27 JUL 2018 by ideonexus
Human Progress Confounds -isms
It should not be surprising that the facts of human progress confound the major -isms. The ideologies are more than two centuries old and are based on mile-high visions such as whether humans are tragically flawed or infinitely malleable, and whether society is an organic whole or a collection of individuals.43 A real society comprises hundreds of millions of social beings, each with a trillion-synapse brain, who pursue their well-being while affecting the well-being of others in complex netw... 1 
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notes27 JUL 2018 by ideonexus
Measuring Progress by the Cost of Light
Time is not the only life-enriching resource granted to us by technology. Another is light. Light is so empowering that it serves as the metaphor of choice for a superior intellectual and spiritual state: enlightenment. In the natural world we are plunged into darkness for half of our existence, but human-made light allows us to take back the night for reading, moving about, seeing people’s faces, and otherwise engaging with our surroundings. The economist William Nordhaus has cited the plung...Folksonomies: human progress quantification
Folksonomies: human progress quantification
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notes16 AUG 2014 by ideonexus
Hitler's Appeal was His Promise of Strife and Warfare
Also he has grasped the falsity of the hedonistic attitude to life. Nearly all western thought since the last war, certainly all “progressive” thought, has assumed tacitly that human beings desire nothing beyond ease, security and avoidance of pain. In such a view of life there is no room, for instance, for patriotism and the military virtues. The Socialist who finds his children playing with soldiers is usually upset, but he is never able to think of a substitute for the tin soldiers; tin pa... 1 notes
notes12 AUG 2014 by ideonexus
Judy Seltz on Education
I believe to my core that education--that is, access to quality learning--is the only way we can be a true democracy and the only way that nations will thrive both individually and in a global community. Education is the best route out of poverty; it is how children learn how to be part of a civil society. I believe that education opens doors to words, to language, to reading, to music, to drama, to science, and to exploration. That makes teachers the heroes and heroines of our society. Every...Folksonomies: education human progress
Folksonomies: education human progress
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notes03 OCT 2013 by ideonexus
Fossil Fuels are Humanity's "Starter"
Now we have comprehended and peeled off the layers of petals
which disclosed not only that physical energy is conserved but also
that it is ever increasingly deposited as a fossil-fuel savings account
aboard our Spaceship Earth through photosynthesis and
progressive, complex, topsoil fossilization buried ever deeper
within Earth's crust by frost, wind, flood, volcanoes, and earthquake
upheavals. We have thus discovered also that we can make all of
humanity successful through science's world-e... 1 notes
notesThey are here to get the engine of sustainable energy running, we have to get the engine running before they are exhausted or the car of civilization is dead.
19 APR 2013 by ideonexus
The Stagnation of the Sciences in Ancient Societies
Such is the origin of almost all the religions that are known to us, and which the hypocrisy or the extravagance of their inventors and their proselytes afterwards loaded with new fables.
These casts seized upon education, that they might fashion man to a more patient endurance of chains, embodied as it were with his existence, and extirpate the possibility of his desiring to break them. But, if we would know to what point, even without the aid of superstitious terrors, these institutions, s... 1 notes
notesThe ruling class only kept enough truth to suit their purposes, leaving the rest to become like fables and rituals, causing cultural stagnation in places like Asia.
19 APR 2013 by ideonexus
Science in the Time of Hordes
The only sciences known to savage hordes, are a slight and crude idea of astronomy,
and the knowledge of certain medicinal plants employed in the cure of wounds and
diseases; and even these are already corrupted by a mixture of superstition.
Meanwhile there is presented to us in this epoch one fact of importance in the history
of the human mind. We can here perceive the beginnings of an institution, that in its
progress has been attended with opposite effects, accelerating the advancement of... 1 notes
notesIn the early days, those with science subdued those who did not.
19 APR 2013 by ideonexus
How Do We Nourish the Revolution?
Every thing tells us that we are approaching the era of one of the grand revolutions of
the human race. What can better enlighten us to what we may expect, what can be a
surer guide to us, amidst its commotions, than the picture of the revolutions that have
preceded and prepared the way for it? The present state of knowledge assures us that
it will be happy. But is it not upon condition that we know how to assist it with all our strength? And, that the happiness it promises may be less dearly... 1 notes
notesWe are in a society that is experiencing accelerating happiness, accelerating technology, and social progress. The progress is inevitable, but we must understand it in order to encourage it and recognize the pitfalls it may experience.
