"We Be The Humans"
Older Retired White Guy. Buddhist.
"Non nobis solum"
Likes trees better than people. Books better than trees.
"We Be The Humans"
Joined Aug 2018
a review of:
“The Philosophy of Modern Song,”
By Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan on the Songs That Captivate and Define Us
In his first collection of writing since “Chronicles: Volume One,” Dylan explores the lasting allure of great songs. Here are two excerpts from his new book
Book:
https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-philosophy-of-modern-song-bob-dylan/18283024
(Do you need some typography in your dystopian fiction?)
HellSans
by Ever Dundas
HellSans is a ubiquitous typeface, enforced by the government in all communications and in all public spaces. It is the ultimate control device. The majority of the population experience bliss when they see the typeface, but there's a minority who are allergic to it.
a review of:
If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English
Noor Naga (Author)
If an American Cannot Speak Arabic
There is a particular kind of angst, a wanting and waiting, at the periphery of a language.
By Raaza Jamshed
https://www.guernicamag.com/if-an-american-cannot-speak-arabic/
Book
https://bookshop.org/books/if-an-egyptian-cannot-speak-english/9781644450819
Design Ends
The beginning of the consumer lifecycle is rich, emotional and meaningful.
The end is barren of emotion and meaning.
We need to design endings.
(Also, where I learn of “endineering.”)
Book:
Beyond Dystopia
Elvia Wilk and Claire L. Evans on the changing role of science fiction in the age of COVID-19 and catastrophic climate change.
Definitely worth a read, on dystopia, utopia, the quantum state where both exist, the scifi-to-tech influence, solarpunk, the need for a new kind of science fiction, imagination, computers as just glorified rocks, and plant intelligence.
https://pioneerworks.org/broadcast/elvia-wilk-claire-evans-in-conversation
a review of:
Epiphanies: An Ethics of Experience
Sophie Grace Chappell (Author)
You Owe Me an Argument
Epiphanies can prompt us to view the world differently, a new book contends. But they are no substitute for ethical and political debate.
Rachel Fraser
https://bostonreview.net/articles/you-owe-me-an-argument
Book:
https://bookshop.org/p/books/epiphanies-an-ethics-of-experience-sophie-grace-chappell/18397207
Annie Ernaux Wins The 2022 Nobel Prize In Literature
The French author of mostly autobiographical work takes the prestigious books prize for the ‘courage and clinical acuity’ of her writing
By Sarah Shaffi
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/oct/06/annie-ernaux-wins-the-2022-nobel-prize-in-literature
(repost, for all the new book lovers)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I have written about these books a few times before. Yet I can't praise then enough. No the future does NOT have to be a dystopia, nor a utopia, but a work in progress. The institutions that last will be the ones between humans, for humans, by humans.
Monk and Robot Series
By Becky Chambers
https://www.goodreads.com/series/239322-monk-and-robot
.
(On Books, you say you will never read.)
The Books That Defy Our Expectations
"Whatever it is you hate in books (within reason, anyway; this is not true about traumatic and triggering content!), someone has probably done it well. Someone has probably done it in such a way that you might, despite yourself, find yourself in love."
By Molly Templeton
https://www.tor.com/2022/10/06/the-books-that-defy-our-expectations/
New Folks
Some of my favorite Hashtags
#CoSoBooks
#CoSoMusic
#CoSoScience
#CoSoSec
#CoSoEnvironment
#CoSoPhilosophy
Just type them into the search box, (just above the text entry box),
And a new column will appear on the right, you can then "pin" that and make it permeant.
What Math Can Tell Us About the Nature of the Universe
Manil Suri on the Less-Logical Side of Mathematical Knowledge.
"Another advantage of this approach is that it facilitates a fresh look at the “unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics” in describing the universe. This is a riddle that’s central to the subject—how can something so abstract be so uncannily adept at explaining the reality we live in? "
https://lithub.com/what-math-can-tell-us-about-the-nature-of-the-universe/
Book
a review of:
Getting Lost
Annie Ernaux (Author) Alison L. Strayer (Translator)
A Red-Hot Affair With a Younger Man, and the Writing It Kindled
“Getting Lost,” a diary by the French writer Annie Ernaux, recounts an all-consuming Paris romance.
By Dwight Garner
Book
https://bookshop.org/books/getting-lost-9781913097004/9781644212196
How to Fix Climate Change (A Sneaky Policy Guide)
We may already have a "miracle" fix for climate change: Electrify everything.
There is no way we win this war without the utilities. We need them to deliver three to four times the amount of electricity they do today.
https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/how-to-fix-climate-change-a-sneaky-policy-guide/
Book
Electrify: An Optimist's Playbook for Our Clean Energy Future
By Saul Griffith
A review of “A Century of Repression: The Espionage Act and Freedom of the Press”
The idea that the Espionage Act ushered in a century of repression is preposterous and never even remotely demonstrated.
The Espionage Act may be a loaded gun pointed at the press—but that gun has never been fired. Over the supposed century of repression, exactly zero journalists have been tried and convicted for violating the law.
By Gabriel Schoenfeld
https://www.lawfareblog.com/unbalanced-biography-espionage-act
A new, and not proven to be anything but magical, biography of Terry Pratchett
"And, by extension, when he got home he could take off the hat and be all the other Terry Pratchetts that he was, including, incidentally, Terry Pratchett the writer, which, by the way, is a different thing from being ‘an author’ – or ‘a nauthor’, in Terry’s self-mocking coinage."
https://whatever.scalzi.com/2022/09/29/the-big-idea-rob-wilkins/
a review of:
Internet for the People: The Fight for Our Digital Future
Ben Tarnoff
Can you remember the moment when you first suspected that there was something wrong with the internet? Was it when you started to get creepily specific targeted ads? Was it when you realized that you had lost track of time while partaking in the infinite scroll?
Book
https://bookshop.org/books/internet-for-the-people-the-fight-for-our-digital-future/9781839762024
To Read:
Not Feeling It
An interview with Xine Yao on how, and which, feelings are radicalized.
"Think about the alt right phrase “facts don’t care about your feelings” (as if white supremacy was based on fact). One thing Berlant’s work does so well is take seriously what sort of politics are enabled by feeling: what sort of effects does it produce, what also does it limit."
By Charlie Markbreiter and Xine Yao
https://thenewinquiry.com/not-feeling-it/
Book
a review of two books written by Doctors that happen to be not just good books, but lucid and meaningful books.
Meeting of Minds
By Salley Vickers
https://literaryreview.co.uk/meeting-of-minds-2
Books:
And Finally: Matters of Life and Death
Henry Marsh
https://bookshop.org/books/and-finally-matters-of-life-and-death/9781250286086
Brainspotting: Adventures in Neurology
A. J. Lees
https://bookshop.org/books/brainspotting-adventures-in-neurology/9781912559367
a review of:
Life Is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way
Kieran Setiya
What can a 2500-year-old discipline tell us about how to live better in the modern world?
"Perhaps philosophy is of use only for those already inclined to philosophical speculation."
By Anil Gomes
Book (due Oct. 4.)
https://bookshop.org/books/life-is-hard-how-philosophy-can-help-us-find-our-way/9780593538210
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I have written about these books a few times before. Yet I can't praise then enough. No the future does NOT have to be a dystopia, nor a utopia, but a work in progress. The institutions that last will be the ones between humans, for humans, by humans.
Monk and Robot Series
By Becky Chambers
"We Be The Humans"
Older Retired White Guy. Buddhist.
"Non nobis solum"
Likes trees better than people. Books better than trees.
"We Be The Humans"
Joined Aug 2018