Talk:David Brin

Missing book

There's also a "non-fiction" book by Brin, or at least about the Uplift Universe (with input from Brin), about the various alien life forms of the setting, called something along the lines of "Contacting Aliens". --Peter Knutsen 03:10, 10 October 2005 (UTC)

Contacting Aliens : An Illustrated Guide to David Brin's Uplift Universe, by David Brin, Kevin Lenagh. --Maru (talk) 03:54, 10 October 2005 (UTC)

Libertarian cat

Hi, I removed the Libertarian cat from this article. There is no assertion in the article about any of Brin's political leanings. Of course, if anyone has a link to back this up please feel free to add it. --Deville (Talk) 23:39, 6 May 2006 (UTC)

I think it is because of his speech to the Libertarian Party, where he says in the intro to the web version, "In this particular case, well, I admit and avow to supporting many general concepts of libertarianism -- especially the empowerment of individual citizens to hold all elites accountable. (Like many groups, libertarians tend to define "elites" too narrowly.) Moreover, I've voted for a number of LP candidates over the years... while also supporting one of the major parties, when the chips are down. As a believer in agility and progress (see below) I see no point in limiting my range of tools. I'll listen to anybody with goodwill and interesting ideas about how to make a better world."[1] --maru (talk) contribs 23:57, 6 May 2006 (UTC)

I wanted to say that I remembered him saying he was a Libertarian, but I know that's not good enough for Wikipedia, so I found a ink to a quote: http://www.theadvocates.org/celebrities/david-brin.html. "That's how he described himself in the Prometheus Libertarian Sf newsletter (July 2000). He wrote: "The name I give my own brand of libertarianism [is] cheerful libertarianism!"" Put the cat back in, I guess.FlaviaR 07:46, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

Picture

His picture says that it is "recent". Recent when? Please give a date. Strait 03:10, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

It can;t be that recent, since this one, from 2006, shows distinctly whiter hair (& less). http://www.futureinreview.com/gallery2006/displayimage.php?pos=-120FlaviaR 07:41, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

Themes in the "Uplift" stories

The section "Concerns and themes of his work" says "...the story of the (Uplift) series is Humanity's re-ordering and reconception of the universe through the genetic engineering of dolphins and chimpanzees to sentience" and is therefore an example of how "his primary focus is the impact on human society of technology man develops for himself". I think that's a misleading attempt to shoehorn the "Uplift" stories into a pattern that appears in some of Brin's other works - in particular the uplift of chimps and dolphins started before FTL travel and contact with galactic civilization but after the human race had committed itself to "repairing the world". There's much more evidence that the "Uplift" stories focus on themes which are conspicuous in Brin's Web site: the dangers of contact with more advanced races (his reservations about SETI); his dislike of stories which glorify elitist and backward-looking cultures (Star Wars and Lord of the Rings); the necessity and difficulty of holding the powerful to account for their actions; the dangers of the "rising mass frenzy of self-righteousness" (a good description of the Jophur). On the other hand I agree about the importance in the "Uplift" stories of "repairing the world" (humans share this with the "good" aliens and this converts the Thennanin from enemies to allies) and of law.

If I don't see well-founded objections within a month I'll edit "Concerns and themes of his work" accordingly.Philcha 00:10, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Why the Jophur hate Humans?

Could it be the Fisher-Price Rock-a-Stack toy? http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=2341&e=detail&pcat=bubrilliant&pid=23 The one I had way back when had a white center cone with a rounded point rather than the yellow center with flared top, and all the rings were solid color. The flared top (somewhat resembling a Jophur sensory cluster), yellow color (similar to their favorite somewhat non-lethal weapon, toporgic), and clear ring with beads (like a synth ring) would only irritate the stacks of fatty/waxy rings all the more. ;) It's obviously a tool used to indoctrinate Human infants to fight and dismember Jophur ring stacks! But seriously, I wonder if this toy had any role in Brin's concept of the Jophur aliens? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bizzybody (talk • contribs) 02:51, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

Yep. And the Tandu hate us for our genocidal demonization of arthropods, all the way from Beelzebub to Men in Black (even our few supporters accept that the number of arthropods killed by human inventions from the fly-swatter to Roach Motel exceeds by orders of magnitude the victims of Tandu wars of extermination). And the Soro blame the asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs on human guerillas (should that be "gorillas" since it was 65M years ago?), and are petitioning the Galactic Institute of Migration to declare a war of extermination against us as punishment for the environmental catastrophe caused by the impact. Philcha (talk) 21:08, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

bold

Why is the 'northern' in 'northern California' boldified? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.126.196.7 (talk) 04:05, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

Removed links

I added two links at this page, one to brin-l.com which is the website for Brin-L, a mailing list nominally dedicated to discussing the works of David Brin, and one to the Alliance for Progress Encyclopedia, which is a fan-created encyclopedia for David Brin's Uplift Universe. All third-party information on both sites is there with permission from the owner (in this case: David Brin himself), and there really isn't any reason why these links were removed by the XLinkBot. So why did it happen anyway? I don't believe this should have happened.

Oddly enough, I've also added these links to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uplift_universe but they haven't (yet) been removed from that page.

Wiki Jeroen (talk) 19:56, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Mailing lists are not appropriate for an encyclopedia. Clarityfiend (talk) 03:40, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

Out of Time

Oddly enough, there doesn't seem to be any information on David Brin's "Out of Time" series on this page. I would write it up, but I don't know much about it myself. 69.11.4.75 (talk) 04:53, 12 October 2008 (UTC)

More biographical info?

Brin's parents' names? How did they get to Glendale?

His father was Herb Brin, a publisher of Jewish newspapers in Los Angeles see http://www.davidbrin.com/herbbrin.htmlPedantrician (talk) 01:09, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

Did he begat the children single-handledly or was there a human female involved?

Non-fiction section (and contributions to physics) need to be expanded.

Wasn't he employed somewhere at some time? It's odd to have him be an "American scientist" and not have any scientific employment mentioned up top.--LeValley 03:45, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

Tikkun Olam

The article says:

Tikkun Olam ("repairing the world", i.e. people have a duty to make the world a better place) is originally a religious concept but Brin, like many non-orthodox Jews, has adapted this into a secular notion of working to improve the human condition.

That seems to imply that orthodox Jews do not believe in "working to improve the human condition." That is not true. Those actions fall under the concepts of Tzedakah, G'milut Chasadim, Kovod HaBriut, and many more. Religious and practical concepts have never been separated in Judaism. What is true is that Tikkun Olam does not technically mean what you say non-orthodox Jews are using it to mean. The literal translation would appear otherwise, but that is not how the term is used in the Talmud.Pedantrician (talk) 01:23, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

New novel: Existence

I just read an interview with Brin (http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/security-threats/2011/09/19/david-brin-state-secrecy-and-science-fiction-40093955/2/) where he says "The new novel Existence is out in June 2012." Is this worthy of mention on the page? Chris Dolan (talk) 14:57, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

It's noted that there is a connection between existence and the uplift novels. However, that is rather tenuous. Existence is a reworking of many of Brins short stories with minor changes and some seguways between them. The part where they touch upon the uplift of dolphins is for the most part the same story as "Aficianado". Similarly, other stories such as "Stones Of Significance" are included as well. (I personally found the lack of transition between the part based on Stones Of Significance" and the last part of the book jarring and lacking of necessary detail such that the reader was left with a feeling that part of the story was left out) I've never felt "Aficianado" was necessarily an uplift story as it's not clear whether this was Galactic Civilization earth or simply a story using similar themes. It does seem to postdate the Uplift books though so perhaps.

It's sometimes mentioned that the aliens mentioned in Stones Of Significance (and thus in Existence) appear to be Galactic races. This seems to simply be the author reusing the concepts of these races. The stories are quite different and seem rather incompatible. (In whichever works post dated the other) Thus existence is

unlikely to be intended to take place in the Uplift continuity. That would imply perhaps that Aficianado is also not intended to take place in that continuity, otherwise, it makes little sense to include it as part of Existence as that novel appears to be a vehicle for weaving a collection of his former short stories into a larger narrative. (which does not appear reconcilable with the uplift stories)

Unused parameters

In the use of template Infobox writer there are 2 parameters that are no longer supported, they should be "move cited/citable instances into prose".

influences  = Aldous Huxley, James Joyce, Pericles
influenced  = James Wesley Rawles

Aisteco (talk) 23:09, 23 December 2013 (UTC)

Criticism

I would like to see some criticism of Brin's work, his methods, and his assertions.

-- Unsigned comment by User:72.225.170.9

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David.daileyatsrudotedu (talk) 03:40, 15 October 2015 (UTC) Would it be worth adding http://www.sigchi.org/chi2002/apPlenaries.html as one of his addresses somewhere? I contribute to Wikipedia so irregularly that I don't know the social protocol.

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