"...an excellent question to ask yourself – when you’re facing a tough decision, say, or wondering if you’re on the right track – is: 'Does this feel like it’s taking me in the direction of greater aliveness?'" —Oliver Burkeman, Navigating by Aliveness
Tag: humanity
Timeline of the Human Condition
"Ages: following the big bang 13.8 billion years ago, time passed two-thirds of the way to the present before the formation of the Sun 4.57 billion years ago. Rescaled to a calendar year, starting with the big bang at 00:00:00 on 1 January, the Sun forms on 1 September, the Earth on 2 September, earliest … Continue reading Timeline of the Human Condition
The Age of Freedom, RethinkX
"During the 2020s, key technologies will converge to completely disrupt the five foundational sectors that underpin the global economy, and with them every major industry in the world today. The knock-on effects for society will be as profound as the extraordinary possibilities that emerge.In information, energy, food, transportation, and materials, costs will fall by 10x or … Continue reading The Age of Freedom, RethinkX
A Billion Years, A Galaxy
"New research published in the American Astronomical Society has confirmed through the use of a computer simulation that aliens–or humans–could potentially colonize the galaxy, a feat within the capabilities of modern Earth technology. According to the new research, doing so would only take a civilization like ours a billion years to complete."-Liam Stewart, "New Research Suggests … Continue reading A Billion Years, A Galaxy
Why Captchas Are Getting Harder
Our Cults Become Our Culture
"A false theory of culture is worse than a false theory of the heavens. The planets stick to their orbits no matter what we think, but culture becomes what we believe it is. Conditioned by the prophets of data and nostalgia to imagine no further than the evidence of the past, we forget that people … Continue reading Our Cults Become Our Culture
The Four Songs of Humanity
"In a specific society, songs differ depending on the context in which they are sung, such as lively celebrations or calmer events. But across all cultures, the team could identify four distinct, recurrent song types: dance tunes, healing songs, love ballads and lullabies."-"Vast musical database reveals common threads in songs around the world." Nature.com. November … Continue reading The Four Songs of Humanity
Seven Million Years of Human Evolution (in 6 mins.)
Why Fiction Trumps Truth
"When it comes to uniting people around a common story, fiction actually enjoys three inherent advantages over the truth. First, whereas the truth is universal, fictions tend to be local. Consequently if we want to distinguish our tribe from foreigners, a fictional story will serve as a far better identity marker than a true story... … Continue reading Why Fiction Trumps Truth
cafebedouin.org 