I’ve read a lot of books this week and I’m now in need of some non-fiction. So, for this Tuesday Faves I’ll mostly be summing up ballin’ science pieces. Because you see by proxy I can call that non-fiction. Yay!
I’ll often be heard saying that jet lag is a myth. This is because while I’m always afraid of where in the space-time continuum those hours disappear to (possibly a dinosaur version of me in a parallel universe, and yes ‘Katosaurus’ would be too obvious) when I fly back to New Zealand from London, I’ve always really been in the Einstein camp: time is what clocks measure. Turns out, as per usual, I’m a bit off the mark. Sure, time is a human invention, but only to a degree. Shit.
I suppose this week has also been accidentally themed around things that freak me out, a bit more specific that non-fiction. It’s no secret that for a while now I’ve lived in fear of Singularity Theory because as the kind of person who thought their iPod had died when it was just on ‘hold’ I’m not massively keen on wanting to live forever as a machine. I’m often comforted by the fact that machines couldn’t write say, a novel, so maybe arts will help the fleshy human stay relevant. Wrong again Kat, wrong again.
On an utter flipside: you know what can seem scarier than the inner workings of a machine? The inner workings of a human, we’re bloody marvelous creatures. We spend a whole heap of time underestimating and under-valuating ourselves because we can’t move as fast as cars or fly. But really, could a car figure out applied echolocation? You might want to start with this article, then go to the next installment.
While it can be a little sad and somewhat awkward that humans decided that humans should set the bar for intelligence, it’s fun to investigate if parrots are just tricking, or actually making conversation. And yes, talking birds do freak me out. If they don’t freak you out, you might be the freak. I’m not explaining, just speculating; birds are the closest relatives to dinosaurs, and I just feel like a tiny, talking dinosaur is the last thing we need. Although, considering humans set that intelligence bar, dinosaurs might find it hard to cope in a 2012 context.
Meanwhile, humans and their standard-fixing intellect might be sticking around a little longer than they should. What would Attenborough say? Here’s hoping it’s not human hard drives. Sssh Darwin.
Non-fiction! Making dinner parties interesting since before TV.
YAY!
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