John Blackwell

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“As a historian, I can tell you two things about the past. First, the past was not a good time - you do not really want to go back there. Second, it is not coming back. No matter what you do, you cannot bring it back.”
― Yuval Noah Harari

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“They leave Omelas, they walk ahead into the darkness, and they do not come back. The place they go towards is a place even less imaginable to most of us than the city of happiness. I cannot describe it at all. It is possible that it does not exist. But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

tags: darkness, happiness, omelas, unknown, walk-away

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“Fiction isn't bad. It is vital. Without commonly accepted stories about things like money, states or corporations, no complex human society can function. We can't play football unless everyone believes in the same made-up rules, and we can't enjoy the benefits of markets and courts without similar make-believe stories. But stories are just tools. They shouldn't become our goals or our yardsticks. When we forget that they are mere fiction, we lose touch with reality. Then we begin entire wars `to make a lot of money for the cooperation' or 'to protect the national interest'. Corporations, money and nations exist only in our imagination. We invented them to serve us; why do we find ourselves sacrificing our life in their service.”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow

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“Though I am long dead as you read this, explorer, I offer to you a valediction. Contemplate the marvel that is existence, and rejoice that you are able to do so. I feel I have a right to tell you this because, as I am inscribing these words, I am doing the same.”
― Ted Chiang, נשיפה

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“We see a complex relationship between technology on the one hand and religions and other kinds of stories on the other hand. Every new technological revolution also upsets the old systems of cooperation. Unless people can find new stories, the technology itself only results in chaos...
…In the 19th century, humans gained power over new kinds of technology like the steam engine and radio, but the immediate result was to create a lot of social and political chaos. The transition from a traditional to a modern industrial economy was hard and difficult. New classes of people emerged, especially the urban proletariat, and people did not know what to do…
One of the first reactions to this social and technological upheaval is to try to go back to the old stories, and find some security. Many people, especially beyond a certain age, do not like change. Their stories have been disrupted.
This is fundamentalism.
You often find that technological revolutions are accompanied by a wave of fundamentalism. Fundamentalism means looking for a basis and trying to go back to something that seems eternal, secure, and can protect us against all these changes.”
― Yuval Noah Harari

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