Conquer Club

Curmudgeonx wrote:None of you 13-16 year boys have mentioned Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint?

I'm going to assume you are implying that I am 13 and thus, here is a big f*ck YOU.

I am 13 and three quarters.

Kleep, you have proven your point with your mature and insightful response.

Let's see. You have a picture of two, I dunno, deformed squirrels, having gay sex? I don't think you should be the one calling people out for being immature.

Kleep, my original post, although following yours, was not directed to any specific post-maker. Your over-reaction and paranoid response did result in me poking fun at your personally. If you have nothing to add at the topic of interesting books, and still wish to carry on a immature discussion, I suggest you come find me in Flame Wars.

I'm thilteen!

Dear Sir,

Okay. Let us continue!

ignotus, does that monkey ever inhale?

Yes, but it happens always whey you are not looking.

Whitley Streiber and James Kunetka's Natures End. Its set in the near future, 2025 I believe. The planet has gone all to hell. Overpopulation, polution famine. Then this Indian scientist, Dr. Singh proposes that everyone on the planet take a pill. One third of these pills is poison. Very interesting premise.

Greg Bear's Darwins Radio. It takes place now. A virus spreads through humanity that makes women automatically pregnant. People are scared of what might be born and all of the pregnant women are quarantined and the babies aborted. Some dont report the pregnancy and thier babies are the next level of human evolution. The hypotheses on the next stage of our evolution are very cool.

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HungrySomali wrote:Whitley Streiber and James Kunetka's Natures End. Its set in the near future, 2025 I believe. The planet has gone all to hell. Overpopulation, polution famine. Then this Indian scientist, Dr. Singh proposes that everyone on the planet take a pill. One third of these pills is poison. Very interesting premise.

Greg Bear's Darwins Radio. It takes place now. A virus spreads through humanity that makes women automatically pregnant. People are scared of what might be born and all of the pregnant women are quarantined and the babies aborted. Some dont report the pregnancy and thier babies are the next level of human evolution. The hypotheses on the next stage of our evolution are very cool.

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Very cool ideas. On the "natures end" though, how the hell would you get the world's population to take the pills? Force feed it down their throats? What about parents to children... Ouch...

A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking

a great read although i didn't agree with his theory about black holes not being black.

I'm surprised that no one's mentioned Robert Heinlein yet.

Stranger in a Strange Land - This novel introduced some very radical and interesting concepts. Very thought-provoking stuff, that.

Do you grok?

Starship Troopers - I ain't talking about the action-fest Total Guy Movie, I'm talking about the fascinating book it was based on. Heinlein's ideas on new and different governments have produced some really good discussions.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

What a fantastic set of books! I'm rereading them right now, and I am again blown away by how much fun they are. And talk about interesting ideas! Douglas Adams would have been one hell of an addition to the CC forums..

The Babel fish is small, yellow and leech-like, and probably the oddest thing in the Universe. It feeds on brainwave energy received not from its own carrier but from those around it. It absorbs all unconscious mental frequencies from this brainwave energy to nourish itself with. It then excretes into the mind of its carrier a telepathic matrix formed by combining the conscious thought frequencies with nerve signals picked up from the speech centres of the brain which has supplied them. The practical upshot of all this is that if you stick a Babel fish in your ear you can instantly understand anything said to you in any form of language. The speech patterns you actually hear decode the brainwave matrix which has been fed into your mind by the Babel fish.

Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mind-bogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as a final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God. The argument goes something like this:

"I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."

"But," says Man, "the Babel fish is a dead giveaway isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves that you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. Q.E.D."

"Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.

"Oh, that was easy," says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing.

Most leading theologians claim that this argument isn't worth a pair of fetid dingo's kidneys, but that didn't stop Oolon Colluphid from making a fortune with his book Well That About Wraps It Up For God.

Meanwhile, the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation.

Classic.

greenoaks wrote:A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking

a great read although i didn't agree with his theory about black holes not being black.

Er...bloody hell, then youare a genius. I couldnt understand a word of it.

Colossus wrote:The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

What a fantastic set of books! I'm rereading them right now, and I am again blown away by how much fun they are. And talk about interesting ideas! Douglas Adams would have been one hell of an addition to the CC forums..

The Babel fish is small, yellow and leech-like, and probably the oddest thing in the Universe. It feeds on brainwave energy received not from its own carrier but from those around it. It absorbs all unconscious mental frequencies from this brainwave energy to nourish itself with. It then excretes into the mind of its carrier a telepathic matrix formed by combining the conscious thought frequencies with nerve signals picked up from the speech centres of the brain which has supplied them. The practical upshot of all this is that if you stick a Babel fish in your ear you can instantly understand anything said to you in any form of language. The speech patterns you actually hear decode the brainwave matrix which has been fed into your mind by the Babel fish.

Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mind-bogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as a final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God. The argument goes something like this:

"I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."

"But," says Man, "the Babel fish is a dead giveaway isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves that you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. Q.E.D."

"Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.

"Oh, that was easy," says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing.

Most leading theologians claim that this argument isn't worth a pair of fetid dingo's kidneys, but that didn't stop Oolon Colluphid from making a fortune with his book Well That About Wraps It Up For God.

Meanwhile, the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation.

Classic.

Hadn't read that for years, great quote, love the idea of God being sad "Oh dear" said God funny image

indeed. one of many. I was out of new stiff to read and went to the bookstore. saw the ultimate hitchhiker's guide and picked it up since I don't have a copy. It's amazing how much more I get reading it this time around. I was like 13 when I read it the first time.

suggs wrote:

greenoaks wrote:A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking

a great read although i didn't agree with his theory about black holes not being black.

Er...bloody hell, then youare a genius. I couldnt understand a word of it.

Dude I always read those books with a red pen to correct any mistakes I see.

I think the scary think about hitchhikers is that on more than one occasion i stumbled across adams joke book titles and thought to myself....i would probably read that.

Yeah....I get tons of CCers would read Who is this God Person, Anyway?

Books ^_^

Let's see..... some favorites, that are a bit original.

Bring Me the Head of Prince Charming- Roger Zelazny & Robert Sheckley
Pretty good in my opinion, every millennium good and evil enter in a contest, who can do the most evil/good. Azzie the demon decides to enter in the contest, using a Prince Charming & Sleeping Beauty Goes Wrong theme. Of course, he has to find the perfect people to play the part, and there are none. So he takes an arm here, a leg here, eyes here, and on goes his plan. Many things happen, I will not ruin it, but it is a fairly good book. Didn't quite love the ending though.

Next,
The Incarnations of Immortality Series- Piers Anthony
Wonderful wonderful series, that I'm almost finished reading. 8 books in the series, each set around the same time with mostly the same characters so you end up with a tangled web of people and events. it's set in a world parallel to ours, except more advanced in science and magic. There are 7 Incarnations, one book for each and then a separate for Nox, also known as Night. The seven Incarnations are Death (Thanatos)- who collects souls, Time (Chronos)- who rules over every aspect of time and lives backwards, Fate (Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos)- who measure, weave, and cut the threads of life, War (Mars)- who is none other than the "god" of war, Nature (Gaea)- Not much is known about her, but she is very powerful, deals with all things in nature, Evil (Satan)- who supervises all things evil, including Hell, and Good (God)- who doesn't really do much except love himself, but stands as the leader of all thing good on Heaven and Earth.
That's just the simple stuff, there is much more but I don't feel like giving away too much. Very good series.

And.... more later =]