Archive for the ‘ History ’ Category

The Best Way to Predict the Future is to Invent It

Human Computer Interaction video – The Birth of HCI (select video 1.4) Here I am again, like a stuck record. If you know one thing about me, it is that I am very skeptical about the advantages of technology. It seems to me that technology (combined with our natural gullibility) has destroyed our world. But this [ READ MORE ]

Creon’s Speech

The following is from the play Oedipus The King, translated by David Grene: — Consider, first, if you think any one would chose to rule and fear rather than rule and sleep untroubled by a fear if power were equal in both cases. I, at least, I was not born with such a frantic yearning to [ READ MORE ]

People Who Made Things

In my father’s time people either made things (in manufacturing) or made things work (in the railroads). People were still important, because nothing would happen without them. What do people do now? Nothing, which is natural because they are nothing. And this is the reason, I believe, they are destroying their world: it has destroyed [ READ MORE ]

The American Revolution Was a Stupid Idea

I am not talking about the basic idea here, but its timing. If it had not been for France (and the French Fleet in particular) we would have lost the war. The British had to supply their troops entirely from a home base on the other side of the Atlantic. When the French Fleet started [ READ MORE ]

Something Too Horrible for Words

There is always something we dread more than anything else, something so horrible we don’t have the words to express it – but it is always in the back of our minds, and determines much of our behavior. There are two ways of dealing with this problem, or any other problem: recognize it or deny it. Any [ READ MORE ]

Bankers at the Gates

NY Times This one more (yes, more!) about the Greek/Euro crisis. But this one is written from a much longer temporal perspective – from the fall of the Greek-speaking Byzantine Empire. This ended with one of the most disgraceful acts in Western History – the sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade[ READ MORE ]

Being Part of Something Big

This is one of the most powerful of our human obsessions. It probably showed up about the time we became civilized. Before that, we were content to live in small societies, and felt no need for something bigger. The coming of civilization has never been studied very thoroughly, as far as I know. Perhaps one [ READ MORE ]

We Have Put Too Much of Ourselves Into Our Machines

As result, there is little of us left. This is something thinkers of all kinds have overlooked. Perhaps because they thought of technology and people as two different things – when they are only one. Perhaps because technical change was so slow for so long. But about 500 years ago a technological and social speedup resulted [ READ MORE ]

The Common Good

I am learning about the Revolution of 1800, as I am listening to Empire of Liberty. I find this history as interesting as any novel, and I keep wondering why more Americans aren’t interested. This election marked a fundamental shift in the way Americans thought about themselves – basically they stopped thinking and started acting [ READ MORE ]

The Great Collapse

No one will believe what I am saying here. They will ask: “If something this important happened, how come no one has noticed it?” They have a good point, and I will try to explain. First of all, plenty of people have noticed small parts of this – but never thought to add them up [ READ MORE ]

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