Here’s my second concluding post about Harari’s third book.
As usual, I find it hard to condense my notes too far, when the author has so many interesting things to say, especially in this second half.
In the range of topics this book discusses, it’s one of the best books I know of that addresses the big issues of our day, and of the future. And final chapters delve into deep matters that are almost a separate topic, but worth deep thought.
This 2018 book is Harari’s third, of the three he’s published so far. It follows in ways from his second, HOMO DEUS (see here), in exploring some of its themes, but differs in being not a narrative, but a set of lessons, about where we are heading right now. The text is about 320 pages long; thus each lesson gets about 15 pages on average. This post covers about the first half of the book.
Here’s another Links & Quotes & Comments post about… recent events. What’s going on. The continued pandemic and Fox News’ complicity. How Republican strategies are making everything worse. About the suppression of Maus and its consequences. And the root of the Republican/conservative backlash: Obama.
Here’s another John Allen Paulos book, one from 1998, and one that I had not previously read. When I noticed it on the shelf a few weeks ago I realized this was now of particular interest, since in recent years I’ve become fascinated by the nature of stories and they mold our understanding of the world.
More interesting juxtapositions showing how flat maps, especially Mercator projections, give misleading impressions of the relative sizes of areas on Earth.
Plus, an endpiece, about Piedmont Park.
Jesse Bering; Adam Grant; Rod Serling; Dr. Seuss and cancel culture; crazies Sherri T and Candace O.
Kurt Andersen on human sacrifice; Matthew Rozsa on Covid-19 and religious faith; headlines.
A bunch of links, several of which I think make their points by their headlines. Concerning conservative hypocrisy about Supreme Court nominees, banning books, and other matters.
Yuval Noah Harari has an essay in the current issue of Time Magazine about the cost of tackling climate change.
Ls&Cs: Scientific Literacy and Peer Review
Only a whiff of politics in today’s posts, about the current pandemic and public understanding of science, and the practice of scientific pre-prints.
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