The following is the original transcript from my TedX talk of the same name. Typos and all. All Illustrations by the lovely Raleen Bagg. Enjoy: Who wants to live forever? From the quest for the Holy Grail to the search for the Fountain of Eternal Youth; human history and mythology is littered with our obsession … Continue reading Do you (really) want to live forever?
Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty, is a very big book that uses rather a lot of pages to outline a very basic idea: Bad Suff Happens to Countries Which Are a) Run Badly b) by Bad People. That's it. (Also, if you don't know much about global political and economic … Continue reading Why Nations Fail
Michel Houellebecq is clearly a polymath. In Atomised (a science fiction novel very cleverly disguised as serious prize-winning literary fiction) he demonstrates his wide ranging knowledge and deep understanding of subjects ranging from philosophy to physics, and from biology to psychology, to brilliant effect. The book reveals the author's uniquely considered philosophy of history. He illustrates through his … Continue reading Atomised
Big Government has declared war on Big Tech. The EU copyright directive wants to "control" the internet. The EU has fined Google billions for (essentially) being too big and successful. The UK wants a tech-tax. US Senator Elisabeth Warren wants to dismantle big-tech monopolies. The Californian Governor wants big tech to pay people a data … Continue reading The Problem With Big Gov’s War on Big Tech
Alas. I do not have a lovely little image of this lovely little book. I live in South Africa and (due to a severe lack of foresight on the part of our esteemed leaders and holders of the public purse strings) we are in the midst of yet another cycle of what South Africans call … Continue reading Eat Your Greens
"Our opinions and beliefs, what we hold to be true and what we think is right and wrong have all become strategic objectives... Each of us has been brought - face-to-face - to a new front line." The (very readable) Death of the Gods by Carl Miller is a whirlwind overview of the biggest Big … Continue reading Death of the Gods
"Social justice means that we deny ourselves many things so that others may have to do without them as well, or what is the same thing, many not be able to ask for them." ~ Sigmund Freud (emphasis my own) Helmut Schoeck's theory of social behaviour focuses on Envy as the key driving force behind … Continue reading Envy – A Theory of Social Behaviour
As a mother of a Generation Alpha girl-child, I'm still not sure we're sending our daughters the right message about gender identity. In the 20th century (aka Boomer Era), gender dogma logic went something like this: If you are a girl, then you must like pink and play with Barbie. Just a bit sexist. Today, … Continue reading Are you a real girl?
Many tasks could (and should) be automated to free humanity of drudgery and accelerate our prosperity. However, some things are still really best left to flesh and blood people. Love letters, for example. These neural network-generated candy-heart slogans are a wonderfully bad reminder of the value of human empathy and EQ - even in todays … Continue reading Never trust a machine to do a human’s job.
Witty and wise: A masterclass in holding on to humanity amongst the insanity of war. Everyone should read this book. I could write a real review, but I won't. This book is best discovered as a surprise, page by page.
