Collective memory ?

Next year, same time, things will probably be somewhat different from where I am now. These are the attempts to write an entertaining collection of meaningless contemplations and tales leading up to the coming changes...

As said in an earlier blog, I'm working on my pile of books while I have some time before shipping off to Canada. One of them is the Swarm or rather: was the Swarm.

Books like “the Swarm” are an addiction to me. I blazed through the book in a mere three days. If any of you intend to read the book, then you might want to skip this paragraph since it contains some spoilers. The book revolves around a marine single celled super creature that has been around longer than humanity. The creature has decided man had its time destroying the earth with his pollution and it's time to stop it, humanity that is. It's up to a band of heroic scientist to stop this creature. Not the greatest literature ever written but it's a gripping light weight doomsday scenario. Good entertainment.

Now the book states somewhere that humanity is inferior in the eyes of the creature for many reasons. One of them is the fact that humans are individuals and have a hard time thinking about anything but themselves, an other one is the fact that humans don't have a collective long lasting memory (*).

That's odd.

If anything, humanity has a very extensive age old collective memory in many forms. Our languages contain many metaphors and expressions which are the result of years of cumulative knowledge and wisdom. We have the useful tales which reflect on being a cautious human aware of the world around us. Sure some of them are slightly unbelievable, but any sane person can see through the obvious reasons behind those attempts. Moreover we can draw upon a huge and interesting library of written history, outlining the events and results of those actions, so we may learn from the past and never repeat our mistakes again. Not only can we look backwards, we have a amazing system of highly respected journalists which are keeping us aware of what is happening at the moment. And then there is the web, surely that must be the pinnacle of human communication and our collective memory.

But that's not the point the book is trying to make. The book is merely trying to state the obvious that we're individuals and can't, or won't learn from other people's experiences.

Anyway, while I agree with the book that the outlook is certainly very bleak , there may be a few bright spots at the end of the tunnel which might convince the Yrr that it may be worthwhile to see what we make of it anyway.

Inspirational credits for go to “you-d!3-now”, which is quite amuzing in its own right and does a much better job in that respect...

(*) Don't quote me on this, the book might add some variation on that theme.

My Obese Pile of Literature goes on a Diet

Next year, same time, things will probably be somewhat different from where I am now. These are the attempts to write an entertaining collection of meaningless contemplations and tales leading up to the coming changes...

While waiting for the day I abandon Holland, I'm blessed with some employer sponsored free time. I'm going to need this time for many reasons. There is the long list of contracts and memberships which need to be terminated, there's friends to see and say goodbye to and there is time to do those things on the-list-of-things-I-need-to-do-someday (not to be confused with other important lists such as list-of-things-I-need-to-do-before-I-die or list-of-things-I-need-to-see-before-I-can't-walk-anymore)

One of those things-I-need-to-do-someday is working through the growing pile of literature which I am supposed to read. Every now and then my girlfriend or any other type of friend will mention a book which either I “must” read, or might be interesting. Since I take these advices quicker than I'm capable of or willing to actually reading them, this list resulted in a pile of books which is getting slightly obese. Now that I got some free time, I put my list of a healthy exercise of morning reading, afternoon reading and evening reading. Hopefully it will be slimmed down to an acceptable size by the time I get to Canada.

For those interested, or for those who's own list is getting too slim, here are some suggestions:

Freakonomics (Levitt & Dubner): What happens if you take statistics, correlation and causation, take them out of context, shake and stir, and finally serve them with some written humor? Probably something like this book. It's a collection of unrelated relatively simple questions and their unexpected (unwanted) answers. Why do drugs dealers live with their mothers? How does abortion relate to a drop in crime? What do Sumo wrestlers and real estate agents have in common ? A lightweight fun read for those with in interest in human psyche, correlation or game theory. (http://www.freakonomics.com/blog/)

The End of Poverty (Jeffrey D. Sachs): I must admit, I haven't finished this one yet and there's a fair chance I won't. It's an interesting analysis of what's wrong with the world today and especially with the position of third world countries. Mr Sachs has been involved in the economics or analyzing some interesting cases, such as Bolivia, Poland or China. It's a good solid book, but there's a bit too much emphasis on the achievements of mister Sachs himself. The book explains events in at a peaceful, take-your-time pace... which makes it easy to get distracted by oh look-something-shiny.

That “something shiny” in this case is “the Swarm” (Frank Schätzing). I just started on this book, but being somewhat of a sucker for science fiction (if it can be classified that way), it has already grabbed me and won't let go of me until I finished it. Human kind is happily on its way of screwing up its own and only place to live. What if the other residents of this earth decided it might be a good idea to do something about it, since the only thing those pink / yellow / brown / black bipeds are doing is write reports on this debatable situation. The cover promises a nice blend of science and free format philosophizing: count me in !