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“When we see a disciplined society, there is often a social hierarchy behind it. This hierarchy, which determines who can eat or mate first, is ultimately rooted in violence.”
― The Bonobo and the Atheist: In Search of Humanism Among the Primates
― The Bonobo and the Atheist: In Search of Humanism Among the Primates
“is no question that the vacuum has energy; the Casimir force is witness to that fact. But is it possible that the energy of the vacuum is truly the lowest possible energy? If not, danger might be lurking in the vacuum. In 1983 two scientists suggested in Nature that tinkering with the energy of the vacuum might cause the universe to self-destruct. The paper argued that our vacuum might be a “false” vacuum in an unnaturally energetic state—like a ball perched precariously on the side of a hill. If we give the vacuum a big enough nudge, it might start rolling down the hill—settling into a lower energy state—and we would not be able to stop it. We would release a huge bubble of energy that expands at the speed of light, leaving a vast trail of destruction in its wake. It might be so bad that every one of our atoms would be torn apart during the apocalypse.”
― Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea
― Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea
“When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind: it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts, advanced to the stage of science. —WILLIAM THOMSON, LORD KELVIN”
― Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea
― Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea
“Nothing affects the learning culture of an organization more than the skill with which its executive team receives feedback.”
― Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well
― Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well
“didn’t talk soothingly to the rat, or stroke her, but firmly grabbed her behind the neck, mimicking a playful nip, and then ran his fingers up and down her rib cage, tickling her. She squirmed briefly, but stopped when he turned her over and tickled her belly. (Like humans, rats have “tickle-skin.”) That was when she began to laugh, calls that we heard through the bat detector as quick, high-pitched chirps, and saw on the computer monitor in a sonogram rendition as a vertical series of wavy lines. Compared to a sonogram of various kinds of human laughs, a rat’s chirps may be closest to a giggle. “There, she’s laughing already,” Panksepp said, tickling her some more. “Chup, chup, chup,” I wrote in my notebook, trying to approximate the bat-detector’s translation of her rat laughter. When Panksepp stopped tickling, she jumped up and bunny-hopped around the bin, while making more of her laughing play-chirps.”
― Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of our Fellow Creatures
― Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of our Fellow Creatures
Jacek’s 2024 Year in Books
Take a look at Jacek’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
1,387 books
|
52 friends
484 books
|
156 friends
455 books
|
92 friends
46 books
|
24 friends
455 books
|
37 friends
247 books
|
23 friends
4 books
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31 friends
1 book
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22 friends
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