Detective Fiction: From Victorian Sleuths to the Present

During my holiday absence, I slowed my typical consumption of academic materials. Even though the postings in my little blog are not, by their very nature, a job (despite the laborious effort), I needed a short break! To paraphrase the old adage, however, the brain wants what the brain wants. I found myself slipping away from my preoccupation with remaining unoccupied: Listening to lectures on my mp3 player while others at family gatherings sat around espousing the worst kind of tripe about the American government, the United Nations, the Pope, etc.

I tried to pick a lecture series that seemed to be more entertaining fare than my typical consumption. Thus, with very little forethought, I began The Modern Scholar course Detective Fiction: From Victorian Sleuths to the Present.  Like Scholar lecture series I have completed before, Detective Fiction is divided into 14 lectures each with a length of approximately 30 minutes. The lecture series contains the following lectures: Lecture 1 Mysterious Origins, Lecture 2 Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes, and the Victorian Era, Lecture 3 The Queen of Crime: Agatha Christie and the Golden Age, Lecture 4 Gifted Amateurs: Academics to Zoologists, Lecture 5 Private Investigators and Hard-boiled Heroes, Lecture 6 Cops, Capers, and Police Procedurals, Lecture 7 Spies Among Us: Espionage and Techno-thrillers, Lecture 8 In the Teeth of the Evidence: Lawyers and Legal Eagles, Lecture 9 Medicine for Murder: The Medical Mystery, Lecture 10 Probing the Past: Historical Detective Fiction, Lecture 11 Women of Mystery: Beyond Female Intuition, Lecture 12 International Intrigue: Detective Fiction Goes Global, Lecture 13 Investigating Identity: Ethnic Sleuths, and Lecture 14 Regional Sleuths and Future Trends in Detective Fiction.

The presenter for the course was M. Lee Alexander, Ph D., a visiting assistant professor of English at the College of William and Mary. Her CV indicated that she teaches detective fiction, creative writing, and “Tolkien and His Circle,” a course about the group of authors called “the Inklings.” Professor Alexander also teaches English as a second language (ESL) courses for graduate students. She has authored many scholarly articles and poems, and a chapbook of poetry called Observatory (2007). Dr. Alexander has presented scholarly papers concerning detective fiction, emphasizing the links between modern popular culture and the classic tradition at international conferences, including “Mr. Monk Meets Sherlock Holmes: Disability and the Consulting Detective” at Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes: Their Cultural Afterlives Conference at the University of Hull, England (2009), and “To Make a House a Holmes: Sherlockian Subtext of House, MD” at Sherlock Holmes: The Man and His Worlds Conference, Bennington College, Vermont (2010).

Detective fiction, as we know it, has its beginnings in American literature. Some of the first instances are Edgar Allan Poe’s “Murders in the Rue Morgue,” “Mystery of Marie Rogêt,” and “The Purloined Letter” in Collected Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. However, William Godwin, an English journalist, political philosopher, and writer, is considered by many to have written the first detective novel, Caleb Williams in 1794. It describes the story of a wealthy squire named Ferdinando Falkland. Falkland tries to ruin the life of his secretary Caleb Williams after he discovers a secret about his employer’s past.

The big name in detective fiction, is, of course, Sherlock Holmes—the iconic character created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The Holmes stories were written in the Victorian era. Holmes defining characteristic as a detective was observation and deduction. The character was always the smartest man in the room. Other interesting facets of Holmes’ character were his eccentricities. Modern psychology might consider him to have Asperger's syndrome with a healthy dose of narcissism bordering on personality disorder. While these characteristics might have been debilitating in “real life” they often serve as catalysts for Holmes’ amazing abilities. Holmes often self-medicates, particularly with opium.

The rest of the course looks at how diverse detective fiction has grown since the time of Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. There are numerous subgenres of detective fiction—some for animal lovers, some for would-be lawyers, international sleuths—you name it, there is probably a book out there incorporating whatever interest, hobby, or disability possible into the work of professional, private, and amateur detectives. The field shows no sign of slowing its expansion.

As a side note, I was surprised to find that many detective fiction authors have created works that are considered genuine literature. I found it surprising because it is more often thought of as “pulp” or cheap fiction. Overall, I found this to be a fun and inspiring course. I am even considering writing a detective fiction novel myself. I think it would be quite interesting work, as I loved being a professional investigator when I worked for a governmental agency. I think most avid readers would find this series of lectures to be interesting and enriching.

Oh, and happy learning!!!

Evolutionary Psychology I

I recently completed The Modern Scholar © series Evolutionary Psychology I by Professor Allen D. MacNeill of Cornell University. MacNeill completed a B.S. in biology and an Master’s degree in science education at Cornell University in 1977. He currently teaches the support course for introductory biology at Cornell University where he has lectured since 1976 and is currently a senior lecturer in the Learning Strategies Center. Professor MacNeill also teaches evolution for the Cornell Summer Session and the introductory evolution course for non-science majors. He is also involved in drama as an off-Broadway actor.

Evolutionary Psychology I is very strong right out of the gate. The first five lectures are a revelation. The material in these lectures is a unique blend of biology and psychology with a strong history of science component weaved throughout the lectures. Unfortunately, the “wow” factor (excuse the terminology, I accidentally spent a few minutes on TMZ.com earlier this evening) tends to wane in the later lectures.

Like all Modern Scholar series, Evolutionary Psychology I is a 14 lecture series, with each lecture lasting approximately 30 minutes. The recording and production quality is excellent. Professor MacNeill is one of the best “public” speakers I’ve heard in recorded lectures—perhaps this ability is enhanced by his background in the dramatic arts. The pacing of the course is well done and material very well organized. It is the level of detail presented in this introductory course in the last half of the lecture series that seems to make the course “bog down” under its own weight.

Most of the lectures cover the evolution of the brain among various animals leading up to human beings and the corresponding capacity for complex behaviors that, according to evolutionary psychologists can tell us a lot about human nature. One of the more interesting facts is that these scientists use study of animals as well as humans to understand and try to explain human behavior under a variety of circumstances.

MacNeill explains that the field of evolutionary psychology, “the scientific study of how human nature has evolved” is a relatively new discipline. The early material sketches a brief historical study of the characteristics of both traditional human psychology and the more specialized and newer field of evolutionary psychology. The instructor also introduces and elaborates on the basic analytical methods and theoretical frameworks evolutionary psychologists use in their research.

From this beginning, Professor MacNeill follows the continued historical development of the field, from its nascent emergence to contemporary applications in fields such as genetic engineering and neuroscience. Evolutionary psychology has its roots in particular fields such as cognitive psychology and evolutionary biology and attempts to combine the methods and theories from these fields to understand human behavior and its purposes. As a brief aside, there is an interesting discussion of the early American preference for behavioral psychology over the cognitive model which positioned American study behind Europe. Evolutionary psychologists assert, as their name suggests, that the human brain is an organ similar to any other but with the unique emergent property we call “the mind.” The brain, they believe, evolved in relation to the environmental challenges human beings have faced throughout their history as a species.

Thus, the bulk of Evolutionary Psychology I examines the history of the field, its primary theories, and the unique research methods used in the field. These perspectives are applied to human behavior at the level of the individual, the family, and other groups. Professor MacNeill then explains how evolutionary psychology applies to the essentials of human life: food, shelter, clothing, and safety (or health). He discusses the ways in which groups of social animals, such as primates, are organized. Importantly, MacNeill examines the role of natural selection in social organization.

The latter part of the lecture series concerns the theoretical foundation for the evolution of cooperation among humans as well as their complex sexual behaviors. A considerable amount of time is spent evaluating the concepts of monogamy and polygamy. (A small warning here, as the professor pronounces these words “mono-gammy” and “polly-gammy” which sounds very unnatural to me). MacNeill also reconfigures the definition of monogamy and polygamy. According to him, any person who has sexual relations (or “mates”) with more than one partner at any time during the course of his or her life—whether by divorce, death of significant other, or any other reason, they are polygamous. Thus, according to this revised definition, Professor MacNeill declares that humans are largely polygamous. I must admit, I had a bit of a problem with the way in which he reached this conclusion. Finally, the course considers the implications of evolutionary psychology and its theories for child rearing and mate selection.

Overall, I think that the course material is interesting and exotic enough to recommend it for at least a cursory review. I studied psychology in quite a few courses for my initial undergraduate degree but most of this material was new to me. Likewise, my career in counseling and social service work exposed me to even more developments and subfields of psychology but I must admit that much of the material discussed in this course was foreign to me—one of the reasons that I found at least the first half of the course refreshing and fascinating. There is another 14-lecture course by The Modern Scholar Company appropriately titled Evolutionary Psychology II. I will more than likely listen to, read, and review its materials at some later date as well.

Until the next time, happy learning! By the way, if you have completed an interesting course, lecture series, TED talk, seminar, training, book, or any other learning experience and would like to share it, please e-mail me or leave a comment in the comments section. Criticisms and responses are always welcome to this and other postings as well.

S.I.P.

Games People Play: Game Theory in Life, Business, and Beyond

Recently, I completed Professor Scott P. Stevens’s 24-lecture course for The Great Courses © entitled Games People Play: Game Theory in Life, Business, and Beyond – Parts I & II. Though Professor Stevens is a Mathematician working at James Madison University, this course is taught under the Economics and Politics sections as these are the most frequent applications of game theory. Each of the 24 lectures is thirty minutes long for a total course time of 12 lecture hours. Professor Stevens presents this introduction to game theory as a survey course and often avoids complex mathematics (other than a few instances of basic calculus concepts) that is essential to the actual application of game theory to the problems discussed in the course.

Game theory has been a subject that crossed over into public fascination with the release of the Russell Crowe biopic film about Mathematician John Nash, a significant foundational game theorist. While Nash’s concepts were poorly described by the film’s writers, the significance of his contributions to the field was not. The beginnings of game theory start with another famous mathematician name John, this one the exceptional genius and polymath named von Neumann. He and an economist colleague, Oskar Morgenstern, wrote the modern masterpiece on the subject of games: Theory of Games and Economic Behavior published in 1944.

Professor Stevens defines game theory as “the study of strategic, interactive decision making among rational individuals.” “Any time,” he asserts, “people make decisions that affect others or in response to the actions—or even expected actions—of others, they’re playing a game.” Thus, ideas in game theory apply equally well to such mundane decisions as where to eat lunch as well as “earthshaking” decisions about the risk of nuclear war. Fundamentally, there are three components to any game: players, strategies, and payoffs. Throughout the first lecture, we learn that the concept of games applies to almost any facet of life. Professor Stevens presents various circumstances under which game theory can be applied in fields as diverse as the military, politics, biology, NASCAR, and business strategy.

To better understand games, the instructor presents a simple game. You are given $100 and a button that you can push. Another one hundred people are given the same and each of you is unknown to the other. If you or any of your competitors push your button every other player loses $2; if you lose money because others push their button, pushing your button will cut your losses in half. While it is rational for no one to press their button and take home the $100, studies show that most people will press the button. Another example of seemingly irrational behavior was demonstrated by Max Bazerman at Harvard Business School who taught Wall Street Investors to think ahead by auctioning off a $100 bill. The winning bid was $465.

Another classic example that applies to game theory is the Federal auction for licensing of the radio spectrum. Historically, the US tried many approaches to the sale of the radio spectrum that failed, in some cases miserably. Game theorists stepped in and created a multi-objective auction structure that successfully raised over $400 billion for the US Treasury in its first 5 years. This is one example of many, in which the application of game theory has shown to be advantageous in analyzing and approaching strategic decisions.

The basics of game theory are fairly simple to explain. Every game has three basic components: players, strategies, and payoffs. A player is a decision maker in the game. A strategy is a specification of a decision for each possible situation in which a player may find him or herself. A payoff is the reward or loss a player experiences when they follow their respective strategies.

Another distinction regards the type of game. For example, when all players may “move” simultaneously without knowing what the other player will do. Consider the simple childhood game, “Rock, Paper, Scissors”—this is a rather crude example of a simultaneous game. Sequential games are another variety. In a sequential game, one player moves first, giving other players some knowledge about their choice. A simple example of a sequential game is the familiar board game chess. A familiar term to many in the public is the “Zero Sum Game” which is also a type of game in game theory, although it is a bit different conceptually than what the common understanding might indicate. Zero sum games occur when all of the losses and all of the gains of all players are added up and equal zero. This is often evident before the game begins.

Other classes of games include: Constant Sum Games, Symmetric games, Perfect information games, Repeated games, Signaling games, Cheap talk games, Mechanism design, Bargaining problem games, Stochastic games, Large Poisson games, Nontransitive games, and Global games. Professor Stevens introduces many of these concepts (though not all of those listed) but only some are explored in-depth. To give my readers complete non-disclosure, these games can often be very complicated to understand but the instructor is very good at guiding one through the lecture. However, to truly understand these concepts, repeated listening and perhaps further reading might be necessary—they certainly would be for me!

The course expands upon these basics to examine more complex aspects of games such as strategies, threats, promises, brinkmanship, incomplete information, and chance. This array of factors in decision making, as presented in game theory, has applications in fields as diverse as climate change, voting, market entry, price setting, cooperative behavior and many more things that are beyond the scope of this review.

Without delving too deep into the topic, it might shed a little more light on the nature of the game theorist’s work by examining a few of the aforementioned complicating factors that inhabit even simple games. For example, strategies come in two varieties: pure and mixed. Pure strategies specify an action for every possible situation in the game. There is no random component to a pure strategy. Mixed strategies, however, does include some randomness as a probability is assigned to each pure strategy—and since probabilities are continuous there are an infinite number of mixed strategies available to the player. A variant of the mixed strategy is called the totally mixed strategy in which only positive values are assigned to every possible pure strategy.

The next concept we will examine is that of the threat. Professor Stevens explains that, in game theory, a threat is the equivalent of saying “Do what I want or I will make things worse for you than you would otherwise expect.” Promises, on the other hand, are the equivalent of saying, “If you make this choice, I will respond with a choice that you’ll like—something that you wouldn’t normally expect me to do.” Promises and threats are therefore, conditional.

Games of incomplete information are those in which not all of the players know the structure of the game—players might be uncertain about possible strategies or payoffs of other players. These require complex analysis and can have catastrophic consequences for some players. Finally, brinksmanship might best be illustrated by thinking about the Cold War—because this strategic element means to push dangerous events, such as the proliferation of nuclear arms, all the way to the “brink of disaster” (think about the Cuban Missile Crisis) in an attempt to achieve the most positive outcome in the game.

There are numerous topics in even a survey of game theory. A simple summary of such a survey is necessarily incomplete. However, I feel that I would be remiss if I did not include one of the most famous elements of game theory in my little muddled examination: the Nash Equilibrium. Professor Stevens explains that the way the movie A Beautiful Mind, starring Russell Crowe, explains the Nash Equilibrium is actually incorrect. The movie has Nash explain his equilibrium in terms of a dating conundrum among a bunch of competitive men. The solution the character in the movie comes up with is, unfortunately, not a Nash Equilibrium. So what is it? Well, first things first: what is an equilibrium in the game theoretic sense of the term?

An equilibrium implies some kind of balanced situation. In economics and other rational decision-making, equilibria are defined by their properties. British economist Huw Dixon as described three basic properties of equilibria: 1) Players’ behavior is consistent. 2) No player has any incentive to change their behavior. 3) Equilibrium is the stable outcome resulting within some dynamic process, i.e. the game under consideration.

The simplest explanation of a Nash Equilibrium is by example: John and Ted are in a Nash equilibrium if John is making the best decision he can, while also accounting for Ted's decision. At the same time, Ted is also making the best decision he can, while also accounting for John's decision. A definition of this concept is as follows: “[Nash’s] theory says that in non-cooperative games when there are two or more players, and each player knows what choices the other players face, there is a Nash Equilibrium if all players have chosen a strategy where they can't benefit by changing their strategy.” (from Nash Equilibrium in Economics)

One last important point is that Professor Steven’s lecture series is mostly conceptual and made for the intelligent layman. It ignores a lot of complicated mathematical proofs. To illustrate what I mean, here is an example of the mathematics involved in the proof of Nash’s Equilibrium. I tried to paste the mathematics, but the characters would not translate to the Blogger post, so please follow the link to the Wikipedia page just to see an example of how complicated the proof is for work like Nash's and why he deservedly received a Nobel for Economics for his work.

Likewise, there is a lot more complicated mathematics involved in computing the various probabilities in a decision matrix, finding the equilibria of various kinds in any non-cooperative game, and many other instances. This is fully disclosed by the instructor. Despite this, the Great Courses lecture series on Game Theory, Games People Play is fun, enlightening, and broadens the mind in the understanding of the complexity of decisions—particularly those facing our business and government leaders on a daily basis. While I was listening to it, I actually felt smarter! Then I began to try to summarize the material presented in the lecture series and felt the opposite effect! I will admit some might find it boring, but if you enjoy the topic of decision making or complex systems, or if you just enjoy an intellectual challenge, I can guarantee that you will benefit from at least a casual listen to this lecture series.
As always, happy learning! Work hard to get smarter every day. After all, that is what a learning life is all about!
I would love to hear any of your comments as always.

The Inexplicable Universe with Neil deGrasse Tyson

The Inexplicable Universe with Neil deGrasse Tyson

Recently, I completed viewing Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Teaching Company lecture series The Inexplicable Universe which is currently available on Netflix streaming. Dr. Tyson is one of the great communicators of scientific ideas to the general public since Carl Sagan. He evangelizes proper science frequently on television shows such as The Colbert Report. His most recent exposure to the public was in the form of the revamped, contemporary version of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, the original version of which was hosted by the aforementioned great astrophysicist Carl Sagan. Dr. Tyson has distinguished himself through his great willingness to make scientific ideas (and more importantly attitudes toward science) more palatable and relatable than they might otherwise be.

The Inexplicable Universe is divided into six 30-minute lectures: 1) History’s Mysteries, 2) The Spooky Universe, 3) Inexplicable Life, 4) Inexplicable Physics, 5) Inexplicable Space, and 6) Inexplicable Cosmology. As I said earlier, I watched this series on Netflix which means I could only view the lectures. Should you choose to purchase the course from The Teaching Company, it will, like all of their courses, likely include a course outline with more in-depth notes and bibliographical references for further reading. Of course, you choose your level of involvement, so it is not essential to complete the readings or view Dr. Tyson’s notes and comments to understand and benefit from the lectures.

I’ve seen Dr. Tyson lecture and sit for interviews numerous times and I must say that in this Great Courses series he is at his finest. With the first lecture, “History’s Mysteries,” Dr. Tyson reviews myriad problems from the history of science. These puzzles were only solved through the application of modern science and its focus on experimenting rather than pure reason. Dr. Tyson walks us through the solution to many of the mysteries of the past which were solved using science and have become almost mundane at this point. A great example is 18^th century scientists’ insistence on the existence of ether, an invisible substance through which sound waves travelled. This was later proven to be wrong. That is, scientific rigor in experimentation (specifically, the Michelson-Morley experiment) demonstrated that light travelled at the same speed all of the time; therefore, the ether that was supposed to transmit light in wave form didn’t do it.

Lecture 2 is titled “The Spooky Universe” and generally covers quantum mechanics and fundamental particles, explaining how fantastical many of our accepted concepts are. The third lecture, “Inexplicable Life,” talks about the uniqueness of human life in the universe and the conditions that allow life to flourish, as well as the possibility of life outside of our Earth-bound existence. Lecture 4, “Inexplicable Physics” might be the most interesting of the six-part series. Dr. Tyson reviews the development of the field of physics and the search for a unifying theory such as “String Theory.” The fifth lecture is “Inexplicable Space” and it reviews humankind’s search for understanding of the cosmos. The most fascinating bits in this lecture cover dark energy and dark matter as well as the theoretical experience of being at or near a black hole. The final and sixth lecture “Inexplicable Cosmology” goes into depth about the current edges of study in cosmology. The multiverse, antimatter, tachyons and other theoretical advances of the past few decades are covered in Tyson’s inimitable style.

So that is a brief review of some of the content of The Inexplicable Universe. I had been exposed to most of its ideas from other books, lectures, and even podcasts; however, I have to give a strong recommendation for this lecture series because of its accessibility. It is one of the few series that talk about such complex ideas that requires no previous exposure to mathematical or scientific ideas. All you need is an attentive and open mind and you will gleam something or many things from the lectures. As always, happy learning!

Sci Fi Literature and Academic Lectures

In at least one previous posting I have mentioned my love for professionally recorded college lectures such as those provided by The Teaching Company. Another great source of professional quality audio and video lectures is from Recorded Books’ The Modern Scholar audio book series. I have listened to numerous courses from each company and find that almost without exception each course yields a profound intellectual experience. Although with this posting I intend to review the latest course I’ve completed, just for the fun of it I thought I would list those courses I’ve at least listened to, sometimes delving deeper into the accompanying bibliographies and suggested readings. Incidentally, I do not own most of these discs but held a state library card and was able to obtain many titles from there or other loans.

The Teaching Company list is the longer of the two, comprising 29 lecture series. In some instances I have given the brief title. I have placed an asterisk beside titles that I have found particularly interesting. America’s Religious History, The Old Testament, The New Testament, The Great Ideas of Philosophy, Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking*, A Skeptic’s Guide to American History, Christian Religion and Fundamentalism, History of the Bible, Argumentation: The Study of Effective Reasoning, Great Leaders: Winston Churchill, Historical Jesus, American Civil War, Machiavelli in Context, The Self Under Siege* (by Prof. Rick Roderick an awesome scholar who is now unfortunately deceased), Philosophy and Human Values, Nietzsche and the Postmodern* (also by Prof. Roderick), Skepticism 101 (by Michael Schermer from Scientific American), Philosophy of Mind, No Excuses: Existentialism and the Meaning of Life*, Elements of Jazz*, Doctors: History of Scientific Medicine, Early Christianity, Hitler’s Empire*, Perspectives of Abnormal Psychology, Biology and Human Behavior*, The Story of Human Language, Understanding the Fundamentals of Music, Will to Power: Nietzsche, and The Art of War.

The Teaching Company titles can vary in length and depth. For example, if memory serves correctly, The Self Under Siege (my favorite lectures of all time), consists of eight lectures each approximately 45 minutes. The American Civil War, on the other hand, has sixty thirty-minute lectures in the series. The Modern Scholar list has 20 titles. Each title has two one-hour lectures on each of seven compact discs, making these offerings far more standardized in format and presentation. Another difference is that Teaching Company lectures are presented to a live studio audience while Modern Scholar lectures are not. As an aside to the above comments, I have tried to listen to The Self Under Siege at least once per year since I first bought it on cassette tape in 1998.

The Modern Scholar lectures I have completed, with asterisks by the favorites, are as follows: Understanding Movies*, Astronomy I*, Anthropology of Religion, Crime Scene Investigation I, The Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, Philosophy of Religion, The American Presidency, Big Picture MBA, The Cold War, The Dead Sea Scrolls, Ethics (by Prof. Peter Kreeft), Genetics*, Jazz*, Literary Journalism*, Rock and Roll History I, Native America, Principles of Economics, Rethinking our Past (by Prof. James Loewen, author of Lies My Teacher Told Me—an excellent book you should definitely read), World War I, and From Here to Infinity: An Exploration of Science Fiction Literature.

It is this last title, Science Fiction Literature that I most recently completed and would like to explore somewhat in depth in the current posting. I am always trying to expand my intellectual palate when possible, so obtaining these lectures was not necessarily a priority for me as I have never been a frequent sci-fi reader. This was more about learning what makes others sci-fi fanatics. The course is written and presented by Professor Michael D.C. Drout of Wheaton College.

Science Fiction has a focus on realism even when describing such seemingly impossible technologies such as interstellar travel. The roots of the genre go as far back as Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. But Jules Verne was the first true, great science fiction writer, imagining technology that has been realized but only dreamt when Verne wrote. H.G. Wells was another early sci-fi writer who used 19^th century technology to project future science and society and the relationship between people and animals (such as The Island of Dr.Moreau).

The 1930s saw the rise of science fiction magazines that gave rise to a new crop of writers in the genre. Amazing Stories and great sci-fi editor John Campbell’s Astounding Stories. The 1930s also introduced H.P. Lovecraft who explored occult, horror and shock within the science fiction framework. Lovecraft created a mythos by linking disparate stories to create a larger meta-narrative.

The 1940s sci-fi, argues Drout, was significantly influenced by World War Two. He looks at Isaac Asimov’s The Big and the Little and I, Robot; John W. Campbell’s Who Goes There? and (as editor) The First Astounding Science Fiction Anthology; Lester del Rey’s Nerves; and Theodore Sturgeon’s Killdozer! Characters in these stories have a militaristic orientation and there is an emphasis on scientific wonders being treated as mundane. One of the lasting implications from Asimov’s writings are the famous three laws of robotics: 1.A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. 2.A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. 3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

In the late 1940s and the 1950s science fiction was dominated by what Drout labels as the “Big Three”: Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke. Each of these writers created masterpieces that shaped sci-fi literature for decades. Heinlein, however, eventually crossed over into mainstream literature and was influential not only in areas like the space program and science and engineering, as well as “children’s literature and the counterculture of the 1960s.” In 1974 the Science Fiction Writers of America gave their first Grand Master award for lifetime achievement to Heinlein. His works include The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, The Past Through Tomorrow: Future History Stories, The Rolling Stones, Starship Troopers, and Stranger in a Strange Land.

Probably my favorite lecture in the series is on 1960s and 1970s science fiction because this covers my favorite sci-fi author: Philip K. Dick. Drout refers to this era as the “New Wave” period of sci-fi. A key New Wave element concerns the increase of entropy which leads inevitably to the “heat death of the universe.” This actual abandon perspective of cosmology held that the universe is kind of “winding down” since the Big Bang, because entropy always increases. Therefore, everything will eventually “be reduced to a uniform soup of cold, dark matter.” This pessimism informs most sci-fi of the period. Philip K. Dick was somewhat influential on William Gibson who wrote the seminal cyberpunk novel of the 1980s Neuromancer which is probably my favorite sci-fi novel. Many of Dick’s novels and short stories have been adapted for the screen, most notably his story Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? as the cult-classic Blade Runner. Dick’s story is more nuanced with subplots which Drout does an excellent job bringing out in the lecture.

Overall, the lecture series was very well-presented. Drout has a captivating cadence and a masterful command of the material. I was disappointed that he did not really address William S. Burroughs’ place in science fiction. Although not primarily a science fiction writer, Burroughs’ satire of science fiction motifs far pre-dates those of someone like Douglas Adams, whom Drout does discuss. Of course, don’t get me wrong, I love Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, except for any film adaptation of it. Of course, I understand how it is difficult to discuss Burroughs’ work in polite discourse on sci-fi lit. It’s pretty hard to discuss Burroughs’ work with any other human being without feeling like you need to go to confession afterwards. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, maybe you should check out Naked Lunch. Just don’t tell anyone I told you to. Sorry for the excessively long post. Anyway, happy learning!