Adam Smith was a Scottish philosopher, back in the 1700s. He wrote a couple of well known books, you might’ve heard of them. They were called “The Theory of Moral Sentiments” and “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, better known as “The Wealth of Nations”. I recently read a summary of and commentary on The Wealth of Nations. I couldn’t bring myself to read the original in its entirety, it’s a doorstopper of a book, in language that’s too archaic for me to make much progress. The summary was plenty interesting though. As he was the first to popularly articulate these ideas, I believe we have Smith to thank for free markets as well as many social freedoms.
One of the things I took away from the book was Smith’s very pragmatic assessment of how Europe moved from serfdom / slavery / feudalism to a comparatively free society (which we beneficiaries of Western economic progress get to enjoy). It’s a powerful idea. I’m going to try and sum it up.
Now comes Ken Robinson’s new TED Talk. If you haven’t already seen it, you really should watch the 2006 TEDTalk first.
My initial impressions are: The talk was pretty good, he’s a great speaker. He did rehash a lot of points from his 2006 talk though. Still a great Talk.
Jim Kakalios was a science advisor for the Watchmen movie, and wrote a book called The Physics of Superheroes. He gave this very entertaining and edifying 2009 convocation address at the University of Minnesota, and talks about geeks and nerds. And how we run the world.
A few years before his death, Douglas Adams traveled the world with photographer Mark Cawardine, photographing and filming many of the world’s endangered species, including the komodo dragon, Rwandan mountain gorilla, kakapo, and the baiji dolphin, while trying to raise awareness by doing things like climbing Kilimanjaro dressed in a rhino costume. He wrote about his adventures and the challenges faced in an extremely hilarious and well-written book called “Last Chance to See“. Its not many people that can write about the extinction of hundreds of species of animals while being this entertaining. The book is highly recommended.
The title of the book is morbidly appropriate for this talk as well. The month he died, Douglas Adams gave a very funny and edifying talk at the University of California - Santa Barbara, where he tells some of the stories from his travels.
October 13, 2008 at 3:15 am · Filed under Great Minds
What I Have Lived For
Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a great ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.
I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy - ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness–that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what–at last–I have found.
With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.
Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate this evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.
This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.
I’m a fan of the TED Talks series of lectures. For those not familiar with TED, its an annual conference that brings together some of the greatest minds and performers in the fields of Technology, Entertainment and Design (hence TED). They make the best talks and lectures from the conference available to the public for free. I’ve spent much time watching these lectures online or listening to them on my ipod.
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. He gave this very entertaining and edifying 2009 convocation address at the University of Minnesota, and talks about geeks and nerds. And how we run the world.
“. Its not many people that can write about the extinction of hundreds of species of animals while being this entertaining. The book is highly recommended.
by Gaddis
by Harris
by Sachs
