Paul Levinson
Bio
Novels The Silk Code, The Plot To Save Socrates, It's Real Life: An Alternate History of The Beatles; LPs Twice Upon A Rhyme & Welcome Up; nonfiction The Soft Edge & Digital McLuhan, translated into 15 languages. Prof, Fordham Univ.
Stories (742)
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First Democratic Presidential Debate, Part 2 of 2
I thought the second part of the first 2020 Democratic Presidential debate was better than the first part, in that more of the ten on stage had standout moments. My assessment follows, in descending order of what I thought were the best performances:
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in The Swamp
Review of David Walton's 'Three Laws Lethal'
David Walton's newest novel, Three Laws Lethal—title inspired by Isaac Asimov's three laws of robotics—begins with what certainly is an ethical quandary that typifies our increasingly AI-driven age, in this case, driven literally. A mother with her children are passengers in an AI-driven automobile. She can turn around and tell them to stop arguing, without risking an accident. She marvels at being in the driver's seat with her hands off the wheel. And then... a big tree falls in front of them. To plow into the tree would risk the death of both mother and children. The AI computes the deadly odds, and acts upon it, instantly swerving the car to the right to avoid the tree. Unfortunately, there's a biker in that lane, and he's killed by the swerving car.
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Futurism
Review of J. Neil Schulman's 'The Fractal Man'
Alternate realities have become something of a vogue in science fiction, especially on television with Fringe and Counterpart. I've even tried my hand at it in a few short stories such as "The Other Car." But J. Neil Schulman has outdone all of this with his novel The Fractal Man, which for most of its 160 some odd pages—meant literally as well as a figure of speech here—is not only a masterpiece of alternate reality, but one of the best science fiction novels I've ever read, literally.
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Game of Thrones' Finale
In the penultimate scene of the Game of Thrones finale, Sam proposes democracy for the Seven Kingdoms: Their King or Queen should be chosen by the people. The gathered noble men and women laugh at him. Someone remarks, why not let dogs also choose who rules us (taking a line from Socrates, who said something about jackasses, the animals, ruling—come to think of it, Tyrion talked about a jackass in a brothel, too). Tyrion, ever the smartest person in the group, proposes that these gathered nobility choose the ruler. They, of course, like that. And Tyrion proposes Bran, who is ratified as King by the group.
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Geeks
Review of 'Game of Thrones' 8.3
The great battle came early in the final season of Game of Thrones—8.3—and it was stunningly worth the short wait. In real life, you can't beat death—at least, not ultimately—though sometimes your words and works can, like Shakespeare's and John Lennon's. But in high fantasy, complete victory over death, though hard fought and costly, can happen.
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Geeks
Review of 'The Orville' Season 2 Finale
The Orville really brought it home last night with a season two finale (2.14) that built on last week's superb time travel episode (2.13). In effect, making both parts a brilliant two-part time travel engenders alternate history story. Although time travel and alternate history can and do often happen independently of one another, the two science fiction genres are naturally connected. If I go back in time with knowledge I obtained from the future, that instantly creates an alternate reality in which a different series of events are spun, put in motion by the knowledge of the future I now have in the past.
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'The Orville' 2.13
I've said many times in my many places that time travel is my favorite genre of science fiction. The best episodes of Star Trek TOS and TNG were time travel stories—"City on the Edge of Forever" in TOS, "Yesterday's Enterprise" in TNG. So I was expecting that sooner or later The Orville would check in with a time travel story—if not quite as superb as the TOS and TNG stories, right up there in excellence, anyway. It did so tonight.
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Futurism
