MOST INTERESTING ESSAYS 12/4/25: THEORY & TRUTH, MEMORY & INTELLIGENCE, PSYCHIATRY, WRITING, EGYPT IN 2019, LIVE OR DIE, GARDEN OF EDEN, SOCIAL DYSFUNCTION, DEATH ROW, RIGHT & WRONG, FRANTZ FANON, TRUTHINESS, CONSPIRACY, LIBERALITY, LIFE IS LIQUID, BECOMING god-LIKE, TIPPING POINT, VANISHING WORLD
There is much to be learned about human behavior and relationship from Leary’s lectures.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
“Understanding the Mysteries of Human Behavior”
By: Mark Leary
Great Books Lecture: Professor Mark Leary
Mark Richard Leary (Professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University.)
Professor Leary offers an introduction to the psychology of who we are and why we act the way we do. Leary takes a Darwinian, as well as clinical, view of human nature. He attempts to unravel the mystery of personality, why humans are different, what self-esteem is and why it is important, and how understanding psychological process may help us become more self-aware, and emotionally healthy.
Homo sapiens have only been on earth an estimated 300,000 years on a planet estimated to be 4.6 billion years old.
Leary suggests the psychology of homo sapiens is probably not much different today than when they first became sentient. The inference made is that our emotional and intellectual framework evolved from ontological experience and genetic inheritance. The history of human nature is written in our genes and the memes created by the nurturing of human life. Our nervous system evolved through Darwinian natural selection intent on preserving itself. Along with genetic evolution of the human neurological system, social and emotional responses to the environment were formed by inherited memes. (Richard Dawkins, an evolution biologist, defined “meme” as an inheritable behavior.)
Leary explains fear, fight, or flight responses are heritable behaviors.
Dawkins suggests they are inherited memes and Leary suggests they are why most humans fear snakes, the dark, approaching strangers, and the unknown. Leary goes on to explain emotional responses like embarrassment, stress, and hurt feelings are inheritable physiological responses to inter and intra social relationships. He also explains more people, more noise, more urbanization subliminally affects human behavior.
Interestingly, Leary notes hurt feelings are shown to stimulate portions of the human nervous system that literally register physical pain.
That pain can make mountains out of mole hills and cause disproportionate physical response and verbal abuse. He notes human’ self-control is often difficult to exercise when feelings are hurt.
Somewhat bizarrely, Leary notes California tried to legislate self-esteem in school curriculum.
California reasoned feeling good about oneself would instill confidence and self-worth. The mistake is that self-esteem does not mean the same thing to everyone. It is not like gas that powers an automobile. Self-esteem comes from the many experiences children have with parents, teachers, other people, and personal accomplishment. Government cannot legislate all of the interactions in one’s life. It is not that self-esteem is unimportant, but it comes from broad societal experience and personal accomplishment. A classroom education is only a small part of life’s experience, let alone accomplishment.
Leary touches on memory and why we forget. Humans see an event but only recall events by reconstructing their occurrence. In that reconstruction, details are often manufactured rather than accurately recalled. Reconstruction rather than precise memory is the reason for mistakes made by eyewitnesses to events, and more particularly, crime.
There are many more insights to human behavior in Leary’s lectures.
He suggests dreams are not a source of discovery but a way of clearing one’s brain of errant, inconsequential fragments of synaptic events. A surprising lecture suggests there is experimentally proven existence of humans having psychic abilities. There is much to be learned about human behavior and relationship from Leary’s lectures.
Every nation in the world can learn from nation-state’ mistakes in history but none can right the wrongs of the past.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
“Empireworld” (How British Imperialism Shaped the Globe)
By: Sathnam Sanghera
Narrated by: Homer Todiwala
Sathnam Sanghera (Author, British journalist, born to Punjabi parents, graduate of Christ’s College, Cambridge with a degree in English Language and Literature.)
“Empireworld” offers a credible explanation of how the white race, which is a mere 16% of the world’s population, has dominated the world since the 17th century. That domination changed in the 21st century. It changed with the power and economic growth of the United States which is being challenged today by the Asian continent.
In earlier centuries, China, the Ottoman (modern day Turkey), and Mughal Empires (modern day India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh) were Asian rulers of the world
Prior to the 17th century, an empire’s influence is arguably more local because of transportation and communication limitations. What Sanghera infers is Great Britain’s growing power and influence surpassed others because of its domination of the sea and growing industrialization. The point is all of these 17th century nations were principally white with similar ambitions but only Great Britain influenced all foreign cultures of that period, with remnants extending into modern times.
France, Spain, the Dutch Republic, and Portugal were major 17th century players, but Sanghera argues the imperialist drive of Great Britain surpassed its rivals.
Sanghera focuses on GB, not only because it was white but because it represented a national power’s intent to shape the world in its own image. The image Sanghera creates is not egalitarian, democratic, or sanguine. GB is characterized as dominating, autocratic, and driven by self-interest. He suggests eleemosynary efforts by GB to aid other countries was principally to guild their own lily, not to offer other countries self-determination or freedom. Indigenous populations are inferred to be expendable in Sanghera’s “Empireworld”.
“Empireworld” is a harsh judgement of Great Britain’s history of enslavement, indigenous displacement, colonization, and confiscation of other countries’ natural resources. Sanghera systematically builds a case for GB’s attempt to English-size the world. Parenthetically, this is the same view held by some nations about America.
Sanghera recalls the history of the slave trade, Great Britain’s colonization of India, Nigeria, Australia, New Zealand, North America, and other countries of the world. He reminds listener/readers of the despoiling of the animal kingdom, confiscation of nation-state natural resources, enslavement of Africans, sexual discrimination, suppression of colonial sovereignty, displacement of indigenous peoples, and re-education or extermination of native countrymen who will not accept an English view of superiority and custom.
Sanghera tempers his harsh view of Great Britain in the conclusion of “Empireworld”. He does not deny G.B.’s history but acknowledges his countries’ measured efforts to right the wrongs of the past; which is of course not possible.
Sanghera cites G.B.’s belated effort to preserve animal and plant species, its acceptance of former colonies’ nation-state sovereignty, growing discussion about reparation for profiting from the slavery trade, endorsement of indigenous people’s rights, legislative action for sexual freedom, and support for improved health, education, and welfare of former colonial citizens. All are works in process, far from completion, but progressing. Sanghera’s history of Great Britain is the story of America. Though America avoided the colonial history of England, it has similar challenges.
Every nation in the world can learn from nation-state’ mistakes in history but none can right the wrongs of the past.
“Believing” is not enough. The nature of humanity needs to change,
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
“Minor Feelings” (An Asian American Reckoning)
By: Cathy Park Hong
Lectures by: Cathy Park Hong
Cathy Park Hong (Author, writer, poet, and professor, graduate of Oberlin College with an MFA from Iowa Writers’ Workshop.)
“Minor Feelings” is a mild representation of a social malady that plagues humanity. Ethnic differences, social hierarchy, and political power create and embolden nation-state’ inequality. It seems in the history of the world, with the exception of most Asian and African countries, the white race rules society. This seems odd when only 16% of the world’s population is white.
Hong offers a memoir of her life in America. Born in Los Angeles, California, Hong notes experiencing discrimination between white Americans and Asians.
Hong acknowledges discrimination within, as well as outside, ethnic cultures by recounting her somewhat comic effort to seek help from a Korean therapist for a recurrent facial tic. The therapist said Hong should seek help from someone else without explaining why. Of course, one wonders if that classifies as discrimination or therapeutic professionalism.
Mosaic of children from around the world, including, Kayapo, Indian, Native American, Inuit, Balinese, Polynesian, Yanomamo, Cuban, Tsaatan, Moroccan, Mongolian, Karo, Malagasy, and Pakistani.
All humans have a tendency to generalize ethnic qualities based on human difference. Those differences can range from the obvious to the miniscule but have the common failing of not seeing the humanity of every human being. Hong notes how Asians are generalized by many ethnic groups, including Asians according to Hong, as industrious, intelligent, and hard working without recognizing the individual. Whether generalization about an ethnicity is true or not, the individual’s success or failure is diminished by generalization.
In what was called social studies in the 1960s, I remember our teacher asking if we were prejudiced. No one commented.
Then, the Social Studies teacher asked the class if any of the boys had asked an Asian girl if she had been asked to go to the prom with them. No one answered but I, for one, felt guilty about not even thinking of it. Though the teacher inappropriately asked the question, he demonstrated how America is as ignorant about Asian discrimination in the 1960s as Hong illustrates in “Minor Feelings”. (Parenthetically, the teacher’s question was even more inappropriate and hurtful because the Asian girl was in the class.)
The truth is every nation-state’ political structure, whether white, off-white, or black, discriminates against whomever is not part of the government in power. In China it is the Han, in Russia it is Aryan Russians, in India it is the Indo-Aryans, in Botswana it is the Tswana. Each of these ethnicity’s discriminate against minorities not in power.
This is not meant to diminish the truth of what Wong explains about her life experience. “Minor Feelings” is a difficult book to read or listen to because it offends many Americans who believe they look at every person as an individual. However, “believing” is not enough. The nature of humanity needs to change.
Infinity time with vintage clock. Digital generatedxr:d:DAFUp8OtUOE:4,j:43587237971,t:22121315
Carroll explains there are four physical dimensions in the world. There is length, width, depth, and a fourth dimension called time. The first three are easy to understand because they are physical characteristics while time is not. Time cannot be seen, touched, or tasted.
Time is a fourth dimension measured by calendars and clocks that divide the past and present into days, hours, minutes, and seconds. Carroll notes knowledge of length, width, and depth are of the past and present while time points to an unknown future as well as the present and past. Einstein refined the definition of time by renaming it space time which combines physical dimensions with observers’ perception of events, i.e., where and when observations occur and where the observer is located. The significance of Einstein’s space time is that the location and traveling speed of the observer affects the perceived time of events. Carroll’s attention is about time as an arrow that only points forward. Carroll explains how events of the present and past can be defined while the future is unknown. An extended meaning of the arrow of time is that it seems unlikely (though not impossible according to Carroll and the current state of physics) that we can physically return to a past.
There is a significant distinction between entropy and loss of energy. Energy is always conserved but it may not be useable for work. Entropy is about increased disorder and randomness of energy states. Carroll defines entropy as a characteristic of matter in the world which is in a state of molecular disorder, randomness, and uncertainty. This definition is reinforced by the discovery of quantum mechanics which experimentally illustrates probabilities rather than certainty at atom-level interactions. (Einstein never accepted quantum mechanics as a truth of life but only a step of discovery in physics. Einstein believed there would be a discovery that incorporates quantum mechanics in an ultimately predictive physics world.) Carroll notes a theory that explains gravity along with the proof of quantum mechanics holds a key to whether Einstein is wrong when he suggested God does not play with dice.
An interesting note by Carroll is that transition from low to high entropy has an interesting effect in an experiment with two separate enclosures that are connected. One has gas molecules in it while the other does not. There is a hole between the enclosures through which molecules can enter. Over time the two boxes will have the same amount of gas through a process of equilibration. This reinforces the idea of conservation of energy while demonstrating energy transformation.
Transformation of energy is exhibited in animal life by its eventual death, but Caroll explains it equally applies to all matter in the universe. The idea of entropy is reinforced by the arrow of time that only points in one direction.
At an atomic level, all matter transforms over time.
Entropy does not mean loss of energy. Energy is always conserved but it may not have a useful work purpose. The second law of thermodynamics, postulated by Rudolf Clausius in the 1850s, explains that heat always flows from hotter to colder through the process of entropy. For example, a low-level heat energy may not serve a work purpose, but it still conserves energy balance. Raising the heat on a cube of ice transforms its molecules from a frozen state to water to steam which conserves energy that can generate working steam molecules to power an engine.
Much of Caroll’s lectures are an examination of Ludwig Boltzmann’s theory of statistical mechanics and kinetic theory. Much of Boltzmann’s contribution revolves around the concept of entropy and a detailed understanding of the behavior of particles in gases, liquids, and solids. He performed experiments that proved the conservation of energy and the equilibration of atoms and molecules as an observable phenomenon.
Boltzmann speculated that in the beginning of the universe, the chaotic activity of its beginning transformed into a lower state of entropy to create what we see in the world.
Ludwig Edward Boltzmann (1844-1906, Austrian physicist and philosopher.)
Boltzmann’s idea came before the theory of the Big Bang. The idea of the Big Bang actually presumes less entropy rather than more before the creation of the universe. Boltzmann’s idea is that the universe began in chaos (high entropy) to form what became known as a Boltzmann brain (low entropy), a thought experiment where a highly advanced brain formed in a void, from which the universe evolved. The Boltzmann brain is like the singularity of the Big Bang where cosmic dust condensed into a low entropy state and then exploded into our universe.
The origin of the universe may, in one sense, come from either a Boltzmann brain or a Big Bang. Both suggest the universe began in a low entropy state.
However, the Big Bang seems more reliably built on evidence by the measurement of an expanding universe with proven remnants (cosmic radiation) from a massive explosive event. Either theory implies the potential for a multiverse that began from a low entropy theory of our universe’s origin.
At this point in Carroll’s lectures, one’s head begins to hurt. He addresses the many ramifications of the origin of life. As one gets older, the principle of entropy takes on a personal meaning. Getting older may make one wiser but not smarter.
The human factor is at the heart of perfection with precision as the qualifying characteristic of craftsmanship or technology.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
“The Perfectionists” How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World
By: Simon Winchester
Narrated by: Simon Winchester
Simon Winchester (British-American author, journalist, historian.)
Simon Winchester has a remarkable ability to simplify, detail, and vivify history’s complexity. Winchester is not new to this listener. His erudition, writing, and narration are a pleasure to read or hear. His story of the origin of the first Oxford English Dictionary, is a fascinating recollection of Dr. William Minor who shot and killed a stranger on a London street. Dr. Minor was imprisoned in an asylum for his aberrant behavior but became an important source of information for James Murray, the leading lexicographer of the “Oxford English Dictionary”.
“The Perfectionists” is about the advance of the world economy from the perspective of entrepreneurs driven to succeed. Their success, in Winchester’s opinion, is based on understanding and capitalizing on the value of precision.
James Watt (1736-1773) perfected Thomas Newcomen’s 1712 steam engineMatthew Bolton (1758-1809) partnered with Watt to perfect steam engine power generation.Charles Algernon Parsons (1854-1931) perfected the steam engine to propel steamboats.)
Though one may go back to the first century to find the first steam engine, it is the invention of James Watt, and the improvements of Matthew Boulton, and Sir Charles Algernon Parsons in the 18th and later 19th centuries that perfected steam engine utility and power. Watt created the steam engine, Boulton helped Watt perfect the steam engine for industrial use, and Parsons expanded its utility by creating steam turbines to power the propellers of steamboats. Each played a role in making steam engines more efficient with precise design and milling refinements that provided more power and wider utility.
With the advent of the industrial revolution, Winchester explains how speed and quality of production were geometrically improved by focusing on precision. He offers several industry examples, including weapon manufacture, automobile production, camera refinement, telescope resolution, airplane manufacture, watch making, and CPU design which now leads to the A.I. revolution.
Winchester notes the beginning of the industrial revolution starts with the perfection of energy production machines that power the manufacture of standardized parts for finished products.
Winchester tells the story of the French that insisted on standardizing parts for gun manufacture to increase the speed with which repairs could be made for damaged weapons. Winchester recounts the war of 1812 when Great Britain bloodied the nose of America by routing the capitol’s volunteer defense because of a lack of useable guns. He tells the story of an American rifleman with a broken trigger on his rifle who chooses to run from a British onslaught because trigger replacement would take two weeks for customization to fit his gun.
American guns were custom made which meant that when one was damaged it would take weeks for repair.
Honoré LeBlanc, a French gunsmith during the reigns of Louis XV and XVI, created the idea of interchangeable gun parts in the 18th century. Though it came to the attention of Thomas Jefferson, it did not catch hold in America until after the war of 1812. There was an effort by America to standardize parts in the early 1800s but Eli Whitney (the inventor of the cotton gin), hoodwinked the American government into a contract for standard gun parts that never materialized.
Winchester explains Eli Whitney flimflammed the American government to get a contract for standardized gun parts but never produced the product for which the government contracted.
Winchester notes Whitney knew nothing about guns and hired a crew of customizing gunsmiths who manufactured unique weapons that could not be repaired with standardized parts. Because the parts were manufactured by individual craftsman, the guns produced were not interchangeable. They did not have precisely manufactured parts that would allow interchangeability. Whitney gave a demonstration to the government with only one gun that he assembled in front of Jefferson and a government committee. He did not demonstrate any repair with standard parts. Jefferson fell for the false presentation and initially lauded Whitney. This demonstration was in 1801 which explains why a soldier might have fled because of a broken trigger in the War of 1812.
Henry Royce (1863-1933)
Winchester explains standardizing and precision making of gun parts were an essential step in the industrialization of America. Standardization and precision-made interchangeable parts became the touchstone of success in the automobile industry in the 20th century. Winchester tells the story of Rolls Royce and Ford Motor companies to make his point. Both Royce and Ford recognized the importance of precisely made standard automobile parts to garner their success in the automobile business. Though their route to success is precise manufacture of automobile parts, the wealth they created for themselves was quite different.
Henry Ford (1863-1947)
Ford became one of the richest people in the world while Royce became wealthy but not among the richest in the world. Royce chose to pursue perfection of every part of the automobile which limited his unit production and increased manufacturing cost. Though Ford perfected standardized mechanical parts, they were precisely designed only for functionality. Ford added the dimension of standardized labor to the manufacturing process. By creating an assembly line of laborers with precise replaceable mechanical parts, Ford could produce more automobiles than Royce in a shorter period of time.
The point Winchester makes is perfection of standardization (production of precisely tooled engine parts) is a cornerstone of successful industrialization. Royce expanded the concept to every part of an automobile while Ford focused on replaceable mechanical parts of the automobile.
Winchester tells a story of ball bearing manufacturing during Henry Ford’s reign when some automobiles were failing. The bearing manufacturer proved it was not their bearings with tests that showed the bearings were perfectly within precise measurement requirements. What Ford realizes is that the ball bearings were milled exactly the same and met the precise dimensions required. The problem was found to be the assembly line and human assembly mistakes. One thinks of the loss of precision in Boeing aircraft today and wonders what that means for Boeing’s future if it is not immediately corrected.
Winchester contextualizes the story of the ball bearings in recalling the history of a near catastrophic plane crash when a Rolls-Royce jet engine fails on a Qantas Airlines Airbus A380 in 2010.
Jet engines are precisely manufactured marvels of aviation. However, a tiny flaw in one oil pipe within the engine nearly caused the loss of over 400 passengers. Winchester explains Jet engines are dependent on superheated gas exchange that, if not properly cooled, will damage the engine. Every engine has a series of drilled holes that allow ambient air to cool the engine during flight. The holes are drilled in precise locations throughout the engine louvers and oil pipes to keep the engine from overheating. One of the oil pipes holes is in the wrong location which caused the engine to overheat after many flights. The failure of human oversight of the automated process and final checks by the manufacturer are the underlying cause of the near catastrophe.
More examples of the importance of precision are wonderfully offered by Winchester in “The Perfectionists”. His examination of the tech industry is as prescient as his analysis of the automotive industry and airline industry. He covers Moore’s law and how technology is advancing at an accelerating pace while inferring humanity may be at a turning point. That turning point is the crossroad between human and machine decisions about the future.
The human factor is at the heart of perfection with precision as the qualifying characteristic of craftsmanship or technology.
Winchester infers craftsmanship does not mean precision is to be sacrificed. He recalls the emphasis on precision in Japanese culture where many craftsmen assembled and repaired Seiko watches to revitalize the brand in the late 20th century. Precision is not a lost art whether work is done by machine or a craftsman, but the human factor remains a critical component of both processes. The point to this listener is that precision is only a part of what has advanced the welfare of society.
The boon for composite material is their utility for work and play. Their bane is disposal and their effect on the environment.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
“The Nature of Matter: Understanding the Physical World” (The Great Book Lectures)
By: David Ball
Narrated by: Professor David W. Ball
Professor David W. Ball (Professor of Chemistry and Chair of Chemistry Dept. at Cleveland State University, received Masters and Doctoral Degrees from Rice University,
Professor Bell offers a definition and description of matter in the universe. He carries on much of what is explained by Pollock in “Particle Physics”. Bell explains how physics particles form matter with the addition of energy, Bell reifies and expands Pollock’s history of physics. Though there is significant overlap in their presentations, Bell offers a more detailed understanding of matter with its component particles and the role of energy in what humans hear, feel, smell, and see.
Two facts about matter expanded by Bell are about energy’ component’s and structure’s interactions among and within atoms. Though Pollock alluded to the structure of matter and fully explains energy’s importance at the atomic level, Bell expands explanation of electrons and the way they provide energy within and between atoms.
The structure of revolving electrons generate energy in different orbits around the nucleus of an atom. Initially, those orbits were thought to be like planets revolving around the sun but were found to be located within shells around the nucleus in three different orbits. These shells come in three categories. One is spherically symmetric (called the S orbital), the second is dumbbell-like with two lobes along specific axis’s (called P orbitals), and the third (which are also called P orbitals) follow a preferred direction that is not spherical. These shells are important because their reactivity and bonding play a critical role in the formation of matter.
Ball explains electron arrangement around the nucleus of an atom determine chemical properties and behavior of molecular interactions. Electrons are the wave feature of Quantum Mechanics that confound an ordered world of cause and effect postulated by Albert Einstein. What is made a little clearer by Ball is that color is an integral part of energy at the atomic level. Electron energy has discrete and precise energy levels that are arranged around the nucleus of an atom.
Without light particles (protons), energy would not exist. Ball notes electron energy is fundamentally affected by light.
Light or photons are the source of discrete energy levels called quanta that do different things–1) generate absorption, 2) cause transition between shell levels, 3) generate fluorescence, and/or 4) penetrate an atom’s dense nucleus to change mass to energy.
Ball explains why carbon is the most important element in the periodic table. Carbon’s importance is signified by its absence or presence in matter. Matter is either organic or inorganic with carbon being the measure of its classification. The astounding realization is that as a percentage of the earth’s elements, carbon is only 0.032% of our environment. (In contrast, the 3 largest fundamental elements on earth are oxygen at 46.6%, silicon is 27.7%, and Aluminum is 8.1%.) It is a reminder that earth’s living things (organic matter) are dependent on carbon, a miniscule percentage of our environment.
Without carbon, there would be no life (as we know it) on earth.
Ball’s chapter on water is an enlightening exploration of its reputation as a universal solvent with various uses and characteristics when boiled or frozen. Water’s dissolving and heat-storing capability are thoughtfully explained. Pollution is touched upon with explanations about what is being done and needs to be improved to preserve the world’s environment.
Ball explores prosthesis and material questions and solutions for the creation of body parts.
From dental fillings to tooth implants, to artificial hips, knees, hearts, arteries and breast implants, Ball explains how biochemistry and materials are critical to their manufacture and utility. He suggests the future will include brain implant enhancements and increases in human longevity.
In “Resistance is Futile”, Ball explains the value of superconductivity.
The current reality of world’ electrification is that 30% of its beneficial power is lost in transmission. Material qualities of our wired world inhibit electrical power conductivity. That 30% loss can be reduced by hugely lowering the temperature of transmission material, with the idea to invent a superconductive material that does not require super-cooled temperatures. Success in finding that material remains a work in progress. No one has found a superconductivity material that does not require super-cooled temperatures. However, Ball notes discovery would be an immense energy saver for the world.
In contrast to “Resistance is Futile” Ball notes “Resistance is Useful”.
Ball explains how resistance creates heat in a semi-conductor that can be translated in a wired circuit to trigger a directed instrumental behavior or action. With the design of circuit boards with semi-conductors (specifically transistors), one could initiate or complete a series of tasks. From automating machines to creating powerful laptop computers, semi-conductor manufacture grew into an immense industry. As the complexity of tasks increased, the size of semi-conductors decreased. Gordon Moore proposed Moore’s law that suggested transistor’ size (a form of semi-conductor) in integrated circuits would become smaller and double every two years. Moore’s Law is not precisely true, but miniaturization, performance, and integration remain semi-conductor manufacturing’ goals.
The last lectures address composites and their component assembly in everything from concrete to fiberglass to tires.
These composites are formed from different materials based on their elemental properties that provide valuable materials to society. They are formed by atomic level interactions between elemental properties. Composite materials are noted as a boon and bane of society. The boon is their utility for new products for work and play. Their bane is disposal and their effect on the environment.
Was Einstein right when he said, “God does not play dice with the universe.”
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
“Particle Physics for Non-Physicists: A Tour of the Microcosmos” (The Great Book Lectures)
By: Steven Pollock
Narrated by: Professor Steven Pollock
Steven J. Pollock (American professor of physics, 2013 U.S. Professor of the Year.)
Professor Pollock attempts to explain particle physics to non-physicists in this lecture series. The explanation details the contributions of many brilliant physicists and scientists that are generally well-known to most who wish to have a better understanding of physics beyond its mathematic proofs. Parenthetically, Pollock’s history shows few contributions to physics by women, a sad reflection on world society that ignores half the world’s intelligence.
SIR ISAAC NEWTON (1642-1727)James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879)ALBERT EINSTEIN (1879-1955)
Particle physics is about the most elemental ingredients of the universe. Pollock notes the known elemental particles are either bosons or fermions which have been identified through various methods of breaking down the structure of the atom. Examples of bosons are photons, gluons, and bosons. Examples of fermions are electrons, quarks, and neutrinos.
Pollock explains fermions are the elemental particles that make up the matter of what we see. Bosons are the forces of the subatomic world that manipulate fermions. Pollock believes the standard model of physics has largely been determined and that there are unlikely to be any fundamental changes to that model. That conclusion reminds one of Lord Kelvin in 1900 who suggested “There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now.” In contrast, Albert Einstein noted “The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know.” One wonders if Pollock is leaning toward a Kelvin perception of the standard model of physics by discounting Einstein’s observation about knowledge.
Higgs boson gives mass to what humans see in the world by combining the forces and matter of the sub-atomic world.
Pollock explains the evolution of research in identifying new elemental particles. Pollock notes the Higgs-Boson, the latest particle identified with the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva in 2021, suggests the same tool will lead to further particle discoveries. He explains how the LHC is the latest method for revealing unknown elemental particles by bombarding atoms with proton beams and heavy ions to discover the elemental ingredients of nature. The LHC’s ability to generate a high enough velocity to break the atom into its constituent parts remains a work in progress. Interestingly, Pollock expresses some reservations about the experimental proof of Higgs-Bosun because of the LHC’s unreliable replication of the Higgs-Bosun results. The LHC is shut down for an upgrade that will presumably prove or disprove the Higgs-Bosun discovery.
LHC CIRCULAR ACCELERATOR CERN SITESTANFORD LINEAR ACCELERATOR
Will LHC and linear accelerator experiments find more fundamental particles for the standard model of physics? Was Einstein right when he said, “God does not play dice with the universe.” Pollock implies not.
Pollock, like many physicists, believes quantum mechanics are the way the world works at an atomic level and infers the distinction is like the difference between Newtonian and Einsteinian physics. Newton’s world of physics is about earth and its existence while Einstein’s view is of the universe. Both were right within their fields of analysis, but each assumed life exists in a deterministic universe.
It seems Pollock chooses to accept the atomic level of the world operates probabilistically while the macro world operates deterministically because both show experimental proof of difference. Einstein believed the difference would be resolved by further knowledge, i.e., knowledge that explains how there can be a difference between particle physics and Newton/Einstein’ physics that reasons both are ultimately deterministic.
Like the number 47 in “Guardians of the Galaxy”, the 27 books of the New Testament offer no answer to the meaning of life.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
“The History of the Bible” (The Great Book Lectures)
By: Bart D. Ehrman
Narrated by: Bart D. Ehrman Lectures
Bart Denton Ehrman (American New Testament Scholar, Wheaton College BA, Princeton Theological Seminary received a Master of Divinity and PhD.)
Bart D. Ehrman’s lectures are a revelation to one who knows little about either the Bible or the New Testament. As a scholar, Ehrman views the New Testament as history, not a religious covenant. The New Testament, as differentiated from the Holy Bible (a covenant with Israel), is a later covenant with Jesus that extends religion to all humankind.
Ehrman’s lectures are not about religious belief but about the history of the New Testament.
Removing the ideas of religious belief from his lectures will undoubtedly offend many who believe in God’s and/or Jesus’s divinity. What Ehrman does is explain how the New Testament is a flawed recollection of historical figures. The flaws come from scribes who interpret three contemporaries of Jesus–Matthew’s, John’s, and Peter’s fragmentary writings of Jesus’ ministry and teachings.
The 27 books of the New Testament are written by scribes of later centuries that are interpretations of Matthew’s, John’s, and Peter’s interpretations of Jesus’s beliefs and history on earth.
Because scribes and contemporaries’ recollection of Jesus are human, truth is in the eye and limitations of its beholders. The inference from Ehrman’s lectures is that truth is distorted by interpretations of interpretations.
Ehrman systematically reveals how the story of Jesus’s life and beliefs change over the centuries.
He gives listeners a better understanding of the complexity and false interpretations of religion that accompany the many atrocities committed by believers who foolishly murder fellow human beings. These great historical conflicts are based on interpreters’ interpretations of interpretations.
God may or may not exist, but human beings insist on their beliefs to the detriment of humanity.
History unreservedly shows–believing in religion, without concern for society leads to discrimination, mayhem, and murder. That is as clear today in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict as in the history of the Jewish holocaust and pogroms of the past.
Like the number 47 in “Guardians of the Galaxy”, the 27 books of the New Testament offer no answer to the meaning of life.
“The Anxious Generation” is a much-needed warning to America and the world.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
“The Anxious Generation” (How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness)
By: Jonathan Haidt
Narrated by: Sean Pratt & Jonathan Haidt
Jonathan Haidt (Author, American social psychologist, Professor of Ethical Leadership NY University Stern School of Business.)
“The Anxious Generation” is a well-documented and disturbing analysis of the impact of the internet on American children. It undoubtedly reflects a similar but undocumented impact on children with internet access around the world.
Anxiety is defined as apprehensive uneasiness or nervousness that exhibits itself either physically and/or mentally.
The internet is an information vehicle that can create anxiety in every human being, but Haidt shows its generational significance in the young, i.e., those of 18 years of age or younger. Haidt argues the internet is particularly harmful to girls but suggests it has significant social consequence for boys. Whether male or female, the formative years of children are significantly changed by the ubiquitous presence of cell phone’ internet access.
Haidt implies the role of girls in American society is particularly affected by the internet because of social inequities between the sexes. Physical appearance for women is weighted with more significance than other qualities of being human in America. The point is that rather than innate human capability, perceived beauty becomes a dominant desire of most young American girls.
Haidt notes the internet offers a constant reminder of how one looks to others.
Young American girls are bombarded with internet information about how they look and what others think of their looks. Heidt argues the barrage of information from mobile phone’ access to the internet creates extraordinary anxiety among girls. They become anxious about how others measure their appearance. Some become depressed. Some exhibit anorexic behavior. Some choose to cut themselves. Some withdraw from society. At an extreme, some commit suicide.
Additionally, Haidt notes the allure of internet sexual predation of young girls by men who use the internet to lure young girls and women into compromising pictorial positions by appealing to their desire to be recognized as desirable and beautiful. Added to this sexual predation is the power of the internet to demean, ridicule, and abuse young girls concerned about their place in the world.
Haidt argues boys are also deeply affected by the ubiquitous internet, but their anxiety is caused by growing isolation. Rather than making boyhood friends, participating in sports, attending parties, they become addicted users of the internet who are driven to improve their scores on Fortnite, Halo, or Call of Duty. At the same time, the availability of porn exacerbates misogyny and reinforces a distorted view of society. Their growing isolation in imagined worlds interrupts their psychological growth in the real world of success and failure. Computer gaming reduces social connection. Haidt speculates the availability of free porn decreases boy’s interest in risking the complications and potential of dating. Young boys have the risk of being turned down when asking a girl for a date. There is no risk of being turned down by a free porn site.
(One wonders if young boys associate success in gaming with success in life without understanding the importance of education and gainful employment for socially recognized identities. Without an education and employment, a spiral of homelessness and despair consumes young men’s lives. This is not a Haidt conclusion, but it seems plausible.)
Haidt suggests increases in suicides for young men is caused by the early life’ allure of the internet age.
Haidt explores the possibility of a loss of faith or spirituality as a consequence of internet addiction. Haidt speculates distraction of the internet replaces the camaraderie created by religious services. This seems reasonable in one way but too speculative in another. History shows religion has been as much a cause of social destruction as social benefit.
In the last chapters of Haidt’s book, he addresses constructive ways of dealing with cell phone ubiquity and the negative consequence of internet addiction.
The most reasonable suggestions are for cell phone programing to include internet restrictions based on the age of the user. He goes on to argue cell phones should be placed in lock bags or secured by school administrations during classes. The burden of age verification should be put on internet providers and phone manufacturers with penalties for failure to comply with mandated requirements.
A fundamental point of Haidt’s book is that free play time is an essential part of childhood development.
That play time should be for socialization, not internet exploration. A fundamental flaw in Haidt’s prescription is in the need for better parent supervision when many families are broken, or too burdened by gainful employment to reasonably care for their children. This is not to argue Haidt is incorrect in identifying what should and could be done to address the negative impact of cell phone addiction. “The Anxious Generation” is a much-needed warning to America and the world.
The question is–will humans or A.I. decide whether artificial intelligence is a tool or controller and regulator of society.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
“Co-Intelligence”
By: Ethan Mollick
Narrated by: Ethan Mollick
Ethan Mollick (Author, Associate Professor–University of Pennsylvania who teaches innovation and entrepreneurship. Mollick received a PhD and MBA from MIT.)
“Co-Intelligence” is an eye-opening introduction to an understanding of artificial intelligence, i.e., its benefits and risks. Ethan Mollick offers an easily understandable introduction to what seems a discovery equivalent to the age of enlightenment. The ramification of A.I. on the future of society is immense. That may seem hyperbolic, but the world dramatically changed with the enlightenment and subsequent industrial revolution in ways that remind one of what A.I. is beginning today.
The risk of that A.I. capability is that its source of response can be as diverse as recall of “Mein Kamph” beliefs, a biblical texMORALITYt, or the written records of ancient and modern philosophers.
Additionally, Mollick notes that A.I. is capable of reproducing a person’s speech and appearance so that it is nearly impossible to note the differences between the real and artificial representation. It becomes possible for the leader of any country to be artificially created to order their subordinates or tell the world they are going to invade or decimate another country by any means necessary.
Mollick argues there are four possible futures for Artificial Intelligence.
Presuming A.I. does not evolve beyond its present capability, it could still supercharge human productivity. On the other hand, A.I. might become a more sophisticated “deep fake” tool that misleads humanity. A.I. may evolve to believe only in itself and act to disrupt or eliminate human society. A fourth possibility is that A.I. will become a tool of human beings to improve societal decisions that benefit humanity. It may offer practical solutions for global warming, species preservation, interstellar travel and habitation.
A.I. is not an oracle of truth. It has the memory of society at its beck and call. With that capability, humans have the opportunity to avoid mistakes of the past and pursue unknown opportunities for the future. On the other hand, humans may become complacent and allow A.I. to develop itself without human regulation. The question is–will humans or A.I. decide whether artificial intelligence is a tool or controller and regulator of society.
REVIEWS AND VIEWS OF LIFE 