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Ein interessantes Gedankenspiel von qntm (Sam Hughes): Was, wenn es Gegenstände oder auch Wesen gibt, zu deren Eigenschaften es gehört, dass wir sie nicht wahrnehmen? Oder besser gesagt: Dass sie unsere Sinne so verändern, dass wir sofort vergessen, dass sie da sind. Es bleibt unklar, ob es sich dabei wirklich um Lebewesen handelt oder lediglich um Naturphänomene oder gar um reine Ideen. Es scheint von allen Varianten etwas zu geben. 

Eine Geheimorganisation, die „Unnamed Organisation“ oder „Antimemetics Division“ versucht, dieser Phänomene Herr zu werden, sie zu kategorisieren, die gefährlichen unter ihnen einzudämmen. Was sich ziemlich schwierig gestaltet, wenn man alles, was man erfahren hat, sofort wieder vergisst. Menschen verschwinden, ohne dass sich irgend jemand an sie erinnern würde. Ganze Einheiten der Organisation geraten in Vergessenheit. Niemand weiß so wirklich, ob es diese Bestrebungen schon seit Jahrtausenden gibt oder erst seit wenigen Jahrzehnten.

Demokratie ist auf ein urteilsfähiges Wahlvolk angewiesen. Dazu gehört, Tatsachen von Meinungen unterscheiden zu können. Der ideale Untertan ist jemand, für den es nicht mehr darauf ankommt, ob der Herrscher lügt oder die Wahrheit sagt, hat schon Hannah Arendt analysiert. Wird das die allgemeine Einstellung, ist Kritik nicht mehr möglich. Das Volk hat seinen Verstand verloren. Das neue Buch von Ruprecht Polenz analysiert, wie die Angriffe auf die Wahrheit durch die Algorithmen von Social Media unterstützt werden. Es macht Vorschläge, wie wir das System der Wahrheitsfindung stärken können und gibt Tipps, die uns davor schützen, selbst den Verstand zu verlieren. Der SPIEGEL-Bestsellerautor Ruprecht Polenz ist einer von Deutschlands einflussreichsten Politikinfluencern. Seit vielen Jahren setzt er sich mit den Fake News rechter Trolle in den sozialen Medien auseinander, wird angefeindet und bepöbelt - und schlägt im Dienst von Wahrheit und Demokratie beherzt zurück. In seinem neuen Buch zeigt er anhand von zahlreichen Beispielen aus seinem Influencer-Leben, wie Rechtspopulisten oder Rechtsextreme daran arbeiten, den Verstandesverlust unserer Mitbürgerinnen und Mitbürger systematisch herbeizuführen. Sie greifen in die Wissenschaftsfreiheit ein und untergraben das Vertrauen in die klassischen Medien («Lügenpresse»). Damit brechen die Dämme gegen die Flut ihrer Lügen. Kritik und Kontrolle werden unmöglich. Die Demokratie scheint zerstört. Doch Polenz ist unbeirrbar: Sein Buch ist eine Einladung, den eigenen Verstand zu gebrauchen, ihn zu schärfen - und die Bedingungen zu verteidigen, unter denen das möglich bleibt.

An antimeme is an entity with self-censoring properties. Some are benign; but others, less so… These entities can feed on your most cherished memories, the things that make you you – and you’ll never even know anything changed. And they aren’t just feeding on us. They’re invading. But how do you contain something you can't record or remember? How do you fight against an enemy with effortless, perfect camouflage, when you can never even know that you're at war? Welcome to the Antimemetics Division. No, this is not your first day.

<p>It's been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; centuries since they wandered, en masse, into the wilderness, never to be seen again; centuries since they faded into myth and urban legend.</p> <p>One day, the life of a tea monk is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of "what do people need?" is answered.</p> <p>But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how.</p> <p>They're going to need to ask it <em>a lot.</em></p> <p>Becky Chambers's new series asks: in a world where people have what they want, does having more matter?</p>

An antimeme is an entity with self-censoring properties. Some are benign; but others, less so… These entities can feed on your most cherished memories, the things that make you you – and you’ll never even know anything changed. And they aren’t just feeding on us. They’re invading. But how do you contain something you can't record or remember? How do you fight against an enemy with effortless, perfect camouflage, when you can never even know that you're at war? Welcome to the Antimemetics Division. No, this is not your first day.

<p>Two time-traveling agents from warring futures, working their way through the past, begin to exchange letters—and fall in love in this thrilling and romantic book from award-winning authors Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone.</p> <p>In the ashes of a dying world, Red finds a letter marked “Burn before reading. Signed, Blue.”</p> <p>So begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents in a war that stretches through the vast reaches of time and space.</p> <p>Red belongs to the Agency, a post-singularity technotopia. Blue belongs to Garden, a single vast consciousness embedded in all organic matter. Their pasts are bloody and their futures mutually exclusive. They have nothing in common—save that they’re the best, and they’re alone.</p> <p>Now what began as a battlefield boast grows into a dangerous game, one both Red and Blue are determined to win. Because winning’s what you do in war. Isn’t it?</p> <p>A tour de force collaboration from two powerhouse writers that spans the whole of time and space.</p>

Established in 2025, the purpose of the new organization was simple: To advocate for the world's future generations and to protect all living creatures, present and future. It soon became known as the Ministry for the Future, and this is its story. From legendary science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson comes a vision of climate change unlike any ever imagined. Told entirely through fictional eye-witness accounts, The Ministry For The Future is a masterpiece of the imagination, the story of how climate change will affect us all over the decades to come. Its setting is not a desolate, post-apocalyptic world, but a future that is almost upon us - and in which we might just overcome the extraordinary challenges we face. It is a novel both immediate and impactful, desperate and hopeful in equal measure, and it is one of the most powerful and original books on climate change ever written.

Das Buch beginnt mit einem wirklich beklemmenden Kapitel, das einen gerade in diesen heißen Tagen so schnell nicht wieder loslässt: Eine noch nie dagewesene Hitzewelle erfasst eine Region in Indien. Wir erfahren davon aus der Perspektive von Frank, einem Mitarbeiter einer Hilfsorganisation. Die Situation ist hoffnungslos, ohne Klimaanlagen ist Überleben nicht möglich, der Strom fällt aus, die Leute fliehen in den See, doch selbst dort ist die Temperatur zu hoch, um zu überleben.

<p>It's been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; centuries since they wandered, en masse, into the wilderness, never to be seen again; centuries since they faded into myth and urban legend.</p> <p>One day, the life of a tea monk is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of "what do people need?" is answered.</p> <p>But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how.</p> <p>They're going to need to ask it <em>a lot.</em></p> <p>Becky Chambers's new series asks: in a world where people have what they want, does having more matter?</p>

Established in 2025, the purpose of the new organization was simple: To advocate for the world's future generations and to protect all living creatures, present and future. It soon became known as the Ministry for the Future, and this is its story. From legendary science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson comes a vision of climate change unlike any ever imagined. Told entirely through fictional eye-witness accounts, The Ministry For The Future is a masterpiece of the imagination, the story of how climate change will affect us all over the decades to come. Its setting is not a desolate, post-apocalyptic world, but a future that is almost upon us - and in which we might just overcome the extraordinary challenges we face. It is a novel both immediate and impactful, desperate and hopeful in equal measure, and it is one of the most powerful and original books on climate change ever written.

<p>A mission to Mars.</p> <p>A freak accident.</p> <p>One man's struggle to survive.</p> <p>Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate the planet while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded on Mars' surface, completely alone. with no way to signal Earth that he's alive. And even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone years before a rescue could arrive. Chances are, though, Mark won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to kill him first. But Mark's not ready to quit. Armed with nothing but his ingenuity and his engineering skills—and a gallows sense of humor that proves to be his greatest source of strength—he embarks on a dogged quest to stay alive, using his botany expertise to grow food and even hatching a mad plan to contact NASA back on Earth. As he overcomes one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next, Mark begins to let himself believe he might make it off the planet alive. But Mars has plenty of surprises in store for him yet. Grounded in real, present-day science from the first page to the last, yet propelled by a brilliantly ingenious plot that surprises the reader again and again, The Martian is a truly remarkable thriller: an impossible-to-put-down suspense novel that manages tc read like a real-life survival tale.</p>

<p>Jazz Bashara is a criminal.</p> <p>Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you've got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent.</p> <p>Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down. But pulling off the impossible is just the start of her problems, as she learns that she's stepped square into a conspiracy for control of Artemis itself—and that now, her only chance at survival lies in a gambit even riskier than the first.</p>