BOOK: God's Debris by Scott Adams

tres · 27 Aug 2008 at 20:34

God's Debris by Scott Adams

Loving books that really make me ponder things, found this, spent all afternoon at work reading it

Oh, ITS FREE

Imagine that you meet a very old man who—you eventually realize—knows literally everything. Imagine that he explains for you the great mysteries of life—quantum physics, evolution, God, mavity, light, psychic phenomenon, and probability—in a way so simple, so novel, and so compelling that it all fits together and makes perfect sense. What does it feel like to suddenly understand everything? God's Debris isn’t the final answer to the Big Questions. But it might be the most compelling vision of reality you will ever read. The thought experiment is this: Try to figure out what’s wrong with the old man’s explanation of reality. Share the book with your smart friends then discuss it later while enjoying a beverage.

http://images.ucomics.com/images/pdfs/sadams/godsdebris.pdf

bilko100 · 27 Aug 2008 at 20:57

Thank you for the link, it was very interesting.

semi-pro waster · 27 Aug 2008 at 21:34

Cheers for the link, I'll definitely try to have a read of it although I really dislike reading ebooks in general.

tres · 27 Aug 2008 at 22:21

it's easy to read, big font, quite a short little book, easy to print it as well (2 epages on a page)

MookJong · 29 Aug 2008 at 11:17

Read about the first 90pages and liking it so far. Some of the ideas aren't too far off my own beliefs. (i.e. that the universe is made OF god not BY god).

FosterK · 29 Aug 2008 at 12:20

Some quite profound ideas in there, really gets you thinking - cheers!

davestar_delux · 1 Sep 2008 at 00:28

First half decent, 2nd half falls away. What's the flaw we are meant to get at the end?

semi-pro waster · 1 Sep 2008 at 12:14

Ok, just finished the book, quite an interesting little story. Some I agree with, some I don't and I'm not the biggest fan of the style in places but I'll probably try to read the second book as well.

Robosapien · 2 Sep 2008 at 19:58

Pretty lame book in general I thought.
Might be impressed if I were much younger, true.
I did raise a smile at the thought that we created the internet to become God again. Hilarious!
There's not enough knowledge I felt coming through about physics.
Also is very opinionated, frequently makes some wild assumptions, although at the same time makes the point that people are full of **** (and hence so is the book).
Very irritating writing style, gave up when I got to the chapter about the "differences between men and women", give me a break.
Some nice ideas expressed in some clear language, but ultimately nonsense.

MookJong · 2 Sep 2008 at 20:15

Robosapien said:
Pretty lame book in general I thought.
Might be impressed if I were much younger, true.
I did raise a smile at the thought that we created the internet to become God again. Hilarious!
There's not enough knowledge I felt coming through about physics.
Also is very opinionated, frequently makes some wild assumptions, although at the same time makes the point that people are full of **** (and hence so is the book).
Very irritating writing style, gave up when I got to the chapter about the "differences between men and women", give me a break.
Some nice ideas expressed in some clear language, but ultimately nonsense.

You did read the introduction didn't you?

Robosapien · 2 Sep 2008 at 21:57

Skimmed over it. What did I miss?

semi-pro waster · 2 Sep 2008 at 22:03

Robosapien said:
Skimmed over it. What did I miss?

Scott Adams stated at the start that he wasn't intending to make it into a book answering questions about our physical reality, it was designed as a thought experiment i.e. it doesn't matter how factually correct it is or isn't provided it made you think about some of your preconceptions about the World.

He also states that it isn't necessarily his viewpoint on the World, he was trying to make a character who appears to have plausible answers, not that they are necessarily correct answers.

If you just didn't like it then fair enough but I think the introduction somewhat altered the way I read it and evaluated it.

Robosapien · 2 Sep 2008 at 23:07

Ah yes, I remember now. Was hard to remain critically unbiased to some of the ridiculous ideas and sweeping generalisations though.

You've got to admire a text that admits it's own flaws in the introduction and further dissects them ironically in the context of the main body later on.

I found the stuff about evolution interesting, although annoying that it didn't provide the explanation for being unobservable during our lifetime (obviously so lengthy and gradual it's unnoticible), also Omnipotence vs freewill (although if omnipotent why would it's future seeing ability be limited to seeing beyond it's own death), also the idea that the average conciousness of society created by contributions from individuals is anologous to the cells in our body making one organism (but that this is somehow a leap towards God, eh?)

Mission achieved I guess. Still think it was a childish and boring writing style, and some ideas weren't that interesting or sensational to me.