The Orthogonal Bet

In this episode Sam Arbesman speaks with Robin Sloan , novelist and writer and all-around fun thinker. Robin is the author of the previous novels, Mr Penumbra’s Twenty Four Hour Book Store and Sourdough, which are both tech-infused novels, with a sort of literary flavor mingled with a touch of science fiction. That’s why Sam was so excited by Robin’s brand new third novel Moonbound, where he goes...

My name is Samuel Arbesman and this is my personal philosophy: The world is combinatorially weird and fractally interesting. And therefore, omnivorous curiosity is the only proper response. But let’s take a step back. We live in a complex world. Complex systems—the kinds with a huge number of interacting components—are not rare. They actually surround us, from the ecological and biological, to the...