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The gravitational pull we feel toward finding a purpose comes from two elements in human nature. First, unable to rely on instincts as other animals do, we require some means of having a sense of direction, a way to guide and restrict our behavior. Second, we humans are aware of our puniness as individuals in a world with billions of others in a vast universe. We are aware of our mortality, and how we will eventually be swallowed up in the eternity of time. We need to feel larger than just the individuals we are, and connected to something that transcends us.
The Laws of Human Nature
Robert Greene
What is a safe level of radioactivity? If the linear hypothesis is right, then even low doses increase the risk of cancer. If it is wrong, then levels below 6 rem could be completely safe. Earlier I mentioned the natural radioactivity found in the Denver region. Let’s look at those numbers again. A reasonable estimate is that the average yearly excess in Denver (compared to the US average) is about 0.1 rem per person per year. For 2.4 million people living in Denver for 50 years, this excess amounts to 0.1 × 2,400,000 × 50 = 12 million rem, enough to cause 4800 excess cancers. That’s more excess death than is expected from the Chernobyl nuclear accident!
Physics for Future Presidents
Richard A. Muller
computer: Sturgeon’s Law, named for the legendary science-fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon. In the early 1950s, highbrow critics derided the quality of popular literature, particularly American science fiction. They considered sci-fi and fantasy writing a literary ghetto, and almost all of it, they sniffed, was worthless. Sturgeon angrily responded by noting that the critics were setting too high a bar. Most products in most fields, he argued, are of low quality, including what was then considered serious writing. “Ninety percent of everything,” Sturgeon decreed, “is crap.”
The Death of Expertise
Tom Nichols
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