Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Philosophical Speculations


Randy Jansen, Ph.D., Professor and Chair, Department of Philosophy, at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa, has a great blog called "Philosophical Speculations: An Exercise in Wondering," and he recently did a very kind post about -- cough, cough -- Robert J. Sawyer, saying, among other things:
Many of Sawyer's books (although I confess I haven't read them all) are driven by a provocative thought experiment, often just the sort of thing that you'd find widely discussed in the philosophical literature. What would it be like if... everyone in the world were to catch a glimpse of the future? Or if we were to discover scientific evidence of a soul leaving the body at death? Or if we were able to return our aging bodies to their youthful condition? Or if we were to encounter an alien who believed in God? If you want to know what Sawyer thinks it'd be like if such things were to happen, read Flashforward, The Terminal Experiment, Rollback, and Calculating God, respectively. You can count on his books to engage your mind not only with plot and character but with ideas.
He then goes on to discuss Mindscan.

The post about me is here, and this is a general link to his blog.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

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2 Comments:

At March 18, 2009 10:52 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

It is exactly that (exploring thought experiments) that I love about your books, too. They make me think, as well as entertaining me.

 
At March 18, 2009 4:36 PM , Blogger Jim Shannon said...

Kind of off topic here but I read in your newsgroup that you'll be on a book signing tour this Spring promoting Wake. Edmonton seems to be one of the stops. April 23rd? Is this at Audrey's? :-)

 

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