06 JAN 2018 by ideonexus
Of All Times in which to Live, You Would Choose Today
I don't think in terms of one year, but I can tell people what I genuinely believe, which is that if we take responsibility in being involved in our own fate if we participate, if we engage, if we speak out, if we work in our communities, if we volunteer, if we see the joy that comes from service to others, then all the problems that we face are solvable despite all the terrible news that you see, despite all the genuine cruelty, pain, and hardship people are experiencing all around the world...Folksonomies: optimism
Folksonomies: optimism
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notes
notes31 MAY 2015 by ideonexus
Hero of "Brave New World"
The hero of Brave New World is John, a young man
who grew up on an Indian reservation in New Mexico.
The reservation is inhabited by primitive peoples and
maintained by the benevolent world government as a
tourist attraction. It exists so that the civilized tourists
can observe from a distance the nasty and brutish lives
of people who have the misfortune to be unprotected
by the cushions and comforts of technology. On the
reservation, traditional religions and traditional customs
are tolerate... 1 notes
notes22 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Man is Nothing Special
The power that produced Man when the monkey was not up to the mark, can produce a higher creature than Man if Man does not come up to the mark. What it means is that if Man is to be saved, Man must save himself. There seems no compelling reason why he should be saved. He is by no means an ideal creature. At his present best many of his ways are so unpleasant that they are unmentionable in polite society, and so painful that he is compelled to pretend that pain is often a good. Nature holds no... 1 notes
notesIf we fail, nature will move on to try other things.
25 APR 2012 by ideonexus
Natural Selection in Humans is Going Strong
The frequent allegation that the selective processes in the human species are no longer 'natural' is due to persistence of the obsolete nineteenth- century concept of 'natural' selection. The error of this view is made clear when we ask its proponents such questions as, why should the 'surviving fittest' be able to withstand cold and inclement weather without the benefit of fire and clothing? Is it not ludicrous to expect selection to make us good at defending ourselves against wild beasts wh...Folksonomies: evolution cultural evolution
Folksonomies: evolution cultural evolution
1 notes
notesJust because we use cultural innovations to outwit nature doesn't mean we aren't still evolving.
31 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
We Should have a Saints Day for Penicillin
... we ought to have saints' days to commemorate the great discoveries which have been made for all mankind, and perhaps for all time—or for whatever time may be left to us. Nature ... is a prodigal of pain. I should like to find a day when we can take a holiday, a day of jubilation when we can fête good Saint Anaesthesia and chaste and pure Saint Antiseptic. ... I should be bound to celebrate, among others, Saint Penicillin... 1 notes
notesA Quote from Winston Churchill on the need to celebrate medical discoveries that easy human suffering.
30 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Discovery is the Greatest Possible Reward in Life
The indescribable pleasure—which pales the rest of life's joys—is abundant compensation for the investigator who endures the painful and persevering analytical work that precedes the appearance of the new truth, like the pain of childbirth. It is true to say that nothing for the scientific scholar is comparable to the things that he has discovered. Indeed, it would be difficult to find an investigator willing to exchange the paternity of a scientific conquest for all the gold on earth. An... 1 notes
notesAny scientist who would trade it for all the gold in the world is working in the wrong profession.
30 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Heroes VS Scholars
Heroes and scholars represent the opposite extremes... The scholar struggles for the benefit of all humanity, sometimes to reduce physical effort, sometimes to reduce pain, and sometimes to postpone death, or at least render it more bearable. In contrast, the patriot sacrifices a rather substantial part of humanity for the sake of his own prestige. His statue is always erected on a pedestal of ruins and corpses... In contrast, all humanity crowns a scholar, love forms the pedestal of his stat... 1 notes
notesScholars work for humanity, heroes work for themselves.
28 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Science Must be Private
The feeling of understanding is as private as the feeling of pain. The act of understanding is at the heart of all scientific activity; without it any ostensibly scientific activity is as sterile as that of a high school student substituting numbers into a formula. For this reason, science, when I push the analysis back as far as I can, must be private. 1 notes
notesBecause understanding is a private feeling, and science is an activity of understanding.
02 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Davy's Poem Seeking to Inspire Other Scientists
He depicts himself watching in rapture the two adult grey-tailed eagles in the bright sunlight, followed by their young offspring. This moment is transformed into an image of Davy the man of science, hoping to inspire his young scientific protégés to ever greater discoveries.
The mighty birds still upward rose
In slow but constant and most steady flight.
The young ones following; and they would pause,
As if to teach them how to bear the light
And keep the solar glory full in sight.
So went... 1 notes
notesEvokes images of prometheus, but also of triumph.
08 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
Looking at babies attentively makes us treat them differe...
Until very recently doctors didn't use analgesia when they operated on small babies, because they thought their minds were too primitive to really feel pain or to remember it if they did. This is a dramatic example, but it often seems as if we discount children's pain compared with adult pain. Child abuse isn't evil because it may produce neurotic adults but because it abuses children. Divorce doesn't have a cost because it may produce adults who have difficulty with relationships but because...
1 Seeing babies as young adults makes us treat them humanely; whereas, in the past, babies were denied analgesia because it was thought that their primitive minds did not sense pain the way an adult's mind did.
