Bøker av Scott Robinson

When it comes to moving around in time, a great deal of the fun and delight is that there are so many different variations on the theme. Sometimes a machine - be it a glorified sleigh or a souped-up DeLorean - delivers us to some point in the past or the future. Sometimes it's a weird, hazy phenomenon that descends up on us and scoops us up; sometimes we just get hit on the head and wake up somewhen else. And I've always been thrilled by that wonderful range. I've done some time travel tales myself at this point, enough to fill a book. I hope I've managed to make each one different, each deploying some new take on time travel and what it does and what it means: - a team of time-traveling researchers crash-lands 77,000 years in the past, and become gods to the natives they encounter;- the apartment atop the Eiffel Tower become a way station for travelers from future centuries;- an archaeological team unearths a Cro-Magnon skeleton, 30,000 years old, with a cybernetic brain implant and a bionic arm;- a Manhattan antiques dealer's centuries-old shop was once a tavern, and after midnight he can hear voices emanating from the 1770s;- a pizza delivery boy discovers that he can return to a point in recent past, allowing him to get rich quick;- a quirky middle-aged retiree finds a hole to the past in Mammoth Cave, and finds he prefers cavorting with dinosaurs to being around his wife;- a time-hopping wraith is condemned to roam an eternal stream of nights, jumping from one to the next, forced to take a life of his choosing in each... ...and more. Three of these - "Skeleton 17", "Delivery Boy", and "Sisters" - are new, written for this collection.The others appeared in previous collections, including Shadows of Shadows, Quantum Chroniclesand The Madman's Almanac. I hope the Gentle Reader enjoys them all!

When I was young, around 12 or 13 years old, I went to a school that was very old and made of brick and oak, with high ceilings and thick bannisters on the stairs and hardwood floors, like something out of Hoosiers. I loved that old school - especially the third-floor library, which was also where we had study hall. Every day, I would zip through my homework and raise my hand so the study hall teacher would let me vanish into the library stacks to choose a book to read for the remainder of the period. Sometimes it was Ray Bradbury. Sometimes, Robert Heinlein. Sometimes Isaac Asimov. But I always picked tales of wonder - from The Martian Chronicles or I, Robot or The Illustrated Man. I loved those stories! They fired up my imagination and took me to amazing places. They filled me with awe. I've written many stories of my own in the decades since, and a handful are like those wonderous tales I read in that long-ago third-story school library - tales of hope and light, stories that stir the imagination and provide inspiration. Positive, upbeat, with happy endings. There are ten of them within, and they are all over the place: there are some time travel stories, some stories that take place in space, a couple of magical tales. A few are very light-hearted, a few are very serious - but all of them have happy endings, and all of them (I hope!) offer that hope and light that once illuminated my own future.

It's hilarious these days to watch misguided, insecure fanboys and transparent political panderers break out in rants and whines that Nu Trek - Discovery, Picard, Strange New Worlds - is 'woke'. Anyone who knows Trek, old or nu, can only laugh; Trek has, of course, been utterly woke since 1966. Woke. Shining a light on racism. War. Sexual discrimination. Authoritarianism. Confronting torture; imperialism; addiction; the treatment of veterans. Commenting on environmentalism; medical ethics; capitalism; homelessness; moral relativism. Put another way, if it makes an anti-woke fanboy angry, it's something Trek had much to say about from the very beginning.

The Apocalypse. Sometimes we lay waste to the world and it's about humanity's remnant struggling to survive. Sometimes humanity doesn't make it at all. Sometimes we prevail, but we become something horrible. And, always, it's fascinating and sobering to contemplate. Many are the ways the world might end, and it will always be worth our time and effort to continue contemplating that truth. We'd much rather it didn't, of course, but the lesson of Charleton Heston and Arthur C. Clarke and Harlan Ellison - and, I hope, these stories - is that it could well happen to us when we're not looking, if we don't pay close attention.

Maxx became my brother on January 14, 1973. He departed on September 18, 2023. That's 50 years of fraternity we shared, then, and it was brotherhood that swiftly took root in his early years and proceeded to flourish over the decades. I hope this little journey is both enjoyable and insightful, and that it conveys some sense of the joys that Maxx and I shared over the years. STROctober 12, 2023

For seven glorious years, Aaron Sorkin's masterpiece The West Wing served up a vision of American democracy and governance that informed us, challenged us and inspired us. In this collection of more than 20 essays, all prompted by memorable moments in the series, Scott Robinson surveys the issues, crises, and core principles of greatest impact, where the preservation and full realization of the American Experiment are concerned. Sorkin's vision was idealistic, to be sure, and the years since have been in many ways discouraging; but the perpetual light of The West Wing can continue to illuminate our path, all the same.

The Seventies were a distinct and provocative chapter in the history of rock, and of the bands that emerged in that era, none was more distinct and provocative than Boston. Tom Scholz's unlikely basement brainchild blasted out of radios across the US with unprecedented energy and melodic integrity and staggering harmonic power, oozing musical hooks and lyrical themes that take up permanent resonance in the memories of the band's fans with the persistance of Beatles tunes. What made Boston's music so special? How did it come to be? More Than a Feeling explores the band's classic years, 1976-1988, examining in detail the elements and structure of Boston's best songs, from the first track of their debut album to "Peace of Mind" and "Smokin'", from Don't Look Back's "Feelin' Satisfied" and "A Man I'll Never Be" through Third Stage's "Amanda" and "Cool the Engines". It's the first-ever in-depth analysis of the best work of rock's most interstellar band.

In the 30th century, human life expectancy has been extended hundreds of years - but it only works for the body. The mind must be rebooted, to make room for another lifetime of memories. When the moment is right, it's time to Jump - to let the old life go and start a new one in a new place, with a new identity. Talyn Jain's body is more than 700 years old, but he is just over 60 in his current life. He is about to marry Oerilae, a woman under 40 and still in her first life, when he unexpectedly Jumps, without any word or warning. His friends and colleagues believe he did so out of reconsideration of the marriage - but Oerilae doesn't believe it. She begins investigating, trying to learn what happened to her husband-to-be. Suddenly she finds herself cut off from her life, pursued by dark forces intent on ending her investigation - and, if necessary, ending her...

Star Trek's Cmdr. Data... Alien's Ash and Bishop... Skynet and the Terminator... the androids of Westworld... Ex Machina's Eva, the Stepford Wives - and the granddaddy of them all, HAL 9000... These and other famous artificial minds are at the heart of this exploration of AI and the possibility of machine consciousness, suggesting the directions that the evolution of the technology might take. How great is the gap between the AI of film and television and what's emerging in the world today? Will that gap be closed at some point? Will we ever see androids who think and feel and experience the world as we do? Scott Robinson, a social scientist who implements AI and augmented intelligence systems in the corporate world, takes on these questions and others in these surveys of AI in fiction and the real world: What would it take to create a true artificial mind, if it's even possible? What are the building blocks of consciousness, and how could they be recreated in a machine? What can human society learn from the AI of fiction? And if we can actually build conscious machines - should we? With fan service to spare, AI in Sci-Fi tours the science fiction universe for its fascinating artificial life, reaching into the imagination for inspirations that will guide our path tomorrow, as human and machine enter into permanent partnership...

He's flamboyant. He's outrageous. He's as over-the-top as any pop/rock star has ever been. But Elton John is also a consummate musician, a creative force that redefined what music could be. With Bernie Taupin, he is second only to Lennon and McCartney in the pantheon of great songwriters. Rock Candy presents Elton in easily-digested bits and pieces, covering the songs and albums of his classic years, his child prodigy upbringing, his closest relationships, his crash-and-burn addictions, and his triumphant Lion King revival. As Elton celebrates 50 years of artistry, the Rock Candy series celebrates with him.

In his previous book, The Progressive Beatles, Scott Robinson asserted that without the Beatles, there would have been no Yes, no ELP, no Genesis, no King Crimson - no progressive rock genre. In this new work, Robinson argues that without Bach, Beethoven, Chopin and other classical influences, there would have been no Beatles - or at least not the Beatles as we know them. Those and other classical influences deeply pervade the canon of the Fab Four, and they went out of their way to leverage those influences to the fullest. Aided by their well-schooled producer George Martin, they infused their music with the passions, complexities, nuance and brilliance of the greatest composers of the past few centuries. This volume explores the classical features of the Beatles' music in depth, demonstrating in a new way that they stand above all their peers as the greatest musical innovators of the 20th century.

The Outlander books of Diana Gabaldon (and the TV series by Ron B. Moore) awakened tens of millions of readers and viewers to the alluring romantic and sexual mores of historical Scotland, both fascinating and titillating in their awkward truce between traditional social order and the lusty spirit of the Highlands. But the real stories are just as fascinating, just as titillating, and packed with as much romance, humor and tragedy as Gabaldon's saga. This collection of 40 tales from Scotland's past journeys through the full range of Scottish intrigues of the heart and flesh, from the sex magic of the Druids to the royal courtships of Scotland's kings and queens, from the raucous adventures of Robert Burns to the sexual repressions of the Reformation. Steeped in history but seasoned with art and folklore, it's a trip through time worthy of Claire and Jamie.

If the Beatles hadn't written and recorded "A Day in the Life", "I Am the Walrus", "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Blue Jay Way", "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and other proto-progressive songs - if they'd never cobbled together "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite", applied Western tuning to a sitar on "Norwegian Wood", flipped George's guitar on "I'm Only Sleeping", or pieced together the Side Two medley on Abbey Road - then the trails of Yes, Genesis, Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd, Kansas, ELP and so many others might never have been blazed - or, at least, would have taken far longer to discover. Progressive rock owes everything to the Beatles - everything that defines it began with the Fab Four. There is no Fragile, no Thick as a Brick, no Dark Side of the Moon in the Beatles canon, no "Tarkus", no "Heart of the Sunrise", no "Firth of Fifth" - but without the works described in this book, we'd never have had all those wonderful albums and songs...

The Rock Candy series combines pop music scholarship with a sense of fun and entertainment. This entry surveys the best of what is not-so-commonly known about the Beatles, with broad commentary on their creativity, innovation, cultural experimentation, and the scope of their impact on modern music and culture.

The Beatles left an indelible mark not only on music, but on the culture in which they created it. In a time of great and sudden change, they led a generation into new territory, redefining the social landscape as a place where men and women could try on new roles. They led this change through their music, their public personae, and - under scrutiny - their example. The Beatles Guide to Love & Sex examines all three - the songs, the parts they played in public, and the way they led their lives, for better or worse. John, Paul, George and Ringo began their journey as typical working-class teenagers - not particularly sophisticated in the ways of the heart - and walked a long and winding road toward their eventual destinations as husbands and fathers. They stumbled quite a bit along the way; but they left the world a roadmap, a precarious but emphatic path from innocence to maturity - and adorned it with a timeless musical legacy.

"Star Trek was explicitly crafted by its creator, Gene Roddenberry, into a humanist manifesto; the stories Trek told were humanist parables, putting forth the core philosophies to which he was devoted: equality, reason, integrity, fairness, opportunity, community. I was soaking them up before I even really understood what they were. I didn't know it way back in 1972, but Star Trek had already made a humanist of me. It just took me a while to discover that there was a word for it. "This book is a celebration of both the stories and the values they inculcated in me. It is a humanism primer, for those not well-grounded in that domain, and it is a showcase of humanist moments from across the Star Trek landscape. It is my hope that you, the Gentle Reader, will likewise find much to celebrate in both..." (from the Introduction)

Smart people love Star Trek. And smart people love thought experiments. It seems a pretty natural thing, then, to bring the two together. Trek offers up a number of thought-provoking problems all its own, from the questions of identity emanating from the Transporter to the question of Data's sentience; but thought experiments emanating from classical philosophy also resonate in Trek, from the causality issues of time travel to the timeless tension between reason and emotion. Along the way, a few more modern problems emerge, including the possibility that we are living in a computer simulation - which naturally brings holodecks to mind. Here, then, is a collection of 22 puzzles that will hopefully be both entertaining and thought-provoking for the dedicated philosophical Trekker: Can History Be Changed? * Are We Alone in the Universe? * Does the Transporter Kill You? * The Fate of Dr. Moriarty *Stretching Time * The Bootstrap Paradox * Can Time Travel Not Change History? * Can a Machine Be Conscious? * Can a Mind Move Between Bodies? * Can a Mind Download Into a Computer? * The Needs of the Many * Alien Rights * Interstellar Justice * Are We Better Off Without Emotions? * Is Perfect Happiness Possible? * and more!

John Locke's influence on American political culture has been largely misunderstood by his commentators. Though often regarded as the architect of a rationally ordered and civilized liberalism, John Locke and the Uncivilized Society demonstrates that Locke's thought is culpable for the rather uncivilized expressions of political engagement seen recently in America. By relying upon Eric Voegelin's concept of pneumopathology, Locke is shown to be subtly constructing a liberal ideology and thereby individuals who approach liberalism as closed-minded ideologues, not as deeply responsible and mature citizens. Because Locke's citizens will be slogan chanters instead of deep thinkers, Locke's work does not create a liberalism that provides the best possible regime for humans, but a mere shadow of the best possible regime.