Book Reviews Archives - Page 2 of 32

December 29, 2020

The Half-Life of Facts

The Half-Life of Facts by Samual Arbesman presents an interesting framework for thinking about the updating of our knowledge. He argues there is structure in the time it takes for facts to become outdated. Just like the half-life of uranium, facts become superseded by other facts at a predictable rate.

Read: 1x | First: December 2020

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This book got recommended on the Clearer Thinking podcast with Spencer Greenberg. It got introduced as interesting, though not always as sound as presented (i.e. there is more nuance than fitted on the pages).

I enjoyed the book, it helped me think more clearly, and it’s a quick read for those interested in how knowledge develops.

I wrote at the start of the book: “We know 1% of infinity, and that 1% is always getting bigger.“

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Chapter 1 – The Half-life of Facts

“Facts, in the aggregate, have half-lives: we can measure the amount of time for half of a subject’s knowledge to be overturned.”

Arbesman is using facts in a common-sense way in the book. Things we know to be true (at this moment), as close to ‘ground’ truth as we can currently get.

Mesofacts are facts that change at middle timescale (a few years). Examples are number of chemicals, height of Mount Everest (see chapter 8), height of tallest skyscraper.

Chapter 2 – The Pace of Discovery

We can now measure the speed of discoveries (scientometrics) and in many cases the number of papers published in a field doubles every X years, which showcases exponential (vs linear) growth.

Although, possibly, discoveries are getting harder to make, there are so many more scientists, the speed of discovery is still accelerating.

Chapter 3 – The Asymptote of Truth

“Knowledge in a field can also decay exponentially, shrinking by a constant fraction.”

This (and much of this chapter) is based on citations of scientific papers and the decline in that of older papers.

“It’s not that when a new theory is brought forth, or an older fact is contradicted, what was previously known is simply a waste, and we must start from scratch. Rather, the accumulation of knowledge can then lead us to a fuller and more accurate picture of the world around us.”

We are currently in the ‘long-tail of discovery’, and by that the author means we may not get block-buster discoveries, but we are ever refining and better understanding and improving them.

Chapter 4 – Moore’s Law of Everything

“Processing power grows every year at a constant rate rather than by a constant amount.”

The amount of information we can send to others has grown exponentially, how awesome is that.

This chapter also introduces the idea of several S-curves making up an exponential curve.

“Technology, in its broadest sense, is the process by which we modify nature to meet our needs and wants.” and “Science is about understanding the origins, nature, and behavior of the universe and all it contains; engineering is about solving problems by rearranging the stuff of the world to make new things.”

About life expectancy, this chapter mentions Aubrey de Grey from Ending Aging.

Knowledge grows through cumulating, “as there is more technological or scientific knowledge on which to grow, new technologies increase the speed at which they grow.”

This process closely matches population growth. An interesting idea is how this will develop, as population growth slows/stops. Will our interconnectedness still provide us with enough momentum or will the half-life of facts start to grow larger?

Chapter 5 – The Spread of Facts

Knowledge spread slower than we think/hope. Like the idea that spinach has a lot of iron, which isn’t true (but the story about why also is wrong, and that meme has spread even slower).

Information spreads via social networks (and thus also moves in bubbles), and between different networks (e.g. geographies).

The most important ties are thus medium ties, not strong ones (have the same knowledge) nor weak ones (whom you don’t speak to often).

Sometimes errors spread further and quicker because the story is more compelling than the truth/fact. E.g. a frog in a slowly heated to boiling pot will not jump out (wrong!).

“Facts do not spread instantaneously, even with modern technology. They weave their way through social networks in mathematically predictable ways.”

To prevent spreading misinformation, have a certain vigilance about what you hear.

Chapter 6 – Hidden Knowledge

Knowledge can be hidden in one domain, and be useful in another domain. So combining domains and ‘throwing people at the problem’ are valid strategies for unearthing facts.

This also holds true for knowledge in the public domain that is lost over time. So ideas, proposed back in the day, were not ‘ripe’ for that time, but could be tested/used/validated now.

Innocentive is mentioned, a crowdsourcing centre for ideas. With the premise being “a long tail of expertise – everyday people in large numbers – has a greater chance of solving a problem than do the experts.”

A cummulative meta-analysis tries to include all trials (not only the latest ones) as to find statistical significance early on. (see page 109)

Another project mentioned is CoPub Discovery (but doesn’t seem to be active anymore?), a paper search engine that matches based on co-occurrence of (similar) words in papers.

Mendeley is a tool that helps with citing papers and saving references to them. And to find related papers.

DEVONthink might also be a good tool to find hidden connections, Mac/iOS only.

“… facts are seldom lost. And as long as knowledge is preserved, we have the raw materials for unearthing hidden knowledge.”

Chapter 7 – Fact Phase Transition

At certain thresholds there can be a state change, think water to ice. The changes might themselves not have accelerated, but the end product is very different than X iterations before.

This type of thinking is usually applied to physics but also applies to facts (e.g. number of exoplanets found). And by using this, you can predict (approximately) when we will have an answer about fact/question X.

We are always on the edge of chaos, always learning new things (at least in dynamic societies) and our knowledge (facts) change all the time. Or in other words, we’re always in a critical state.

Chapter 8 – Mount Everest and the Discovery of Error

The height of Mount Everest is a meso-fact (see above), it changes over time as we were getting better at measuring and still changes as the earth is changing.

“Revolutions in science have often been preceded by revolutions in measurement.” – Sinan Aral

We have improved our measurements of many things, and by that also our understanding of the world. As we get better at measurements (e.g. brain scans in real-time at more detail) we will continue to learn more.

Error can be measured in two ways, precision (10x same error) and accuracy (10x error around the centre).

Then the book discussed a topic I want to dive deeper into next year, p-values and statistics. This quote from John Maynerd Smith summarizes what we now do “Statistics is the science that lets you do twenty experiments a year and publish one false result in Nature.”

What is important is the discriminating power of a study, of how much it changes our prior to posterior probability of X being true.

Some factors that help falsehoods become significant results:

smaller studies
smaller effect size
more tested hypotheses
flexibility in study design, definitions, outcomes, analytical model
financial incentives
hotter field

I can confidently say that most of these apply to the study of psychedelics for therapy. And one of the things that should (continue to) happen is replication, to be damn sure that something really work.

“Only through replication can science be the truly error-correcting enterprise that it is supposed to be.”

This all being said, Arbesman notes that science is not broken. It isn’t perfect, but still moves forward.

One interesting way of looking at this is to make the distinction between the core and the frontier. The former is relatively stable and fixed, the latter is more fluid and full or error. Slowly facts from the frontier make it into the core.

“There is a sifting and filtering process that moves knowledge from the frontier to the relatively compact and tiny core of knowledge. We should enjoy this process, rather than despair.”

Chapter 9 – The Human Side of Facts

There is a human side to updating facts. Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational is mentioned here.

“… shifting baseline syndrome… refers to how we become used to whatever state of affairs is true when we are born, or when we first look at a situation.”

An interesting way of defining technology is as “anything that was invented after you were born” – Alan Kay

As facts change, our understanding of them changes slower. I think this matches with the concept of memes, they are similar to genes in many ways, but one way they are different is that it needs to be both transmitted and then received/processed/saved (and then transmitted again).

The beliefs that we have (currently) can prevent us from updating to a newer and better view of reality. Daniel Kahneman referred to this as theory-induced blindness.

Changes in facts thus also follow the phase change bursts and relatively stable periods. I think this can be true, but don’t know if this applies to all fields and institutions (i.e. if a company has good systems they could possibly have continuous change? Netflix maybe?).

The model proposed by Thomas Kuhn about science progressing one funeral at a time doesn’t seem to hold up. Young scientists are just a likely as older ones to accept/reject new ideas.

One thing that could be useful is to stop remembering facts (as we’ve all done to some degree I think) and retrieve (the latest and updated) facts when we need them.

“Paradoxically, by not relying on our memories, we become more likely to be up-to-date in our facts, because the newest knowledge is more likely to be online than in our own heads.”

Chapter 10 – At the Edge of What We Know

“Science requires an idea to be refutable. It is not good enough for a concept to seem compelling; it must have the potential for a new fact to come along and render it false.”

Are we in an exponential curve or ‘just’ a logistic curve? Some things point towards ever accelerating (e.g. knowledge spreads faster). Other things point towards a slowdown (e.g. population growth is slowing down dramatically).

“Facts don’t change arbitrarily. Even though knowledge changes, the astounding thing is that it changes in a regular manner; facts have a half-life and obey mathematical rules. Once we recognize this, we’ll be ready to live in the rapidly changing world around us.”

December 8, 2020

Games People Play

Games People Play by Eric Berne is a book that I probably read somewhere around 2010. An interesting blog summary/analysis by Niel Kakker is what prompted me to put up this post, a full review will be done if I ever reread the book.

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Notes from the summary:

“Eric Berne, the author of Games People Play, says there are 3 big ones: The Parent, The Adult, and The Child. These ego states are different modes of operation in every person. The Adult is the rational logical self. The Parent is the caring, taking care of someone self. The Child is the playful, creative, easily offended self.”

Sometimes the subtext of something being said is what matters, where one assumes a role to entice the other to take a particular action (to show that they are not the role they are implying they are).

December 8, 2020

No Rules Rules

No Rules Rules by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer explores the work culture at Netflix. It explains the culture through three mechanisms: talent, candor (feedback), freedom (remove controls). The three mechanisms are explained at three levels (three feedback loops of more and more talent, candor, and freedom).

The principles do not apply to my current business and will probably not directly impact my work substantially. But, as with similar books, like Rework, I think I can incorporate parts of the lessons in my own work and working together with others on projects.

Here is a quick summary, based on the chapters of the book. Do note that the steps are sequential. And although this is no exact science, I do think that you need the earlier steps to make the latter possible.

First build up talent density – workforce of high performers
- in creative jobs (Netflix), stunning employees vastly outperform mediocre ones
- bad employees (jerks, slackers, etc) bring down performance of the rest (let them go quickly)
Then increase candor – encouraging loads of feedback
- we hate getting it, but love having gotten it
- giving feedback: aim to assist, actionable
- receiving feedback: appreciate, accept or discard
- feedback loop enables high performers to improve
Now begin removing controls – vacation, travel, expense policies
- no vacation policy = same time taken, more flexible, more satisfied
- expense: spend money as if it were your own, act in Netflix’s best interest (do audit stuff randomly)
Fortify talent density – paying top of market
- for creative roles (not operational roles), but most jobs at Netflix are creative
- bonus system sucks, we can’t predict performance
- so pay based on the market (and then above)
Pump up candor – organizational transparency
- share numbers (and other ‘confidential’ data) with employees
Now release more controls – decision-making approvals (out)
- “don’t seek to please your boss, seek to do what is best for the company”
- take the boss out of the equation, let the person in the know make the decision
- for ideas (innovation cycle), 1) farm for dissent/socialize idea, 2) test out (if big idea), 3) make your bet, 4) celebrate or ‘sunshine’ (why it went wrong)
Max up the talent density – Keeper Test
- “We’re a team, not a family”
- If someone wants to leave, do you fight to keep them (Keeper Test)
- Be open about why someone is let go (don’t make culture of fear, turnover at Netflix isn’t sky high)
Max up candor – circles of feedback
- 360 feedback but with names, no ratings, and not connected to pay
- live 360 dinners
And eliminate most controls – leading with context, not control
- works only if the company is ‘loosely coupled’ (few interdependencies, e.g. opposite is building airplane)
- “Highly aligned, loosely coupled”
- The alignment can be seen as a tree (not pyramid), everyone working on smaller and smaller branches of same trunk/goal/north star

December 8, 2020

Saturday

Saturday by Ian McEwan is another great novel by this most talented writer. I’ve enjoyed a few of his other books and will probably read more of them in the future.

The whole book takes place on a Saturday (as one would expect) and describes it from the perspective of Henry Perowne. The events of the day and memories from the past come together in a masterpiece of storytelling.

Here are some of the sentences that I particularly enjoyed:

“… he experiences a superhuman capacity, more like a craving, for work.
He’s too experienced to be touched by the varieties of distress he encounters – his obligation is to be useful.
(page 17)
… or the pleasure he still takes in the relief of the relatives when he comes down from the operating room like a god, an angel with the glad tidings – life, not death.
This is what he has to have: possession, belonging, repetition.
… endless and beautiful forms of life, such as you see in a common hedgerow, including exalted beings like ourselves, arose from physical laws, from war of nature, famine and death. (Darwin/Dawkins)
The luxury of being half asleep, exploring the fringes of psychosis in safety.
And it interests him less to have the world reinvented; he wants it explained. (and on the next page) … the supernatural was the recourse of an insufficient imagination, a dereliction of duty, a childish evasion of the difficulties and wonders of the real, of the demanding re-enactment of the plausible. (I should probably quote this somewhere at the start of an essay)
(about a protest) … tens of thousands of strangers converging with a single purpose conveying an intimation of revolutionary joy.
(about his fancy car) It is, of course, possible, permissible, to love an inanimate object. But this moment was the peak of the affair; since then his feelings have settled into mild, occasional pleasure.
(tennis match, describing Flow state) It’s possible in a long rally to become a virtually unconscious being, inhabiting the narrowest slice of the present, merely reacting, taking one shot at a time, existing only to keep going.
(and later at work) Even his awareness of his own existence has vanished. He’s been delivered into a pure present, free of the weight of the past or any anxieties about the future. In retrospect, though never at the time, it feels like profound happiness.
(visit to dementing mother) It’s like taking flowers to a graveside – the true business is with the past. (and later) ‘She’s waiting for you,’ Jenny says. They both know this to be a neurological impossibility. Even boredom is beyond his mother’s reach.
Especially difficult when the first and best unconscious move of a dedicated liar is to persuade himself he’s sincere. And once he’s sincere, all deception vanishes.
… a man who believes he has no future and is therefore free of consequences.

October 28, 2020

Humankind

Humankind by Rutger Bregman is an enlightening book on how we humans are kinder and more cooperative than we believe. The media, bad scientists (read: some of the key studies I studied in intro psychology), and our own distorted perspective has messed us up, let’s repair that.

Btw the book is published in Dutch too, De Meeste Mensen Deugen (but I found the English audiobook first, so yeah).

Here are some key takeaways from the book:

The psychology experiments like Stanford Prison were very much forced and can be better seen as theatre than actual humans doing bad things
If you don’t make those extreme situations (US prison), you get people just hanging out and being nice (Norway prison)
That is also the way to fix things, not by responding in kind (eye for an eye), but by responding with kindness
We aren’t that cutthroat, we lend people tools, pass along the salt, help a friend. In that way we are communists (social capitalists, or whatever you want to call it)
Kids left alone without supervision will behave like a team, not like Lord of The Flies (book)
We believe that we are good right (I hope so), so does everyone else. We may be selfish, but inherently you can say that people aren’t ‘evil’ in the comic-book or D&D way
The book presents evidence that counteracts a lot of what Steven Pinker (Enlightenment Now) says about ancient civilizations (less murder and mayhem than commonly believed)
Other reviewers do point out that Bregman is putting forth his own thesis in this book, so he might be cherrypicking the evidence too. Anyways, we humans – not that murderous (you know, like the rest of the animal kingdom)
Being faced with having to kill someone, most people chicken out. Soldiers don’t shoot. But the bad thing is that ‘the system’ finds ways to get around this (drones, decimation, etc)
Some cool examples include that of a ‘vrije school’ and medical company in The Netherlands, but I haven’t looked them up yet

October 28, 2020

Alien Information Theory

This post originally appeared on Blossom Analysis.

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Alien Information Theory by Andrew Gallimore aims to explain how DMT will allow us to see a higher dimension of reality than we currently can do. The book starts by explaining the neuroscience of psychedelics in a very informative, imaginary, and grounded way. Then from chapter 9 onward the reader is launched into hyperspace and Gallimore tries to convey how we are part of a larger HyperGrid (of information) that DMT is able to connect us to.

A book that is very suitable (from my perspective) in explaining how psychedelics work (just as his excellent course on YouTube↗). But also a book that presents a theory that doesn’t seem fully formed yet (the latter chapters). With future experiments (extended DMT trips), more clarity could possibly be provided about the DMT-state and the ‘information’ that one is able to bring back from it.

If you want to learn more about the start of the recent DMT research, you can check out DMT: The Spirit Molecule by Rick Strassman.

Publisher Summary

“Since prehistory, humans have used a range of psychedelic drugs for communion with the gods, connection with nature, or for the pure pleasure and wonder they generate as they transform the mind and the world. But one natural psychedelic in particular towers above the rest in its astonishing power to replace the normal waking world with a bizarre alternate reality replete with a diverse panoply of intelligent alien beings. As well as being the most powerful, N, N-dimethyltryptamine, more commonly known as DMT, is also the most common naturally-occurring psychedelic and can be found in countless plant species scattered across the Earth. DMT carries a profound message embedded in our reality, a message that we are now beginning to decode. In Alien Information Theory, neurobiologist, chemist, and pharmacologist, Dr. Andrew R. Gallimore, explains how DMT provides the secret to the very structure of our reality, and how our Universe can be likened to a cosmic game that we now find ourselves playing. Gallimore explains how our reality was constructed using a fundamental code which generated our Universe — and countless others — as a digital device built from pure information with the purpose of enabling conscious intelligences, such as ourselves, to emerge. You will learn how fundamental digital information self-organises and complexifies to generate the myriad complex forms and organisms that fill our world; how your brain constructs your subjective world and how psychedelic drugs alter the structure of this world; how DMT switches the reality channel by allowing the brain to access information from normally hidden orthogonal dimensions of reality. And, finally, you will learn how DMT provides the secret to exiting our Universe permanently — to complete the cosmic game and to become interdimensional citizens of hyperspace. Alien Information Theory is a unique account of this hidden structure of reality and our place within it, drawing on a diverse range of disciplines — including neuroscience, computer science, physics, and pharmacology — to carefully explain these complex ideas, which are illustrated with full-colour diagrams throughout.”

Summary Review

Chapter 1 – The Code

“Our reality emerges from a code programmed by an alien hyperintelligence beyond the confines of our 3-dimensional Universe. For want of a better term, we will refer to this intelligence – the author of the Code – as the Other.“

This first chapter sets up the hypothesis that we (normally) only have access to a very small slice of what is really out there. That we are stick-figures living on a 2d piece of paper, and that a 3d world is actually out there. It is through DMT that we may be able to view this world and achieve “interdimensional citizenship and the resolution of the Game.”

From my personal reading and understanding of (among others) Daniel Dennett (e.g. Darwins Dangerous Idea↗) and David Deutsch (The Beginning of Infinity ↗ & The Fabric of Reality↗), I can concur on the idea that there is a certain ‘hyperspace’. There are infinite amounts of (always splitting) universes and with quantum computing we are starting to get the first grasp of how this works. But I also think that all our information and meaning-making is a bottom-up process. One in which more and more complexity is added and meaning emerges as things are combined.

This is further discussed in the book when Gallimore talks more about Conway’s Game of Life↗. I think I have the same understanding as him on that point. But not on the point that there are the ‘Others’, the ones who have developed the ‘Game’ that we’re involved in. In my understanding, there really is nothing more to it than quarks, atoms, molecules, humans, etc. No top-down plan, no ‘Game’, no ‘Resolution’, only bottom-up (cranes) processes.

So with that information/my perspective, the rest of the summary review.

Chapter 2 – The Universe as Digital Information

Gallimore defines information as “… the opposite of uncertainty: when you gain information about something, your knowledge of that thing increases and your uncertainty about it decreases.” He also explains it as selecting between different states, when you know it’s one – you have gained X pieces of information, X being the number of states you choose between. The number of yes/no (1/0) choices that you decide between can be seen as the number of bits of information you generate. For instance, electing one square on a chessboard equals six bits of information.

The rest of the chapter dives deeper into how even the smallest things in our universe are in essence just bits of information (it’s ~~turtles~~ information all the way down). “At its deepest level, deeper than the atom and more fundamental than the quark, the Universe is running a low-level computation.”

Chapter 3 – The Hierarchy of Complexity / The Complexification of Information

The universe can be seen as a computer (something that computes) that updates with every ‘tick’. This chapter illustrates this with Conway’s Game of Life and explains further how information has a certain hierarchy, that from very simple rules, you can get complex behavior.

This Numberphile video playlist is a good starting point if you want to learn more about Conway’s Game of Life (from John Conway himself).

The hierarchy put forth in this chapter is as follows:

The Code: the fundamental code that generates the Grid
The Grid: the fundamental structure of space consisting of Cells in specific states
Fundamental particles: electrons, quarks, neutrinos, etc. Low order information complexes self-organised from the Cells of the Grid
Subatomic particles: neutrons, protons. Higher order information complexes self-organised from fundamental particles
Atoms: carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, etc. Higher order information complexes self-organised from subatomic and fundamental particles
Molecules: proteins, water, carbohydrates, nucleic acids, etc. Very high order information complexes self-organised from atoms
Cells: smallest components of life. Higher order information complexes self-organised from molecules
Multicellular organisms: higher order information complexes self-organised from cells

One could, of course, imagine even more levels that go beyond the 8th one here (e.g. social structures/network, countries, companies).

Chapter 4 – Living Information in a Digital World

This chapter touches upon how simple components together can have complex systems emerge from their interactions. This always happens at the ‘edge of chaos’, a place where it’s fluid enough that not everything is stagnant (not changing) or that all the activity is just random noise (no information). The four basic characteristics are:

Many simple components (agents)
Local, rule-based, interactions between agents
No central control. Agents interact locally.
Self-organisation and emergent behaviours

A definition of ‘life’ is quoted from Humberto Maturana and Francisco Valera, which states that “living organisms are distinct from non-living machines in that they are autopoietic, meaning ‘self-creating’.”

Chapter 5 – Waking Up in a World

As humans, with our awesome brains, continuously perceive the world around us. But we don’t do this as passive receptors, we also actively build (generate) a world in our own head. And we test our incoming information against this model. If you’re awake, dreaming, or under the influence of psychedelics, “your personal reality is always built from information generated by your brain.”

For a further discussion on how we perceive, or predict, the reality around us (and how psychedelics help us study this), I would recommend Carhart-Harris & Friston (2019) – which proposes the REBUS model, or Swanson (2018) which discusses the various psychedelic theories and their connections.

Chapter 6 – How to Build a World – Part 1

This chapter explains, in more detail, how information is generated in the brain (cortical columns, thalamocortical loop) and that sensory (external) information only slightly modifies this process.

Chapter 7 – How to Build a World – Part 2

The building of our world (model) is shaped both during your life and over the course of evolution. Some birds see more colors than we do as they co-evolved with flowers that provide nectar (and the birds provide pollination). And you can learn to better distinguish different flavors of food if you train this skill over time.

So what happens if you change the ‘weight’ of how you are building your world model. That is what the latter chapter are all about. They propose that under the influence of DMT you ‘tune in’ to a different (but still very much real) reality than during normal waking life.

Chapter 8 – Psychedelic Molecules and the Brain

In contrast to serotonin (a neuromodulator), psychedelics bind specifically/preferentially to (mostly) the 5HT2a receptor and make it more likely for cortical pyramidal neurons to fire. The frequency that becomes more active (especially under the influence of DMT) is called Gamma oscillations.

Two recent studied quantified this with EEG (Timmermann et al., 2019 and Alamia et al., 2020).

“Normally, the intrinsic activity of the thalamocortical system provides the context of incoming sensory information, which is matched to this ongoing activity, selecting and amplifying states from the T-state repertoire. However, in the presence of a psychedelic drug, the inflated state repertoire means that sensory information may select completely novel T-states.”

If applied to someone’s memories (PTSD), thought patterns (depression), or capacity to generate ideas (creativity), this (to my best understanding) also explains how psychedelics can lead to positive outcomes, by making more (and more novel) ways of thinking possible.

Chapter 9 – An Introduction to Hyperspace

This chapter gives a very brief description of the DMT-world (a different (higher-level) reality). My personal gripe with some of the explanations here is that the entities (elfs, machines, etc) are described as ‘intelligent’ but without further clarifying in what way that is true. Other descriptive words used are: highly artificial, constructed, inorganic, technological. All words that could convey a certain meaning, but without further clarification don’t seem to provide much context or ‘proof’ (if possible) of why that should be the case.

The entities also seem very human-like. Be it elves, insects, or other entities. As described here (but also in other places) they seem closer to us than for instance the aliens in the movie Arrival (2016)↗. A question that I always have in the back of my mind is: In how far is it not just our brain connecting disparaging parts and ‘making a story’ just like it was doing before but now with more chaos and/or at another ‘frequency’ that is different than ‘normal waking consciousness’ in relatively predictable ways.

Chapter 10 – Information Flow Through the Grid

Under the influence of DMT, Gallimore proposes, we are able to tune into the alternate DMT reality. The latter part of the chapter explains how information flows up and downwards, and that with DMT this downward (from orthogonal dimension) information flow is attuned to.

How psychedelics work is explained in this very good and concise paragraph:

“Psychedelics change your world by changing the activity of the cortical system and so change the information that constitutes your world. Your model of the external world is altered. Modern neuropharmacological techniques have revealed the binding of classical psychedelics, including DMT, to the 5HT2a receptor as being primarily responsible for these effects. Activation of this receptor causes pyramidal cells to depolarise, promotes gamma oscillations, and changes the patterns of information generated by cortical activity. These changes in information manifest as a change in the world you experience, which is the psychedelic state.”

Chapter 11 – Information Flow Through the HyperGrid

The reason why one could be able to pick up hyperdimensional information is (proposed to be) the patterns of activation in the Grid (our universe) that allow it to receive normally inaccessible information.

An analogy with Conway’s Game of Life and a visualisation of the 3d world as 2d (so the 4d becomes 3d) is used to further explain how this process takes place.

Chapter 12 – DMT and the Hyperdimensional Brain Complex

This chapter further explains how the brain changes to receive this information. The best analogy made here is “the differences between observing the patterns of ripples on the surface of water and actually being the water.”

Chapter 13 – The Mechanism of Interdimensional Communication

“DMT causes your brain to cease building the consensus world and start building the DMT world.”

The three phases are distinguished as:

Bottom-up modulation – activation phase (5HT2a depolarising)
Top-down modulation – gating phase (switching patterns, Alpha to Gamma)
Transdimensional informational feedback loop – lock phase (positive feedback loops)

Chapter 14 – Structure of the Code

The Grid (level 2, chapter 3) is made from pure digital information, the Code (level 1). This chapter explains further how this is so and how higher dimensions follow from lower-order levels.

Chapter 15 – How to Build a Universe

“Building a universe within which complex life will emerge is as easy as finding the right rule set. And as hard.”

Gallimore explains that we were not designed per se, but that we emerge on the edge of chaos. He does argue that there is an alien hyperintelligence (outside the Grid), but that it hasn’t purposefully made us humans.

We are playing a/the Game (see next chapter) and in a way DMT is the intelligence test to see if we know what is going on (if we can use DMT as a ‘technology’ then we’re smart enough to get out of the Game? (to be honest, I really don’t get where this is all coming from)).

Chapter 16 – The Game

The Game is explained along six different levels:

Information
Emergence (finding DMT)
Transmission* (using DMT)
Immersion
Realisation (entering hyperspace, but only for a limited amount of time, minutes)
Resolution (transcription) (staying in hyperspace and thus completing the Game)

* “Newborn children are ferried from a prenatal hyperspace to the lower-dimensional life they will gradually become immersed within …”

As noted in the introduction, it would be interesting to hear back when experiments with longer duration DMT trips (via IV administration) have been done and what comes out of it.

October 7, 2020

My Purple Scented Novel

My Purple Scented Novel by Ian McEwan is a (short)story about a man who steals the life of a fellow novelist. I enjoyed it throughout.

October 7, 2020

LSD: My Problem Child

This post originally appeared on Blossom Analysis.

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LSD: My Problem Child by Albert Hofmann recounts the discovery, first trip, and dissemination of LSD from the perspective of its discoverer. The book describes the chemical history, the subsequent trouble with it leaving the lab, and Hofmann’s perspective on the effects LSD elicits.

Summary Review

Foreword

In the forward, Hofmann describes his childhood mystical experience and how it may be a solution to the spiritual crisis befalling the (Western) world.

“It is my desire in this book to give a comprehensive picture of LSD, its origin, its effects, and its dangers, in order to guard against increasing abuse of this extraordinary drug. I hope thereby to emphasize possible uses of LSD that are compatible with its characteristic action. I believe that if people would learn to use LSD’s vision-inducing capability more wisely, under suitable conditions, in medical practice and in conjunction with meditation, then in the future this problem child could become a wonder child.”

Chapter 1 – How LSD Originated

LSD was not discovered by accident, or at least not as is told in popular lore. Hofmann made the substance (LSD-25) on purpose as part of the research his lab (Sandoz) was doing. It was only by accident that he first discovered the psychedelic effects (by not carefully handling the substances).

The first chapter recounts his early work on ergots (fungi that grows on rye and similar plants). Hofmann also corrects another urban myth:

“Until recent times, epidemic-like outbreaks of ergot poisoning have been recorded in most European countries including certain areas of Russia. With progress in agriculture, and since the realization, in the seventeenth century, that ergot-containing bread was the cause, the frequency and extent of ergotism epidemics diminished considerably. The last great epidemic occurred in certain areas of southern Russia in the years 1926-27. [The mass poisoning in the southern French city of Pont-St. Esprit in the year 1951, which many writers have attributed to ergot-containing bread, actually had nothing to do with ergotism. It rather involved poisoning by an organic mercury compound that was utilized for disinfecting seed.]”

Ergots have been used as medicines since mid 1582 (first documented) but chemical analysis of the active substances took until 1907.

Hofmann’s research found it’s way to lysergic acid (“precursor for a wide range of ergoline alkaloids that are produced by the ergot fungus“). He first made LSD-25 in 1938, but based on a hunch, he resynthesized it in 1943. During this process he possibly had a bit of the substance touch his skin during crystallization. The amount of LSD needed for a subjective effect should be very small, Hofmann deduced. To investigate further her planned a self-experiment with 0.25 mg or 250 mcg/μg.

That day, 19 April 1943, he cycled home (Bicycle Day) in crisis and the report can be described as the first bad trip.

The chapter is concluded with the following observation.

“I was aware that LSD, a new active compound with such properties, would have to be of use in pharmacology, in neurology, and especially in psychiatry, and that it would attract the interest of concerned specialists. But at that time I had no inkling that the new substance would also come to be used beyond medical science, as an inebriant in the drug scene. Since my self-experiment had revealed LSD in its terrifying, demonic aspect, the last thing I could have expected was that this substance could ever find application as anything approaching a pleasure drug. I failed, moreover, to recognize the meaningful connection between LSD inebriation and spontaneous visionary experience until much later, after further experiments, which were carried out with far lower doses and under different conditions.”

Chapter 2 – LSD in Animal Experiments and Biological Research

Many experiments on animals were done to test the effects and toxicity of LSD. Hofmann notes that the effects are most pronounced in the ‘higher’ parts of the brain and significant dosages were needed to elicit effects in ‘lower’ animals. One interesting observation is that at a certain dosage the webs of spiders were better proportioned than normal, but distorted at higher dosages.

The dosage that kills half of the subjects (LD₅₀) of LSD is 50-60 mg/kg for a mouse and 0.3mg/kg (300μg/kg) for rabbits. One elephant was given 0.3g of LSD and died a few minutes later, estimating (n=1) the lethal dosage at 60μg/kg.

Extrapolating that data to humans means that the range from effective (0.0003-0.001 mg/kg) to deadly dosage is about 300-600 fold. This low toxicity is also confirmed in a study by Haden & Woods (2020) that looked at three reports in which one person took up to 55mg (55.000μg, or 785μg/kg at 70kg) and lived to tell the tale (and even could stop a pain medication she was taking before).

LSD is absorbed completely through the gastrointestinal tract and thus injection won’t make the effects stronger. Hofmann also states that the molecules themselves are gone within a much quicker timeframe than 10-12 hours, the time the psychological/psychedelic effects persist. He states that the effects are of other mechanisms that LSD sets of. The dopamine and serotonin neurological functions are influenced by LSD.

See the research papers database on LSD for more on this topic.

Chapter 3 – Chemical Modifications of LSD

Chemical modification (looking for more valuable active properties or improved activity) was conducted on LSD. No other form was more active, most not being active at even 20 times the dosage. This was a feature that, together with the anti-inflammatory effect, led to the discovery and use of bromo-LSD (BOL-148) and Deseril/Sansert.

Chapter 4 – Use of LSD in Psychiatry

This chapter recounts the early use of LSD in psychiatry and a trip report by a self-experiment of a psychiatrist. The effects are compared to that of mescaline.

Sandoz then made LSD available under the trade name Delysid (D-Lysergsäure-diäthylamid), with the following disclaimer/description of properties:

“The administration of very small doses of Delysid (1/2-2 µg/kg body weight) results in transitory disturbances of affect, hallucinations, depersonalization, reliving of repressed memories, and mild neurovegetative symptoms. The effect sets in after 30 to 90 minutes and generally lasts 5 to 12 hours. However, intermittent disturbances of affect may occasionally persist for several days.” … “Pathological mental conditions may be intensified by Delysid. Particular caution is necessary in subjects with a suicidal tendency and in those cases where a psychotic development appears imminent. The psycho-affective liability and the tendency to commit impulsive acts may occasionally last for some days. Delysid should only be administered under strict medical supervision. The supervision should not be discontinued until the effects of the drug have completely worn off.”

The (partial) loss of ego (“egocentric problem cycle“) and heightened susceptibility to the influence of the psychotherapists were two features that made LSD a potential ally during psychotherapy. This was utilized in two different ways, 1) psychotytic therapy (Europe, moderate dosage, repeated), and 2) psychedelic therapy (US, high dose, one-time).

Another way that LSD could be used was to study psychoses. Hofmann notes that LSD doesn’t elicit a true psychosis (the effects are different), but that it may still shed light on the biochemical origin of it.

Chapter 5 – From Remedy to Inebriant

“During the first years after its discovery, LSD brought me the same happiness and gratification that any pharmaceutical chemist would feel on learning that a substance he or she produced might possibly develop into a valuable medicament. For the creation of new remedies is the goal of a pharmaceutical chemist’s research activity; therein lies the meaning of his or her work.”

Alas, after that LSD became a beacon of the counter culture and it became a ‘problem child’ for Hofmann. The widespread usage (in the millions of dosages in the US alone) was not what he expected of such a strange drug. Subsequently, he (and other labs) had to work with health authorities on work that didn’t contribute to scientific discoveries. Sandoz eventually stops its distribution of LSD in 1965.

Hofmann stresses the dangers of LSD when not used in a medical context. As noted before, the drug is not toxic by itself, but psychologically it can be very harmful when taken outside the right set and setting. And LSD made and sold outside the (official) lab isn’t always LSD (accidental or on purpose).

Hofmann profiles Timothy Leary and a meeting between the two men on September 3rd, 1971. It was amicable but the two men didn’t see eye to eye on the need for widespread use (abuse?) of LSD.

“My impression of Dr. Leary in this personal meeting was that of a charming personage, convinced of his mission, who defended his opinions with humor yet uncompromisingly; a man who truly soared high in the clouds pervaded by beliefs in the wondrous effects of psychedelic drugs and the optimism resulting therefrom, and thus a man who tended to underrate or completely overlook practical difficulties, unpleasant facts, and dangers. Leary also showed carelessness regarding charges and dangers that concerned his own person, as his further path in life emphatically showed.”

The last part of the chapter is devoted to a sample of trip reports on LSD that captures but a small part of the possible experiences one can have with the substance.

Chapter 6 – The Mexican Relatives of LSD

Psychedelic (magic, teonanácatl) mushrooms have been part of South American culture for centuries. Hofmann recounts a short history and makes the link to how Psilocybe mexicana eventually found its way to his lab.

After failing to see effects in mice or dogs, Hofmann did a self-experiment with 2.4g of dried mushrooms (a moderate/high dosage). The following trip report took on a distinctly Mexican character.

“This self-experiment showed once again that human beings react much more sensitively than animals to psychoactive substances. We had already reached the same conclusion in experimenting with LSD on animals, as described in an earlier chapter of this book. It was not inactivity of the mushroom material, but rather the deficient reaction capability of the research animals vis-à-vis such a type of active principle, that explained why our extracts had appeared inactive in the mouse and dog.”

Eventually, his lab extracted two active principles, named psilocybin and psilocin (to which the former metabolizes). There are now many more active compounds identified, of which you can find more information on Psychedelic Science Review (compounds).

Another psychedelic was investigated, seeds named ololiuhqui (morning glory seeds). After describing the origin and history, Hofmann describes their final findings:

“Lysergic acid amide, lysergic acid hydroxyethylamide, and alkaloids closely related to them chemically were established as the main active principles of ololiuhqui. Also present was the alkaloid ergobasine, whose synthesis had constituted the starting point of my investigations on ergot alkaloids. Lysergic acid amide and lysergic acid hydroxyethylamide, active principles of ololiuhqui, are chemically very closely related to lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), which even for the non-chemist follows from the names.”

The coincidence that similar molecules were found in such different plants and fungi was something that was difficult to believe by his peers. But, me speaking here, if looked through an evolutionary lens, it may not be that unusual. Even something as complex as the eye has evolved tens of times and over the history of evolution it may be less surprising for these ‘coincidences’ to happen. For a deeper understanding on this topic I would recommend Dawkins and Dennett (amongst others) to read.

R. Gordon Wasson, whom Hofmann had been in contact since the investigations with magic mushrooms, invites him and his wife on an expedition to Mexico in the fall of 1962. On the expedition, they hope to find the plants (and molecules) behind the leaves of ‘Mary the shepherdess’ (hojas de la Pastora). It is eventually identified and named Salvia divinorum.

They eventually do and also find a curandera that is able to host a ceremony for them (as at that time it was taboo to give it to non-locals). The trip (not enjoyed by Hofmann because of an earlier upset stomach) was shorter but still similar to other psychedelics.

On the way back the party visits María Sabina, who earlier became famous after Gordon Wasson’s publication about her. There they consume the psilocybin pills they brought along and Hofmann enjoys a delayed trip with the hojas de la Pastora.

“María Sabina had said that the pills lacked the spirit of the mushrooms. I discussed the situation with Gordon, who lay beside me. For us, it was clear that absorption of the active principle from the pills, which must first dissolve in the stomach, occurs more slowly than from the mushrooms, in which some of the active principle already becomes absorbed through the mucous membranes during chewing. But how could we give a scientific explanation under such conditions? Rather than try to explain, we decided to act. We distributed more pills. Both curanderas and the curandero each received another pair. They had now each taken a total dosage of 30 mg psilocybin. After about another quarter of an hour, the spirit of the pills did begin to yield its effects, which lasted until the crack of dawn. The daughters, and Don Aurelio with his deep bass voice, fervently answered the prayers and singing of the curandera. Blissful, yearning moans of Apolonia and Aurora, between singing and prayer, gave the impression that the religious experience of the young women in the drug inebriation was combined with sensual-sexual feelings. In the middle of the ceremony, María Sabina asked for our request. Gordon inquired again after the health of his daughter and grandchild. He received the same good information as from the curandera Consuela. Mother and child were in fact well when he returned home to New York. Obviously, however, this still represents no proof of the prophetic abilities of both curanderas.”

“As we took leave of María Sabina and her clan at the crack of dawn, the curandera said that the pills had the same power as the mushrooms, that there was no difference. This was a confirmation from the most competent authority, that the synthetic psilocybin is identical with the natural product. As a parting gift I let María Sabina have a vial of psilocybin pills. She radiantly explained to our interpreter Herlinda that she could now give consultations even in the season when no mushrooms grow.”

Hofmann ends the chapter with a reflection on both the good and bad that has followed from the opening up about psychedelic compounds. On the one hand, it may/has/will help with scientific discoveries and mental health disorders. On the other hand, the tourism resulting from it hasn’t always been favorable and a part of the ancient customs may therefore get lost.

Chapter 7 – Radiance from Ernst Jünger

The last chapters of the book take a more personal tone. They describe how the substances and meetings with others on this topic have helped solve questions that Hofmann personally had.

This chapter recounts his inspiration from, and interaction with, the writer Ernst Jünger. The starting point was his book ‘Das Abenteuerliche Herz’. Subsequently, they correspond over letters and even have an LSD trip together in February 1951 and a comparison with psilocybin in 1962. On the latter, Hofmann notes: “The mushroom substance had carried all four of us off, not into luminous heights, rather into deeper regions. It seems that the psilocybin inebriation is more darkly colored in the majority of cases than the inebriation produced by LSD. The influence of these two active substances is sure to differ from one individual to another.”

Chapter 8 – Meeting With Aldous Huxley

Hofmann describes his meetings with Aldous Huxley, the author of (amongst other great books) The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell. They conversed about psychedelics, their usefulness, and need to differentiate them from other ‘drugs’. The book ‘Island’ was inspired (in part) by Huxley’s meeting with Hofmann.

Mirroring the death of other psychedelic pioneers, Huxley went out tripping: “In the morning, when he was already so weak that he could no longer speak, he had written on a sheet of paper: “LSD—try it—intramuscular—100 mmg.” Mrs. Huxley understood what was meant by this, and ignoring the misgivings of the attending physician, she gave him, with her own hand, the desired injection-she let him have the moksha medicine.”

Chapter 9 – Correspondence with the Poet-Physician Walter Vogt

This chapter recounts the written correspondence with the physician, psychiatrist, and writer Walter Vogt.

Chapter 10 – Various Visitors

This second to last chapter describes various interesting meetings with people Hofmann graciously received at his house. As the discoverer of LSD, he saw it as his duty to meet with those coming to find answers, relate a story, or meet the man behind the molecule. Most of those interactions were positive, as were the visitors’ experiences with LSD.

Chapter 11 – LSD Experience and Reality

“Of greatest significance to me has been the insight that I attained as a fundamental understanding from all of my LSD experiments: what one commonly takes as “the reality,” including the reality of one’s own individual person, by no means signifies something fixed, but rather something that is ambiguous—that there is not only one, but that there are many realities, each comprising also a different consciousness of the ego.”

Hofmann states that LSD allow you to see reality from a new perspective. It allows you to change the receiver (you) as you tune into reality. And this allowed him (and millions more) to see the world not as the self (ego) being separated from the world, but as a part of the whole. Taking this other perspective, Hofmann sees how some (much?) of our industrialized wonders have also led to the destruction of nature.

This reconnection with nature is then also discussed in the light of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Rituals, probably involving psychedelics, that were held for almost two centuries.

“The cultural-historical meaning of the Eleusinian Mysteries, their influence on European intellectual history, can scarcely be overestimated. Here suffering humankind found a cure for its rational, objective, cleft intellect, in a mystical totality experience, that let it believe in immortality, in an everlasting existence.”

In the final pages, Hofmann also reflects on Christianity and meditation. Ending the book with the following: “I see the true importance of LSD in the possibility of providing material aid to meditation aimed at the mystical experience of a deeper, comprehensive reality. Such a use accords entirely with the essence and working character of LSD as a sacred drug.”

The Book

You can find a .pdf of the book on the website of MAPS.
(which clocks in at 102 pages if you get the reference)

October 2, 2020

21 Lessons for the 21st Century

21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari is a surprisingly original book about the near future. In the book, Harari describes current trends and extrapolates them forward to a future that is likely to arrive. As Yogi Berra said “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future” it’s good to see that much of the predictions in the book are based on current events/technology.

The book fits nicely between Sapiens and Homo Deus. It’s true that there is some overlap between the books, but still 21 Lessons was refreshing.

See my notes below, also see these good reviews from a friend on Goodreads and Steve Glaveski on Medium.

Chapter 1 – Disillusionment
Simple stories win over statistics (i.e. even if you base your arguments on statistics and rationality, tell a frikkin’ story)
AI will enable some humans to get ahead of others (this theme comes back several times), they will be enhanced with features like tracking health (now) and better knowledge (now – internet, future – more direct connections to digital info via AI assistants/implants/smart glasses/or other things we haven’t thought about before).

Chapter 2 – Work
Blue-collar jobs will also be taken by the algorithms. From driving (trucks) to art, in many cases, no humans will be needed in the future. Of course, we will need some, to make and upgrade the algorithms, but many (see the middle of America) will not have anything productive to do.

In chess, creativity is already being seen as the domain of AI. To check if someone is cheating in a human-only tournament, they check if a person isn’t being more creative than usual, how crazy is that eh

“In human-only chess tournaments, judges are constantly on the lookout for players who try to cheat by secretly getting help from computers. One of the ways to catch cheats is to monitor the level of originality players display. If they play an exceptionally creative move, the judges will often suspect that this cannot possibly be a human move – it must be a computer move. At least in chess, creativity is already the trademark of computers rather than humans!”

This is bad – we will have to figure out what to do (UBI, find meaningful things to do). This is good – nobody dreams to become a cashier, we have better things to do.

As an alternative to UBI (universal basic income), Harari mentions UBS (universal basic services), something that is already (partially) what the European/Dutch system looks like. But, the money that Google-eske companies will make with 3d printing something, won’t find its way to the person in Bangladesh without a job.

Chapter 3 – Liberty
Truth is what the first result in Google is (or what Alexa tells you when you ask a question). Liberty, as discussed in this chapter, is a slippery concept and something that needs to be defended. Algorithms can both be better (possibly no/less discrimination) and worse (algorithm bias, says no but humans don’t understand why (black boxes)).

Chapter 4 – Equality
Those who own the data – own the future.
(link to health care data and why that is valuable?)

Chapter 5 – Community
Digital tools make it easier to connect (online) and more difficult to connect (with the person sitting next to you).

Chapter 6 – Civilization
We are one world now, if we like it or not.

People care more about their enemies than allies (and so do countries).

Chapter 7 – Nationalism
Patriotism can be good, just imagine if we would still be mini-kingdoms fighting with the one 20km down the road. But ultra-nationalism is bad. We should/can be proud of a unique culture, not a supreme nation.

Environmentalism is also part of this chapter (as nationalists don’t seem to care about it). Some conventional mechanisms may help (reduce), but innovation is needed (clean meat is given as an example).

We need to have a global ecology, economy, and science. Not global governance, but indeed more focus on global issues/impact.

Chapter 8 – Religion
Religion doesn’t have much to say about the problems we’re facing nowadays.

Chapter 9 – Immigration
Don’t tolerate intolerance, let everyone else who comes, become ‘us’.

Harari also reflects on racism and culturalism. On this subject, it does make me think of correlational research that implies causation (e.g. your genes predicting educational outcomes) which may be just correlational (e.g. people with these genes have been living in poverty for generations).

Chapter 10 – Terrorism
“Terrorists are masters of mind control.”

Terrorism works because of the terror and subsequent overreaction it creates.
This can (partly) be combatted by 1) clandestine actions against terrorists, 2) media should keep things in perspective (good luck with that), 3) your perspective. I think that the three parts here miss a crucial fourth, improving the conditions in the places of origin of terrorism. But how.

Chapter 11 – War
The battle field is moving from physical to informational. From factories to energy grids.

Chapter 12 – Humility
Be humble, help others, you (your culture) is not the center of the universe.

Chapter 13 – God
Morality is about reducing suffering, no myths required. Secularism (as defined by Harari) is about a commitment to truth, versus belief.

Without (or even with?) a God, we are the ones responsible.

Chapter 14 – Secularism
“[S]ecularism is a very positive and active world view, which is defined by a coherent code of values rather than by opposition to this or that religion. Indeed, many of the secular values are shared by various religious traditions. Unlike some sects that insist they have a monopoly over all wisdom and goodness, one of the chief characteristics of secular people is that they claim no such monopoly. They don’t think that morality and wisdom came down from heaven in one particular place and time. Rather, morality and wisdom are the natural legacy of all humans.”

It’s all bottom-up, not top-down.

Chapter 15 – Ignorance
We know very little, alone. We know a lot, together. We think we know a lot, that is the knowledge illusion (book). Our best ability is maybe not rationality (of which we have surprisingly little), but large scale cooperation (which religion, for better or worse, does enable – as does (good) nationalism).

Companies and religions are based on stories, not facts. This is called branding.

Chapter 16 – Justice
Can we grapple with knowing about the other side of the world, and our impact from our actions there? The answer is, probably no. Is buying a t-shirt from a Bangladeshi sweatshop bad? Or is it good when done in conjunction with calls for better living standards? Wicked problems.

Chapter 17 – Post-Truth
Fake news isn’t new (it’s on steroids now, but not new).

“Therefore instead of accepting fake news as the norm, we should recognise it is a far more difficult problem than we tend to assume, and we should strive even harder to distinguish reality from fiction. Don’t expect perfection. One of the greatest fictions of all is to deny the complexity of the world, and think in absolute terms of pristine purity versus satanic evil. No politician tells the whole truth and nothing but the truth, but some politicians are still far better than others.”

Chapter 18 – Science Fiction
Science Fiction FTW, but should do a better job of describing the (near) future.

Chapter 19 – Education
People need to learn how to make sense of information, not get more info that they can find on Wikipedia.

Four C’s: critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity.

Adaptability is what we need in the future, not a specific set of skills (Taken would be no movie if they had a killer drone available).

When do stories work? When we ask people to make a sacrifice for it. (me) This is something that Effective Altruism may learn from.

Chapter 20 – Meaning
Top-down (God?) or bottom-up (liberalism) or just without meaning (Buddism). But even those who claim to be the nicest, do fight wars with their neighbours or countrymen.

Chapter 21 – Meditation
Suffering happens in the mind. So learn to know your mind better.

See Sam Harris’ Waking Up and read the Stoics (e.g. Meditations).

August 30, 2020

Ilium

Ilium by Dan Simmons is a tome of a book that mixes sci-fi with Greek mythology. Although I have some basic understanding of that period, I think I lacked some background to enjoy some of the subtleties. Besides that I also found it to be too long (description of traveling or other such things) for the content. And of course, it stops right before a climactic fight which will be the start of Olympos (part 2 of duology).

“The Trojan War rages at the foot of Olympos Mons on Mars—observed and influenced from on high by Zeus and his immortal family—and twenty-first-century professor Thomas Hockenberry is there to play a role in the insidious private wars of vengeful gods and goddesses. On Earth, a small band of the few remaining humans pursues a lost past and devastating truth—as four sentient machines depart from Jovian space to investigate, perhaps terminate, the potentially catastrophic emissions emanating from a mountaintop miles above the terraformed surface of the Red Planet.”

“The novel centers on three character groups: that of Hockenberry (a resurrected twentieth-century Homeric scholar whose duty is to compare the events of the Iliad to the reenacted events of the Trojan War), Greek and Trojan warriors, and Greek gods from the Iliad; Daeman, Harman, Ada, and other humans of an Earth thousands of years after the twentieth century; and the “moravec” robots (named for scientist and futurist Hans Moravec) Mahnmut the Europan and Orphu of Io, also thousands of years in the future, but originating in the Jovian system. The novel is written in first-person, present-tense when centered on Hockenberry’s character, but features third-person, past-tense narrative in all other instances. Much like Simmons’ Hyperion, where the actual events serve as a frame, the three groups of characters’ stories are told over the course of the novel and begin to converge as the climax nears.”