I was reading the book Requiem by Robert A. Heinlein recently. It contains some of RAH's short stories as well as a few of his speeches and some tributes by Arthur C. Clarke, Larry Niven, Spider Robinson and others.
A part of RAH's Guest of Honor Speech at the Third World Science Fiction Convention in 1941 really stood out to my and got me wondering. In that part of the speech he mentioned a few authors and books that "help to fill in the gaps in the picture. And -- to a certain extent help to make up the lack of broad comprehensive scientific education, which no one, not even Sc.D.s and Ph.D.s can really have."
The books and authors he suggested were:
Mathematics:
Mathematics and the Imagination by Kasner and Newman
Physics:
Nature of the Physical World by Arthur Eddington
Classical and Modern Physics by Harvey Elliiott White
Astronomy:
A series of 15 or 16 articles in the magazine Astounding starting in 1936 by John Campbell
Economics:
Economic Nationalism by Maurice Colburn
Politics:
Behind the Ballots by Jim Farley
Symbology:
Science and Sanity by Count Alfred Korzbski (RAH says 'a book which should head the list on the must list')
These are the books RAH considered to 'fill the gaps'. I was wondering if anyone had an updated list of books, or with the diverse backgrounds of the MartialTalk members, we can use this thread to create our own list of fill the gap types books. Maybe some of the suggestions by RAH are as applicable today as they they were in 1941?
What gap filling books would you recommend? A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking? A History of Knowledge: Past, Present and Future by Charles Van Doren? Please don't limit yourselves to the categories above.
A part of RAH's Guest of Honor Speech at the Third World Science Fiction Convention in 1941 really stood out to my and got me wondering. In that part of the speech he mentioned a few authors and books that "help to fill in the gaps in the picture. And -- to a certain extent help to make up the lack of broad comprehensive scientific education, which no one, not even Sc.D.s and Ph.D.s can really have."
The books and authors he suggested were:
Mathematics:
Mathematics and the Imagination by Kasner and Newman
Physics:
Nature of the Physical World by Arthur Eddington
Classical and Modern Physics by Harvey Elliiott White
Astronomy:
A series of 15 or 16 articles in the magazine Astounding starting in 1936 by John Campbell
Economics:
Economic Nationalism by Maurice Colburn
Politics:
Behind the Ballots by Jim Farley
Symbology:
Science and Sanity by Count Alfred Korzbski (RAH says 'a book which should head the list on the must list')
These are the books RAH considered to 'fill the gaps'. I was wondering if anyone had an updated list of books, or with the diverse backgrounds of the MartialTalk members, we can use this thread to create our own list of fill the gap types books. Maybe some of the suggestions by RAH are as applicable today as they they were in 1941?
What gap filling books would you recommend? A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking? A History of Knowledge: Past, Present and Future by Charles Van Doren? Please don't limit yourselves to the categories above.
