Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity

Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity by Paul Kingsnorth

Western culture has gone against itself. The elites have decided that the western culture is "bad" due to imperialist roots and sought to focus on individuals beliefs. Other cultures are still respected to some extent even if they go against individuality. However, they are also gradually being subsumed. Alas, we cannot dictate what will come and fill the void. What has been coming about is an unbridled individuality and capitalistic machine. Both the right and left work within this machine. Science and rational thought are the new "religion" of the machine. People are in a supreme position to remake the world however they see fit. However, what is instead being remade is humanity itself. People are attached to screens for much of their lives. New technology becomes ubiquitous, making it difficult to function outside of it. We have transportation that can move us faster - but the places we go are now all very similar. Religion and human-scale social ties are fading as mass algorithm-based communication has dominated. AI prevents many potential unknowns. The ancient Luddites were dispariaged for fighting against technology, but maybe they were on to something. Are all the benefits of modern technology worth it? Are we too busy debating the margins of the machine to notice what has subsumed humanity? The book is well reasoned, balance look from somebody that has taken part in various movements and tries to look at all sides of issues. 

Trust

Trust by Hernan Diaz

At the outset, I wasn't sure if this was a biography or a work of fiction. It is cleanly set in the real world of the late 19th and early 20th century. Most of the supporting cast is recognizable. However, I had never heard of the main characters. After a while, it became clear that it was not just a work of fiction, but a work of fiction within a work of fiction.

The first part of the book is a fictional story based on the life of business leader. He had started life as a precocious child. He was born into the family that had made a multi-generational fortune in tobacco. However, he did not smoke. He was intrigued by numbers and business. After the passing of his parents, he eventually sold of the family business and focussed on his own business. He was married to a woman that also had a precocious childhood. He made a great fortune and managed to get rich when everyone was failing. He even had great short positions at the outset of the 1929 stock market crash and made even more money there. He would later help prop up the economy and aid others. Eventually, his wife slid into insanity. He tried to bankroll therapies, but she was not cured, and escaped from the asylum.

The novel then pivots to the "real world". A young family is struggling during the depression. The dad is a printer and an anarchist. The daughter has skill typing and writing. She seeks employment and makes it through a few rounds of interviews at a Wall Street firm. She then discovers that her task will be to help write the autobiography of the "real" man that felt he was slandered in the fictionalized life. He especially is concerned with the way his wife was portrayed. She had died of a tumor, not insanity. He desired her to be portrayed as a faithful companion.

There are a few conflicts in the writing process. Then the businessman dies suddenly, meaning his account is never published. The girl later returns to the primary sources and discovers a secret diary that the businessman's wife wrote in during her final days. There she discusses her pain in the treatment as well reminiscences of her past. We learn that she had significant musical talents and experience. Her husband had taught her about finance and by looking at it from her music background, she was able to gain new insights in the market that would become immensely profitable. The couple were a great combination, making huge amounts of money. She also observed the arbitrage opportunity with the inputting of transactions by clerks. She proposed they pay one off to get this data and thus make huge gains.

The book leaves us with multiple accounts of the life of the businessman. What is the truth? All accounts are considered truthful in the eyes of the teller. The wife's account appears the most reliable. (Though you would think the paid off clerk would eventually squeal.) This would provide a good example of using "other sources" and going against traditions to gain advantage. It would also put the "honesty" to question. However, these were also reminiscences by somebody on their deathbed. Can we even have a fixed truth?

The Conundrum: How Scientific Innovation, Increased Efficiency, and Good Intentions Can Make Our Energy and Climate Problems Worse

A passage from Conundrum was on an SAT practice test. After reading that brief passage, I knew this would be a great book. The book touts some of my preferred arguments about the environment, namely that we need to look at the big picture and not pieces in isolation.
Many "green" actions can have significant negative implications for the environment because they encourage us to continue much larger scale environmentally destructive behaviors. More fuel-efficient cars may eliminate a small amount of tailpipe emissions. This will save some money and make a slight dip in local pollution. However, the money saved will likely be cycled into other purchases that impacted the environment. Furthermore, the new car had to be purchased. The environmental impact of car production is often more significant than the impact of fuel to power it. However, the negative impacts of production are spread across many locations and not as readily noticed. Lower costs also encourage more driving. This encourages more development that is optimized for driving, including spread out areas with large roads and parking lots. More trips now require a car, leading to more pollution.
Similarly, efforts to relieve automobile congestion are often couched in environmental terms. If cars are not stuck in traffic, they wont pollute as much, right? Wrong. Adding new traffic lanes almost always increases demand. While there may be a short term reduction in congestion, in the long term, cars come to fill up the area, resulting in more congestion and much more pollution, along with more car-centric development. Even public transit can be damaging. While public transportation systems in dense urban areas may be helpful, most systems built today are sold as ways to "reduce traffic congestion". These far-flung transit systems often require park and ride lots and encourage more car-centric development in the netherworlds of metropolitan areas. Cars get a short term boost in faster travel times. If we truly wanted to help the environment and reduce traffic, we should also remove car lanes when we build transit system - however that is rarely done.
Residents of Manhattan are some of the greenest in the country. The emissions produced per person are much lower than any other major city in the US. Residents of supposedly "green" Vermont are among the most damaging to the environment. They use more resources, drive more and have a much more negative impact on the environment. They get to "enjoy" the nature that they are simultaneously destroying.
Many so-called sustainable and environmentally friendly practices are not scalable. A local farmers market lets residents access fresh fruits and vegetables. However, there is often a great deal of driving to get there. It cannot scale up to feed an entire population. Eating locally can also result in more negative environmental impact than eating "globally". Even "organic" farming practices can require inputs that are deleterious to the environment. Even our cleaner air and water come at a cost. We are often "exporting" pollution to other places (like China.)
What is one to do? The easiest is to consume less. Money spent does correspond fairly closely to environmental impact. Look at the big picture. Car emissions are something we see locally. However, the emissions from a single car are almost a rounding error in the total impact of automobiles. The production of vehicles and infrastucutre that supports this mobility is where the bulk of the impact is. Ditching the car will do much more for the environment than buying a fuel-cell electric hybrid. However, the significant benefit will not occur until enough of us drop the car and change the way our land is built up. Similarly, many other "small actions" may help us feel good about ourselves, but do very little for the environment. "Green energy" may help a little, but it still has significant costs. Consuming less is really the only solution.

The Western Literary Canon in Context

Professor Bowers had "second hand" experience with some of the great authors discussed in his lectures. William Faulkner was "author in residence" at University of Virginia. J.R.R. Tolkein taught at Oxford (before he arrived.) These authors both made his list of the Western Literary Canon. Distilling western down to 36 lectures involves a great deal of picking and choosing. What is insightful about these lectures is the interwoven discussions of what makes something canonical. There are past authors that were once well respected, yet have fallen out of favor. ("It was a dark and stormy night.") Other authors, unknown during their lifetimes, are now highly respected. Regardless of the circumstances, all authors in the canon are good writers. Some may have been popular, while others were relatively unknown. Some may not have been the "best" of their time - they were just lucky enough to have endured the test of time. Being taught in school is a good way to last. These lectures focus on the "classics". There are plenty of Latin and Greek works. The lectures are over halfway through when they get to Voltaire. This is a nice approach for exposure to more of the older works that are not so commonly read today.

How Will You Measure Your Life?

In How Will You Measure Your Life, Clayton Christiensen applies his theories to personal endeavors. He and his coauthors stress that this is not a self-help or business book with prepackaged conclusions, but instead a set of theories that can be applied as appropriate to the situation. Even a great theory may not be perfectly suited for each situation. But even the imperfections can be useful in illuminating the situation.
In work, people are motivated by intrinsic factors. Compensation, titles and benefits do not necessarily motive, but the lack thereof can result in a negative experience. People often get confused, chasing after the material rewards and find themselves miserable. If a family is important, time needs to be spent with family. Sometimes career choices need to be made with the long term perspective in mind - even if they seem short term in nature. Spending time with children at the youngest age is the most important. Trying to tack it on later cannot compensate for what is missed at the end.
When deciding on a course of action, one question that should be answered is "What is needed for this to succeed?" If the success criteria are not present, it will be difficult to have a successful outcome. In relationships, people often get into the trap of doing what they think somebody else would like to have done. They may work hard for something, think that is what they would want if they were in the other person's shoes. However, that may make the other person unhappy because that is not what they really wanted. This leaves two unhappy people. It is important to really know somebody else and spend the effort in service.
The value of work is important in family life. There is danger in outsourcing too much. Dell computer is a cautionary tale of a company that gradually outsourced its consumer business to Asus. Each move up the value chain seemed like a good move. Pretty soon, however, Asus was ready to do it on its own and didn't need Dell. (Luckily, Dell had other businesses to fall back on.) In family life, we outsource the raising of children by signing them up for many activities. However, having them spend time with us doing work may be even more valuable. People need to learn how to work hard and solve challenging problems. Being in prefabricated, easy to solve situations does not help that. Bring some of the tedious chores back "in house" and requiring children to be involved may be more beneficial. Children learn things when they want to learn, not when we are ready to teach them. The best way to instill are values is to always live them.
It is also important for us to uncompromisingly live our values. Once we start to compromise on what we believe, it becomes more difficult to continue to live them at later times. It good to spend time understanding what our values our and what is needed to live them. Failures to achieve goals are good and can help us to live a better life.
This book grew out of discussions in business school classes on how to define success. As such, many of the examples have a business twist. The methodology, however, is fairly universally appropriate, even if there is no "business" in the life.

Love, Stargirl

The book is fashioned as one long letter written by "Stargirl" to her ex-boyfriend. In the letter, she provides, a diary-like account of her adventures and feelings on the other side of the country. The style works really well, and provides a fresh account of Stargirl and all the other "characters" that she runs in to the city. Her principle companions include a rambunctious five year old girl and an eleven-year old tomboy. In their "adventures" they befriend an "agoraphobic", a man that spends all the day at his dead wife's grave, as well as a "wild" boy who she can't keep out of her mind.
All is told in a well-paced, upbeat manner. Stargirl has troubles and challenges, but she tries to put a positive spin on everything (after all, this is a letter to a "boyfriend").

Lost Boys

Lost Boys is the most personal and perhaps the best Orson Scott Card novel. It is part "memoir of Mormon life in the south", part "struggles of a freelancer in the early home-computer era" and part light-fantasy novel.

It starts with a Mormon family moving from Indiana to North Carolina, closely paralleling Card's actual move. The minute struggles of daily life of the family are brought out in great detail, as is the inner relations of life in the local church. The characters are all very easy to relate and "real", with no one character being "right" all the time.

The "realistic" story centers around the freelancer's move to the corporate world and his struggles in a rotten small company. This alone would make a quality book.

The "fantasy" deals with a boy that plays with "imaginary" friends who are actually those killed by a child killer. (The book throws out lots of red herrings, who we think are the evil one, but end up being friends of the main characters.)

The introduction is perhaps the biggest fault of the book. It sets up an evil "boy" who commits crimes that will be resolved at a certain point. With this it is set up as a simple mystery. Without this initial knowledge, the book is a much more powerful psychological family thriller. It would have also been nice to see the "super amazing video game" better explained. (Why was he able to communicate with the missing via a video game that was better than anything possible?)