AUG 2015
AUDIO BOOK REVIEWS
by Jonathan Lowe
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Rare
Stamps is the memoir of Terence Stamp,
written and read by the actor of
Billy Budd, Superman, The Limey, The Hit, and fifty
odd other movies. He recalls working with Marlon Brando,
Fellini, Monica Vitti, Steven Soderbergh, Matt Damon,
Tom Cruise, Jim Carrey, and others. He describes an
eerie one-on-one lunch with Orson Welles. His journey
through life has been unique, as everyone’s
is, but more fascinating than most in that one doesn't
generally get called “the world’s most
beautiful man” only to be discarded a decade
later, traveling through India alone until a guru
gifted him with a truth that carried him back to London
possessing a new mantra similar to Eckhart Tolle’s
“living in the moment.” He talks about
the truth of character found in being alive as an
actor in that moment, and how the real can be achieved
even in the first take of a movie scene. Most of all,
you feel an authentic voice is speaking, one you may
not have encountered much in the current age of divas,
drama queens, and ego drenched TMZ stars. That he
speaks these written words in his own voice adds a
new layer of authenticity and wisdom, proving once
again that memoirs must be heard on audio rather than
merely read in bound book format. “Bound”
is the operative word, as tone and emphasis add both
freedom and meaning in the same way that a thumb print
or retinal scan proves unique for the purposes of
veracity and identity. If you miss this audiobook,
you’re missing a treat. |
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Next, wow. There is so much here. Rise of
the Robots by Martin Ford covers not just
robotics and A.I., but the impact of technology on
culture, jobs, economics, sports, war, politics, and
the fate of humanity. To its credit, the book examines
all sides in the light of what science knows now,
with various opinions from scientists about what it
may know in the future. There are many shockers here,
and more coming. For example, income inequality, if
allowed to continue at its current rise, may make
the movie Elysium seem more like a documentary. Ford
points out that the trends (extrapolated by the movie’s
setting and plot) are on par to produce a society
in which the ultra rich few enjoy comforts unattainable
to mass citizens who are more like refugees or slaves.
There are a few caveats, however. It is unlikely that
the kind of workers (such as Matt Damon played in
the movie) will be needed. His work would be done
by robots. The movie also postulates that robots will
be relatively dumb, and this is probably not realistic,
either. (So say the majority of scientist/engineers.
The movie had to make robots relatively dumb to maintain
continuity vis-a-vis Damon's job.) Whether there will
be general intelligence equivalent “hard”
A.I.s is a matter for speculation, but most agree
it will happen, although some say sooner, some say
later. (Scifi, especially in movies, tends to underestimate
the timeline. Most book writers of science fiction
project things further out. It really depends on the
rate of change in society and technology, and no one
knows what has yet to be discovered.) Particularly
intriguing is the point of view this audiobook brings
to the question of health care (which was also a major
theme in Elysium.) Ford shows that our current system
(supported and locked in by our two party political
system) is not geared to reward efficiency. The goal
of health care now is profit. He proves this with
careful reasoning and multiple examples. Medicare
is the most efficient, but even it cannot address
the rise of costs, which, together with fraud and
the widespread public acceptance of junk food and
soda, mean only escalation of deficits (poverty.)
Today the number one reason people go bankrupt is
medical bills. Meanwhile, there are ads on TV which
exacerbate the problem. We are taught to depend on
drugs to fix us when we get sick, rather than to prevent
disease by proper nutrition and exercise. One ad,
for a motorized electric cart for disabled people
to get around, is promoted as being “reimbursed
by Medicare,” but a report showed that only
20% of those getting the carts actually needed them.
That’s an 80% scam of Medicare dollars. And
that’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
Hospitals are overbilling as standard practice, and
investing millions in new technology which, one might
think, would improve health care. But in most cases
this technology is being created, not for efficiency,
but for revenue. As radiologists and lab technicians
are then replaced by robots, there will be fewer employees
in hospitals, too, as in other industries. Ford examines
those industries, and shows how and why the trend
of fewer employees (and greater valuations of companies
as a result) will require tough decisions on the part
of college freshmen and politicians alike. Narrator
Jeff Cummings is always engaging yet restrained,
disappearing into the text in creating a true ear-wax
melting audiobook, for sure.
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Finally, The Flicker Men by Ted Kosmatka
is a well written science fiction novel incorporating
the strangeness of quantum theory. A disgraced young
scientist is given a second chance by joining a team
of researchers on a trail basis. If they prove themselves,
they’ll be offered full jobs. (Kinda like auditions
on AGT…how good an act will yours be?) Eric Argus
is one of these guys, and what he does besides drinking
and socializing is a “look busy” experiment
that recreates the famous “double-slit”
physics experiment in which particles decide their fate
based on an observer’s seeing or recording them.
Astonishingly, he notices that only people can collapse
the field into a decisive pattern, while animals cannot.
This proves that human consciousness is unique, and
the soul may be real. What he discovers next, involving
very rare people who do not collapse the field, is scary
and provocative, involving the nature of reality, religion,
time, space, and the mysterious “flicker men”
who realize he knows too much. Narrator Keith
Szarabajka is the perfect arbiter of the story’s
moods, with a presence that chooses its pattern naturally,
without pretense. This is a high concept audio novel
written as if James Patterson were co-authoring with
a physicist like Stephen Hawking. Recommended for anyone
with interests in science, scifi, and suspense. |
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