reading words with my eyes
OH, I forgot to mention the two books that I'm actually READING, not listening to:
• The Future of Life by E. O. Wilson: this was on the syllabus for one of my college classes -- I think Global Problems? Which was this intro philosophy class focusing on practical applications to current issues like global warming, globalization, the tragedy of the commons, etc. We only had to read a few chapters from it at the time, so I never finished the entire book. It's kind of depressing how so much shit is the same even though it was written in 2002.
"The relative indifference to the environment springs, I believe, from deep within human nature. The human brain evidently evolved to commit itself emotionally only to a small piece of geography, a limited band of kinsmen, and two or three generations into the future. To look neither far ahead nor far afield is elemental in a Darwinian sense. We are innately inclined to ignore any distant possibility not yet requiring examination. It is, people say, just good common sense. Why do they think in this short-sighted way? The reason is simple: it is a hard-wired part of our Paleolithic heritage. For hundreds of millennia those who worked for short-term gain within a small circle of relatives and friends lived longer and left more offspring -- even when their collective striving caused their chiefdoms and empires to crumble around them. The long view that might have saved their distant descendants required a vision and extended altruism instinctively difficult to marshal."
• Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis: Yeah, yeah, I know. There's a story behind it, though. One of my best friends in high school and I watched the film and loved it at the time (we were like 16, okay), and he ended up buying the book. We both took French, and he wanted to get a translation of the French passage in it, and he lent it to me after he finished reading it. He kept on asking for the book back, and I kept on saying I'd give it to him, but we slowly grew apart from each other the last two years of high school, and I didn't see him as much. I've held onto the book this entire time; I don't remember if I took it with me to college, but I've had it with me ever since I graduated. I kept meaning to actually finish it and give it back to him. Now, twelve years later, I'm actually reading it, and I'm hoping to find a current address and mail it back to him once I'm done.
Originally posted here. Comments at DW:
• The Future of Life by E. O. Wilson: this was on the syllabus for one of my college classes -- I think Global Problems? Which was this intro philosophy class focusing on practical applications to current issues like global warming, globalization, the tragedy of the commons, etc. We only had to read a few chapters from it at the time, so I never finished the entire book. It's kind of depressing how so much shit is the same even though it was written in 2002.
"The relative indifference to the environment springs, I believe, from deep within human nature. The human brain evidently evolved to commit itself emotionally only to a small piece of geography, a limited band of kinsmen, and two or three generations into the future. To look neither far ahead nor far afield is elemental in a Darwinian sense. We are innately inclined to ignore any distant possibility not yet requiring examination. It is, people say, just good common sense. Why do they think in this short-sighted way? The reason is simple: it is a hard-wired part of our Paleolithic heritage. For hundreds of millennia those who worked for short-term gain within a small circle of relatives and friends lived longer and left more offspring -- even when their collective striving caused their chiefdoms and empires to crumble around them. The long view that might have saved their distant descendants required a vision and extended altruism instinctively difficult to marshal."
• Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis: Yeah, yeah, I know. There's a story behind it, though. One of my best friends in high school and I watched the film and loved it at the time (we were like 16, okay), and he ended up buying the book. We both took French, and he wanted to get a translation of the French passage in it, and he lent it to me after he finished reading it. He kept on asking for the book back, and I kept on saying I'd give it to him, but we slowly grew apart from each other the last two years of high school, and I didn't see him as much. I've held onto the book this entire time; I don't remember if I took it with me to college, but I've had it with me ever since I graduated. I kept meaning to actually finish it and give it back to him. Now, twelve years later, I'm actually reading it, and I'm hoping to find a current address and mail it back to him once I'm done.
Originally posted here. Comments at DW: