Sublime

The story of humanity was largely taught to me as one of Great Men doing Great Deeds, with everyone else largely irrelevant, but there is a far more nuanced picture to be painted.

la vague nationaliste qui déferle sur le monde ne saurait nous ramener en 1939 ou en 1914. La technologie a tout changé en créant un ensemble de menaces existentielles qu’aucune nation ne saurait résoudre toute seule. Un ennemi commun est le meilleur catalyseur pour forger une identité commune, et l’humanité a maintenant au moins trois ennemis de c

Civilization’s appetite for useful and cheaper technologies is boundless. This will not change.

Most sociopolitical hierarchies lack a logical or biological basis – they are nothing but the perpetuation of chance events supported by myths.

The challenge posed to humankind in the twenty-first century by infotech and biotech is arguably much bigger than the challenge posed in the previous era by steam engines, railroads, and electricity. And given the immense destructive power of our civilization, we just cannot afford more failed models, world wars, and bloody revolutions. This time a

The world is becoming ever more complex, and people fail to realize just how ignorant they are of what’s going on. Consequently, some people who know next to nothing about meteorology or biology nevertheless propose policies regarding climate change and genetically modified crops, while others hold extremely strong views about what should be done i

All the settlers of Australia had at their disposal was Stone Age technology. How could they cause an ecological disaster? There are three explanations that mesh quite nicely.

“the knowledge illusion.” We think we know a lot, even though individually we know very little, because we treat knowledge in the minds of others as if it were our own. This is not necessarily bad. Our reliance on groupthink has made us masters of the world, and the knowledge illusion enables us to go through life without being caught in an impossi