In a fit of madness, (or was it self improvement?) I decided to educate myself on Kurt Vonnegut. I bought Slaughterhouse Five, Cat's Cradle & The Sirens of Titan.
Vonnegut is a very engaging writer. He writes deceptively simple books for someone
Vonnegut has a regular theme in his books on the limitations of free will. If you can see into the future, then do you have free will? If someone from the future tells you of your future, then do you have free will? Are you still responsible for your actions? If you have implanted happy memories, then have you lived a happy life?
"I was a victim of a series of accidents, as are we all..."
Monday, July 23, 2012
Saturday, July 21, 2012
1491
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/1491-charles-c-mann/1100618256?ean=9781400032051
This is an interesting book that tries to construct the history of North America before Columbus arrived. It has a few exciting and controverial ideas in it-- that Nature is not normative and that Native Americans tended and farmed the forests. Burning them every year in some parts of North america. Spreading edible trees in South America.
That the idea of an unchanging wilderness is wrong. Species come and go, wax and wane. A warm century will cause some animals and plants to spread. A cold century will the previous successors to die out. New plants and animals will take over. Another warm century later on will cause a different set of plants and animals to grow, not the same set that thrived the previous warm century. The winderness can radically change over time. Our modern idea that natural winderness is unchanging is probably not helpful.
The winderness we know today is not the winderness the Indias had in 1491, which was different than the winderness of 10,000 BC. The vast herds of buffalo that roamed the plains in the 1600's and 1700's were probably there not because vast herds of buffalo are natural in North America, but because the Indians who hunted the buffalo and kept them in check, died from small pox. Without the Indians hunting the buffalo, the buffalo numbers skyrocketed.
This is an interesting book that tries to construct the history of North America before Columbus arrived. It has a few exciting and controverial ideas in it-- that Nature is not normative and that Native Americans tended and farmed the forests. Burning them every year in some parts of North america. Spreading edible trees in South America.
That the idea of an unchanging wilderness is wrong. Species come and go, wax and wane. A warm century will cause some animals and plants to spread. A cold century will the previous successors to die out. New plants and animals will take over. Another warm century later on will cause a different set of plants and animals to grow, not the same set that thrived the previous warm century. The winderness can radically change over time. Our modern idea that natural winderness is unchanging is probably not helpful.
The winderness we know today is not the winderness the Indias had in 1491, which was different than the winderness of 10,000 BC. The vast herds of buffalo that roamed the plains in the 1600's and 1700's were probably there not because vast herds of buffalo are natural in North America, but because the Indians who hunted the buffalo and kept them in check, died from small pox. Without the Indians hunting the buffalo, the buffalo numbers skyrocketed.
Situations Matter
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/situations-matter-sam-sommers/1100480606
Situations Matter shares a theme with Gladwell's Outliers. That the situation that you are in has a great influence on what you do, even more so that character.
Give a caring helpful person a to-do list and a sense of urgency, and they will ignore someone in need of help just as readaly as any selfish person.
Of all the qualities we look for in our mates, proximity may be the most important. More than any other quality, for every mile you put between two people, the odds that they will meet and get married pluments. Yet, if you were to ask someone why they fell in love, proximity would not come up.
Situations Matter shares a theme with Gladwell's Outliers. That the situation that you are in has a great influence on what you do, even more so that character.
Give a caring helpful person a to-do list and a sense of urgency, and they will ignore someone in need of help just as readaly as any selfish person.
Of all the qualities we look for in our mates, proximity may be the most important. More than any other quality, for every mile you put between two people, the odds that they will meet and get married pluments. Yet, if you were to ask someone why they fell in love, proximity would not come up.
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