Patchen Barss

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 nytimes.com/2024/11/13/boo…

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

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

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

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.

Full review here: lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/…

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

@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.

Read the review: #Echobox=1740140866" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">the-tls.co.uk/lives/biograph…

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)

"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? themarginalian.org/?mc_cid=493e43…

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 These rebukes are sometimes based on scholarship (sadly, out of date) but mostly these outraged critics base their opinions on what they read on the Internet and some fairly sloppy pop histories.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

Read the whole feature here: theglobeandmail.com/arts/books/art…

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

Full review: science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

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.”

Read the full list here. So many great recommendations. nautil.us/introducing-th…

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

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

Thank you for voicing it, Jonathan! @NarratorSpy