“I have respect for mother nature's methods of robustness (billions of years allow most of what is fragile to break); classical thought is more robust (in its respect for the unknown, the epistemic humility) than the modern post-Enlightenment naïve pseudoscientific autism. Thus my classical values make me advocate the triplet of erudition, elegance, and courage; against modernity's phoniness, nerdiness and philistinism” YearsMotherValuesBreakModernHumilityEnlightenmentMethodBillionsPostsFragileAutismEleganceModernityMother NatureRobustEruditionTripletNerdiness Author:Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“The capacity for loving strangers, whether one thinks of them as fictional beings or stars one will never meet, is a profound reflection on the new consciousness whereby every individual leads his or life while aware of all the billions of other people on Earth. Perhaps it is a fantasy or a fallacy that we can feel for so many strangers. Perhaps it is a mask for selfishness. But no matter the modern stress on special effects, there isn't a sight in movies as momentous as shots of a face as its mind is being changed. And only movies have allowed that.” PeopleThinkingFeelsMindMatterEarthFilmFacesIndividualStarsConsciousnessFantasyModernSpecialEffectsChangedReflectionShotsCapacityHollywoodSightStressProfoundStrangerBillionsSelfishnessMaskFallacySpecial Effects Author:Edward Jay Epstein
“...and suddenly it hits you: Human skin is actually made up of billions of tiny units of protoplasm, called "cells"! And what is even more interesting, the ones on the outside are all dying! This is a fact. Your skin is like an aggressive modern corporation, where the older veteran cells, who have finally worked their way to the top and obtained offices with nice views,are constantly being shoved out the window head first, without so much as a pension plan,by younger hotshot cells moving up from below.” WayFirstsHumansMadeFactsMovingInterestingViewsNicePlansModernDyingOfficeWindowSkinsBillionsTinyCellsCorporationsAggressiveUnitsVeteranPensionMoving UpPension Plans Author:Dave Barry
“Interestingly, modern science has estimated that the age of the earth is about 4 billion years. Scholars feel it is uncanny that the Vedic Aryans could have conceived of such a vast span of time over 3,500 years ago that would be similar to the same figure estimated by science today.” FeelsYearsWould BeAgeTodayEarthModernFiguresYears AgoBillionsScholarModern ScienceUncanny Author:Subhash Kak
“Modern science agrees that the universe consists of vibrations, but sound is more than vibration. Distinct from white noise, sound is vibrations in harmonic proportions, and from the billions of vibrations that are possible, the universe shows a startling, overwhelming preference for the few thousand that make harmonic sense.This is because the One, from which all things issue, is beautiful.” ShowsBeautifulUniverseSoundWhiteIssuesModernThousandAll ThingsAgreeBillionsNoiseProportionOverwhelmingPreferenceVibrationsModern ScienceWhite Noise Author:Huston Smith