Morgan Blackledge

“With the capacity to represent the world in signs and symbols comes the capacity to change it, which, as it happens, is also the capacity to destroy it. A tiny set of genetic variations divides us from the Neanderthals, but that has made all the difference.”
― Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History

“scientific research can flourish only in alliance with some religion or ideology. The ideology justifies the costs of the research. In exchange, the ideology influences the scientific agenda and determines what to do with the discoveries.”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

“My caution kicks in when I encounter either one of two sorts of dramatic theories: those that claim to have found the secret of consciousness, and those that claim that the brain mechanisms for consciousness can never be found.”
― Patricia S. Churchland, Touching a Nerve: The Self as Brain

“The feedback loop between science, empire and capital has arguably been history’s chief engine for the past 500 years. The following chapters analyse its workings. First we’ll look at how the twin turbines of science and empire were latched to one another, and then learn how both were hitched up to the money pump of capitalism.”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind