“People may tolerate years of poverty, unemployment, and discrimination. They may accept shoddy schools, poor hospitals, and neglected infrastructure. But there is one thing they will not tolerate: losing status in a place they believe is theirs. In the twenty-first century, the most dangerous factions are once-dominant groups facing decline.”
― How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them
― How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them
“Social science has been largely a study of the ways in which human beings are not free: the way that our actions and understandings might be said to be determined by forces outside our control. Any account which appears to show human beings collectively shaping their own destiny, or even expressing freedom for its own sake, will likely be written off as illusory, awaiting ‘real’ scientific explanation; or if none is forthcoming (why do people dance?), as outside the scope of social theory entirely. This is one reason why most ‘big histories’ place such a strong focus on technology. Dividing up the human past according to the primary material from which tools and weapons were made (Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age) or else describing it as a series of revolutionary breakthroughs (Agricultural Revolution, Urban Revolution, Industrial Revolution), they then assume that the technologies themselves largely determine the shape that human societies will take for centuries to come – or at least until the next abrupt and unexpected breakthrough comes along to change everything again.”
― The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity
― The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity
“Food waste in households, restaurants and shops is a different issue. In principle it should be straightforward: just buy what you need and make sure you eat it. But human behaviour is hard to change. There are some things that can help.”
― Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet
― Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet
“Wiener believed that the most promising path for computer science was to devise machines that would work well with human minds rather than try to replace them. “Many people suppose that computing machines are replacements for intelligence and have cut down the need for original thought,” Wiener wrote. “This is not the case.”14 The more powerful the computer, the greater the premium that will be placed on connecting it with imaginative, creative, high-level human thinking.”
― The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution
― The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution
“The Götterdämmerung Syndrome, as with most violent pathologies, is more often seen in men than women. It is often interpreted as an example of narcissistic rage. Those who feel it are usually privileged and entitled, and they become extremely angry when their privileges and sense of entitlement are being taken away. If then their choice gets reduced to admitting they are in error or destroying the world, a reduction they often feel to be the case, the obvious choice for them is to destroy the world; for they cannot admit they have ever erred.”
― The Ministry for the Future
― The Ministry for the Future
Joseph’s 2025 Year in Books
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