Category Archives: Uncategorized

“So there is no shame in feeling lonely even though society often tells us that we’ve done something wrong or you know if we somehow find ourselves alone on a Friday night or if we feel lonely on the playground you know, or in the cafeteria at school. Perhaps most insidious but most harmful is the impact loneliness has on our sense of self. Over time we come to believe  when we’re lonely that we’re lonely because we’re not likable which makes it harder to take a risk and a chance in conversation. So in that way loneliness can be a downward spiral and part of the challenge and the mission to build a more connected society and a more connected life, is figuring out how do we break that downward spiral so that we can once again rebuild connection  which is what we’re naturally called to do.”
Vivek Murthy on Loneliness and the Power of Connection

“Under the circumstances, I feel compelled to speak out. As health professionals, we are committed to humanity and must condemn and fight these crimes against humanity.” ~ Aron Troen, Director of Hebrew University’s Nutrition and Brain Health Laboratory

Israeli and Palestinian Doctors Speak Out: Medics and health workers describe how they have been affected by Hamas’ attacks on Israel and the response in Gaza via The Lancet.

What cannot letters inspire?
They have souls;
they can speak;
they have in them all that force which expresses the transports of the heart;
they have all the fire of our passions.
They can rouse them as much as if the persons themselves were present.
They have all the tenderness and the delicacy of speech, and sometimes even a boldness of expression beyond it.

~ Heloise in a letter to Abelard

“Do you know what’s extraordinary?” asked the girl.

“That we found each other,” said the bird.

Ice is like soil in the garden
A garden can’t grow without soil
and without ice, the polar ecosystems can’t survive.

Paul Nicklen via Human Nature, p. 94

But now if one receives someone as a friend on the basis that he is good, but then he becomes, and seems, a bad character, should one go on loving him? Or is this not possible, given that not everything is lovable, but only what is good, and what is worthless is neither lovable, nor something one should love (for one should not be a lover of what is worthless, nor become like it, and it has been said that like is a friend to like)? So should one break off the friendship at once; or not in all cases, only where the badness is incurable.

Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics, p.229, 1165b15

Even ending in the sense of “disappearing” can still have its modifications according to the kind of Being which an entity may have. The rain is at an end—that is to say it has disappeared. The bread is at an end—that is to say, it has been used up and is no longer available as something ready-to-hand.

Martin Heidegger, Being and Time, pg. 289.

I do not fear the existential risk of super-intelligent AI (artificial intelligence). It’s NS (natural stupidity) that scares the hell out of me.

~ Grady Brooch

“As a species, humanity, we have changed up our mobility infrastructure multiple times. In the early 1800s, it was steam trains. We had to do enormous changes to our infrastructure. We had to put flat rails right across countries. When we started adopting automobiles around the turn from the 19th to the 20th century, we changed the roads. We changed the laws. People could no longer walk in the middle of the road like they used to. We changed the infrastructure. When you go from trains that are driven by a person to self-driving trains, such as we see in airports and a few out there, there’s a whole change in infrastructure so that you can’t possibly have a person walking on the tracks. We’ve tried to make this transition [to self-driving cars] without changing infrastructure. You always need to change infrastructure if you’re going to do a major change.” ~ Rodney Brooks

Just Calm Down About GPT-4 Already: And stop confusing performance with competence, says Rodney Brooks via IEEE Spectrum

“Design also plays a role in shaping the algorithms that keep users on social media platforms considerably longer than they intended. Many teens report diminished well-being after spending an hour (or six) at the hands of such algorithmic rabbit holes. Though a teen may have initially gone to YouTube or TikTok to watch a single video, the algorithms that seem to know them so well kept them watching far longer than they had originally anticipated.”

~ Katie Davis, Technology’s Child: Digital Media’s Role in the Ages and Stages of Growing Up, 2023

“In the forest there are unwritten guidelines for tree etiquette. These guidelines lay down the proper appearance for upright members of ancient forests and acceptable forms of behavior. This is what a mature, well-behaved deciduous tree looks like. It has a ramrod-straight trunk with a regular, orderly arrangement of wood fibers. The roots stretch out evenly in all directions and reach down into the earth under the tree. In its youth, the tree had narrow branches extending sideways from its trunk. They died back a long time ago, and the tree sealed them off with fresh bark and new wood so that what you see now is a long, smooth column. Only when you get to the top do you see a symmetrical crown.”

~ The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben

Do trees appreciate beauty?