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An Egyptian author named Sayyid Qutb was a source of inspiration for radical Islamist groups such as Al-Qaeda. Their first leader, Osama Bin Laden, was exposed to the author’s body of work from both his mentor, who was a student of Qutb's, and from public lectures given by Qutb's brother. Qutb was anti-American; he detested the violence and sexual nature he claimed America possessed and his words reflected this quality.

There is a way of thinking known as Bayesian Inference that allows for a hypothesis to be updated for correctness as more data surfaces. Steven Pinker, in his book Enlightment Now, provides a good example of how this works when he describes the thinking of people known as “superforecasters.” When one of these people are asked the likelihood of an event they begin to formulate their guess with an objective base rate based on statistics. Then, in an effort to get their prediction more accurate, they find further evidence to inform their prediction about whatever specific situation they are asked about.

This way of thinking reminds me of the way engineers perform back of napkin calculations. They begin with an overarching idea about how the technical aspects might affect the success of a project and narrow down the scope until they have an estimation for their specific instance. The trick to becoming a “superforecaster” and using Bayesian inference successfully is to remove all emotions from the situation and look at every prediction the same way an engineer would get a rough estimate for a project. Easier said than done when forecasting questions can be as charged as “What is the likelihood of an Islamic terror attack on US soil in the next year?” There’s a lot of baggage to that question and in order to get an accurate assessment it is important to remove emotions from the situation.

There are some people who believe that Japan surrendered in the Second World War because of the Soviet invasion of Manchuria and not because of the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States.

There was a quote by Nasa in 1965 that talked about the benefits of human labor. "Man is the lowest-cost, 150-pound, nonlinear, all-purpose computer system which can be mass-produced by unskilled labour." Talk about some impersonal logic!

Read Resumé, a poem about suicide by Dorothy Parker, twice and see the thought process of how some people come to the decision NOT to commit suicide just because it's too much of a hassle.

Razors pain you;

Rivers are damp;

Acids stain you;

And drugs cause cramp.

Guns aren’t lawful;

Nooses give;

Gas smells awful;

You might as well live.

Biochar is a product that can store large amounts of carbon for centuries, a concept scientists are looking into in order to reduce the carbon footprint of humanity. It is made from “burning” biomass in the absence of oxygen and can be added to soil to increase agricultural productivity. There is evidence that Pre-Colombian Amazons created biochar by covering smoldering plant matter in a pit beneath a layer of dirt which would prevent the flow of oxygen. Little did they know their efforts to grow plants more effectively would be researched far in the future in order to fight climate change, a cause that has direct effects on the land they called home.

There was a movie called The China Syndrome, starring Jane Fonda, that came out in 1979. It describes the aftermath of a nuclear meltdown and how parts of the reactor melted through the earth and all the way to China. What’s crazy about this, and what I never knew until I listened to Enlightment Now by Steven Pinker, was that the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster happened less than two weeks later. How crazy is that?!

A potlatch was essentially a gift-giving feast common in the pacific northwest before a ban by the Canadian government made the practice illegal.

Hearing this word in Enlightment Now by Steven Pinker immediately transported me back to a book I read when I was younger. It was about one man who went to live among, and learned to appreciate, the culture of the indigenous people. I remember he traveled there by boat and lived close to the river but other than that I don’t remember any other details. The name of the book escapes me and I spent quite a while searching for the title. I know that it was required reading in elementary/middle school. If anyone has any idea about which book this could be please let me know!

There is a French saying, L'esprit de l'escalier (the wit of the staircase) that means to think of the perfect reply too late. Made me think of the Simpson’s episode where the perfect comeback hits Marge as she drives away from the gas station. I believe it was from the episode where she buys a Chanel suit and joins a country club called "Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield."

The Second law of thermodynamics states that the overall entropy of the system increases over time. Entropy is, more or less, energy dispersal. It is the reason a glass of ice water will eventually reach the same temperature of the room around it.

In his book Enlightment Now, Steven Pinker uses this law to claim that even if scientists are able to prevent cell death and therefore increase the average lifespan of humans entropy will be there to affect whatever prevention exists. Coupled with the fact that random, unforeseen events could cause death and it becomes clear that perpetual immortality is not possible.

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