“As soon as man began considering himself the source of the highest meaning in the world and the measure of everything, the world began to lose its human dimension, and man began to lose control of it.”
“The greatest of all the accomplishments of 20th century science has been the discovery of human ignorance.”
—
Lewis Thomas, physician, poet, etymologist, essayist (1913-1993) cited in
Forbes, Feb 1, 1998.
“What people haven’t seemed to notice is that on earth, of all the billions of species that have evolved, only one has developed intelligence to the level of producing technology. Which means that kind of intelligence is really not very useful. It’s not actually, in the general case, of much evolutionary value. We tend to think, because we love to think of ourselves, human beings, as the top of the evolutionary ladder, that the intelligence we have, that makes us human beings, is the thing that all of evolution is striving toward. But what we know is that that’s not true.
Obviously it doesn’t matter that much if you’re a beetle, that you be really smart. If it were, evolution would have produced much more intelligent beetles. We have no empirical data to suggest that there’s a high probability that evolution on another planet would lead to technological intelligence.”
“Chance favors the connected mind.”
“What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not an end.”
“Much education today consists of a high degree of specialization, which tends to give a person tunnel vision and a narrow perspective about the actual interrelationships of all physical phenomena. Students of the future would be encouraged to view the world in a more holistic manner; accordingly, they would be able to converse intelligently across various disciplines.”
—
Jacque Fresco, self-educated structural designer, philosopher of science, concept artist, educator, and futurist,
The Best That Money Can’t Buy: Beyond Poverty, Politics, & War, Global Cyber Visions, 2002
(tnx mymindtank)
“Now, why should the universe be constructed in such a way that atoms acquire the ability to be curious about themselves?”
Our Selves, Other Cells. Baby’s cells can live a lifetime in mother’s heart and mind
“Is it any solace to sentimental mothers that their babies will always be part of them?
I’m not talking about emotional bonds, which we can only hope will endure. I mean that for any woman that has ever been pregnant, some of her baby’s cells may circulate in her bloodstream for as long as she lives. Those cells often take residence in her lungs, spinal cord, skin, thyroid gland, liver, intestine, cervix, gallbladder, spleen, lymph nodes, and blood vessels. And, yes, the baby’s cells can also live a lifetime in her heart and mind. (…)
How many people have left their DNA in us? Any baby we’ve ever conceived, even ones we’ve miscarried unknowingly. Sons leave their Y chromosome genes in their mothers. The fetal cells from each pregnancy, flowing in a mother’s bloodstream, can be passed on to her successive kids. If we have an older sibling, that older sibling’s cells may be in us. The baby in a large family may harbor the genes of many brothers and sisters. My mother’s cells are in my body, and so are my daughter’s cells, and half my daughter’s DNA comes from her dad. Some of those cells may be in my brain. This is squirm-worthy.
But there’s something beautiful about this too. Long post postpartum, we mothers continue to carry our children, at least in a sense. Our babies become part of us, just as we are a part of them. The barriers have broken down; the lines are no longer fixed. Moms must be many in one.”
“Language plays a tremendous role in human affairs. It serves as a means of cooperation and as a weapon of conflict. With it, men can solve problems, erect the towering structures of science and poetry – and talk themselves into insanity and social confusion.”
— Irving J. Lee, lecturer, teacher, former professor at Northwestern University (1909-1955), cited in Martin H. Levinson; ETC.:
A Review of General Semantics, Vol. 55, 1998,
Opium: A History, Questia Online Library
