Patchen Barss

Creativity, science, math, nature. The Impossible Man: Roger Penrose and the Cost of Genius now available for preorder. He/him.

[Patchen Barss @PatchenBarss]

This review by @jenszalai of The Impossible Man in today’s @nytimes captures so much of what I hoped to accomplish with this book. I am humbled. @BasicBooks
https://t.co/DH1T2rI7YC

[Patchen Barss @PatchenBarss]

Many thanks to Editorial Critica for publishing this edition of The Impossible Man.

[Editorial Crítica @Ed_Critica]

📢¡Novedad!📚 'El hombre imposible', de @patchenbarss, cuenta la historia de Roger Penrose, uno de los grandes genios del siglo XX, que revolucionó nuestra comprensión del espacio y el tiempo. Fue Premio Nobel de Física. ¡Ya en las librerías! ⬇️⬇️ https://t.co/WaWmbWQlji

[Patchen Barss @PatchenBarss]

A reminder I'll be reading at LaHave River Books this afternoon at 4:00. I hope you can drop by!

[Hachette Canada @HBGCanada]

Author @PatchenBarss will be at LaHave River Books on August 16 to talk about THE IMPOSSIBLE MAN. Join the conversation in person!. #LaHaveNS

[Patchen Barss @PatchenBarss]

https://t.co/bQi6TqFFWR

[Patchen Barss @PatchenBarss]

This was a little delayed, but here is an obituary of quantum computing researcher Raymond Laflamme I wrote for @globeandmail. Ray had extraordinary curiosity, kindness, and love of life. Thank you to all those who shared memories and stories with me. I am sorry for your loss.

[Patchen Barss @PatchenBarss]

Full review here: https://t.co/7YElawK8Bg

[Patchen Barss @PatchenBarss]

Still digesting Steven Shapin's extensive review of The Impossible Man in @LondonReview of Books. Shapin's ideas are subtle and complex. "Everybody has a life; not everybody lives the life of the mind," he writes. One of many lines to mull from this essay. Link in reply

[Patchen Barss @PatchenBarss]

@TravelGov Hi There. I am renewing my US passport through the US Consulate in Toronto. They requested I make the payment online, but I cannot find the place to do so. Could you post the link where I would make such a payment? Many thanks.

[Patchen Barss @PatchenBarss]

Read the review: https://t.co/vEUk3rQ8lb

[Patchen Barss @PatchenBarss]

Jenann T. Ismael's review of The Impossible Man in @TheTLS is itself a beautiful piece of writing. What a privilege to receive such thoughtful analysis. (Link in first reply)

[Patchen Barss @PatchenBarss]

"We continue casting ourselves in the theater of rationality, only to find ourselves bewildered again and again by our own nature," writes Maria Popova in @themarginalian. I simultaneously embrace and resist this idea, which is maybe part of the point?
https://t.co/yNOxUocsjL

[Ananyo Bhattacharya @Ananyo]

Whenever I have pressed the case that John von Neumann should be considered the father of the modern stored-program computer ie the one that nearly everyone uses and carries around in their pockets, I've been met with hurt rebukes.
These rebukes are sometimes based on scholarship (sadly, out of date) but mostly these outraged critics base their opinions on what they read on the Internet and some fairly sloppy pop histories.
So let's lay out von Neumann's claim properly, as I have not seen it done elsewhere. The argument has three strands:
1. An idea
2. A principle
3. A machine

[Patchen Barss @PatchenBarss]

Read the whole feature here: https://t.co/lH5Pgj4LBY

[Patchen Barss @PatchenBarss]

Today in the @globeandmail, science reporter @IvanSemeniuk on The Impossible Man: “Barss’s subject is well known for his work in theoretical physics as well as contributions to popular science … What the book reveals is the human figure hidden inside the equations.” @BasicBooks

[Patchen Barss @PatchenBarss]

Full review: https://t.co/6ZvWoxbjqR

[Patchen Barss @PatchenBarss]

Dirac and Hawking biographer @grahamfarmelo reviewed The Impossible Man for @sciencemagazine. “Roger Penrose emerges from this accomplished biography as an even more complex and fascinating person than many of his colleagues believe him to be.”

[Patchen Barss @PatchenBarss]

Read the full list here. So many great recommendations. https://t.co/Y04xAnsRWl

[Patchen Barss @PatchenBarss]

The @NautilusMag Winter Reading list is full of authors I admire writing on gripping subjects — consciousness (human, animal, machine), language, lifesaving viruses. Top of my agenda: Helen Philips’ novel, Hum. Honoured The Impossible Man was included. @AtlanticBooks @BasicBooks

[Patchen Barss @PatchenBarss]

The Impossible Man noted in the @NewYorker. @AtlanticBooks @BasicBooks

[Patchen Barss @PatchenBarss]

Thank you for voicing it, Jonathan! @NarratorSpy

[Jonathan Beville @NarratorSpy]

The @nytimes “6 Books we recommend this week” the @globeandmail “top 100 of 2024” @PatchenBarss’ The Impossible Man was an intellectual thrill ride to narrate! Thank you @BlackstoneAudio @BasicBooks @HachetteUS for the opportunity to voice this incredible book! #audiobooks