximum volume. At r = √(2/3) foot, approximately 0.817, the volume is 2π/3√3, approximately 1.209 foot3.
And for extra credit:
ETA: I interpret “a cylindrical shape” as being the same as a cylinder. Flat top, flat bottom. Others interpret it differently.
Everything is multiplied by 2. The radius ends up being the same.
Anmeldelse af October Daye-serien, af Seanan McGuire. Romanserie. 2009-23, foreløbig. Hugo-finalist, bedste serie.
Skitse: October Daye er ret langt nede. Hendes mor er fae, det var hendes far ikke, så hun kan magi, men ikke ret meget, altså ser fae i høj grad ned på hende, og overfor mennesker kan hun ikke fortælle alt om sin baggrund. Hun var så alligevel ved at få gang i noget, mand, barn, hus, job som privatdetektiv. Men så blev hun forvandlet til en fisk. I 14 år. Bagefter opgiver hun (delvis nødtvunget) sit tidligere liv og prøver at klare sig som ekspedient. Langt fra alt det der magi. Men så …
Er det science fiction? Fantasy fra morgen til aften.
Temaer: Henover de 18 bøger, det er blevet til (der kommer vist 2 til) bliver October (Toby) mere og mere veltilpasset. Hun får det bedre. I starten er hun en ret god privatdetektiv, men hun kaster sig ud i den ene dødsensfarlige situation efter den anden, bl.a. fordi hun er lidt ligeglad. Det går delvist over, i takt med at hun får en ny familie.
I øvrigt en noget utraditionel familie.
Hun kæmper gang på gang mod racisme.
Regelmæssigt viser det sig, at person A i virkeligheden er person B, eller at person C, en ven, faktisk er en fjende, eller omvendt. Og eftersom nogle af de her personer er store kanoner (konger og dronninger), så bliver det hele også mere og mere vigtigt. Som at opdage, at naboen i virkeligheden er Thor, og at kun jeg kan redde hans liv.
Er det godt? Ja. Jeg er nogle gange ved at få pip af stilen, der bruger aaaaalt for mange ord efter min smag. Men jeg har hængt på, mere og mere, fordi det er spændende. Hvem har gjort hvad? Hvordan får Toby løst det den her gang? 👽👽👽
Note: Udover den her serie, der altså var Hugo-finalist, har jeg i den her omgang kun læst en af de andre serier systematisk, som beskrevet i Et vidunderligt lys osv. Glemte i den forbindelse, at Toby også var finalist.
Jeg har løbende lavet mini-anmeldelser af bøgerne. Det har taget mig et års tid at læse dem.
Stuff from ommadawn.dk (Lise Andreasen) 
