Anyway, there was only one thing that bothered me about the Spin. I was reading the English version, so I can't say it was the translator's mistake (not that I think he would have done something like this). On page 339, Jason tells Tyler about the replicator colonies' collected data. The first thing he mentions, and I quote, is : "This was a planetary system of a star with a solar mass of 1.0"... the thing that bugged me instinctlively is that I thought that on the course of 3 billion years or so the sun's mass should grow a little bit bigger (I though that probably it's not only consuming the hydrogen "stored" in it but also some in the vast space that surrounds it).

 When I checked it out, I have learned that the sun's mass is actually getting smaller. This is due to a nuclear process which is called "proton-proton chain reaction", in which protons combines with helium nuclei, and some of their mass becomes energy (therefore - the mass is "lost" to energy)...

Readers contact me to correct errors now and then -- a process no writer enjoys -- but I thought Elad's observation was an interesting sidelight on solar evolution.  I would not have rewritten the section had it occurred to me to wonder about stellar masses, since Jason is positing a "for instance" that would be accessible to non-scientist Tyler.  A lecture on stellar evolution wouldn't have helped.  But in all honesty the question never entered my mind. 

Good thing the sun does turn mass into energy, or we'd all be getting a little chilly by and by....