2015

Grimm's World by Vernor Vinge, the novel later expanded into Tatja Grimm's World (Italian edition)

0

The novel “Tatja Grimm’s World” by Vernor Vinge was published for the first time in 1987.

Tatja Grimm is a girl from a savage tribe. When she meets the ship Tarulle, which publishes the magazine “Fantasie”, she gets adopted by its editors. She can’t speak their language but soon shows her intelligence and gets involved in their activities.

The magazine “Fantasie” has been spreading fantastic tales for centuries but its editors are trying to use it also to provide readers with scientific knowledge. However, for Tatja Grimm traveling on the Tarulle is only one way to learn more about the people who inhabit the various islands because the girl has much more ambitious plans.

0

Thursday October 15, 2015, the Euroleague 2015/2016 starts. The games will be generally played on Thursday and Friday as it’s become common. In the previous seasons the first game was played one or two days earlier, this year the first gameday starts regularly. Real Madrid is the defending champion and starts the hunt for its 10th title.

0

This week IBM announced the birth of a new business unit based on its cognitive computing system Watson. It’s called IBM Cognitive Business Solutions and intends to leverage this intelligence artificial to provide business consulting. The term cognitive business represents according to the company an application in this field of Watson, which becomes a kind of digital assistant that can provide suggestions based on the analysis of massive amounts of data.

0

It’s only been a few weeks since the announcement of the discovery of bones of Homo naledi, a new species related to modern humans. Found in a cave called Rising Star, about 50 km north-west of Johannesburg, South Africa, the bones have immediately been studied and two articles just published in the journal “Nature Communications” describes studies on the these hominids’ hands and feet.

Wetware by Rudy Rucker (Italian edition)

1

The novel “Wetware” by Rudy Rucker was published for the first time in 1984. It won the Philip K. Dick Award. It’s the second book in the ware quadrilogy and is the sequel to “Software”.

In 2030 boppers have further evolved but are confined in their area after the end of the civil war. The Moon is now inhabited mainly by humans but a new drug could change things and allow a new generation of boppers to live on Earth.

The drug called merge allows to create a human-bopper hybrid using a woman as an incubator. It’s Della Taze, niece of Cobb Anderson, the boppers’ creator. The birth of her son Manchile can upset the new balance between humans and boppers with the creation of a generation of what are called meatbops.