No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.
Summary and comments about this 2011 essay and 2013 book. With an aside about my belief in Santa Claus.
One more round of Links and Comments for today, then promise will do some different kinds of posts for a while.
The results of yesterday’s elections demonstrate several truisms about politics. My favorite take about the current elections is this:
Slate, Ben Mathis-Lilley, 3 Nov 21: American Politics Are Controlled by Voters With the Memory of a Golden Retriever
Aspirin: Why do scientists keep changing their minds? How science is like detective work. How conspiracy theorists exploit the provisional nature of science. Can history be overturned, or just refined? And KSR, aliens, the new telescope, and existential crises.
Here’s a NYT piece from almost a year ago, which I neglected to post at the time but which has stayed in my mind sufficiently that I tracked it down to finally post and comment about now. It’s about how different people observe Facebook very differently. And how this is a crucial component of the US’ current political divide.
Facebook is what you make of it.
Maybe we should all just buy less stuff. How citizenship has given way to consumerism. Why partisans deliberately confuse terms like expenses and investments. And how some rewrite history in support of ideological narratives.
Today’s thought: It occurs to me that “cancel culture” exists on both the left and right. The left is more apt to target individuals (Jerry Coyne responds to an attempt by the Imperial College London to rename anything named after Thomas H. Huxley, and others), the right vast swaths of history they find uncomfortable (“critical race theory,” which the conservative critics do not actually understand). The problem with this, aside from the immediate ethical issues, is that eventually it will happen to all of us. Future generations, with different cultural and ethical standards, might well decide all of our lives are irrelevant and are not fit to be remembered.
L&Cs: Jill Lepore on Muskism and Science Fiction
Just one item today, after a long afternoon with a screaming baby.
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