Christopher McKitterick's Blog, page 45
December 4, 2010
How to Save the World.
In this wonderfully illustrated talk about "preparing the groundwork for an empathic civilization," Jeremy Rifkin discusses the evolution of empathy how it has shaped human development and how we interact. Check it out, then come back and we'll talk:
What he's saying here is that we need to broaden our sense of identity from selfish or tribal or religious or national identity to identifying as part of human civilization, as a fellow living being, as part of the Earth's biosphere - and I would add, as part of the Milky Way Galaxy, as part of the universe as a whole. He says that we are "soft-wired for sociability, attachment, affection, companionship," and that our "first drive is to belong. It's an empathic drive."
He summarizes, "If we are truly Homo Empathicus, then we need to bring out that core nature. Because if it doesn't come and out it's repressed by our parenting, our educational system, our business practices, our government, the secondary drives take over: the narcissism, materialism, utilitarianism, violence, and aggression."
This is the primary theme in all I write. It's what Transcendence is about, what Empire Ship is about, and what my upcoming young-adult SF books will be about - that we must be empathic in all we do, because all we produce (our "fictions," technology and nationalism (in its broadest sense) and religion build barriers to understanding one another. Those walls we build rise so naturally when we don't exercise empathy - which is hard! It hurts to feel the suffering around us - and the wall-building grows as we stifle our empathic capacity, thereby limiting our ability to see others as like us in some way, even as human.
Lack of understanding leads to lack of empathy. Lack of empathy leads to easy dehumanization (or de-bunny-ization or so forth). Next, our identity shrinks until at some point it shrivels down to just Me. Then selfish drives take over, and it feels right and sensible that all I care about is what I want, because I can't imagine what others would think or feel. Now it's easy to hurt others; it's easy to disregard others, to lock them away in dungeons, to steal from them or take advantage of them, to rape or kill them.
It's only natural that prisoners and victims develop powerful empathy for their abusers, because the victim's world makes no sense: Why would someone do this to me? So they grope for understanding, exercising their empathic powers, delving into the minds of their abusers. This is why we have Stockholm Syndrome, why people stay with their abusive parents or partners.
It also explains why people who consistently behave in sociopathic ways - guards at secret prisons, habitual criminals, investment bankers - appear to lose their humanity. It's why military training works hard to erase the humanity of the target, and why soldiers make poor police. In fact, I would like to see a study that seeks to cure "sociopaths," because I hypothesize that such people might be curable over time if they exercise their atrophied empathy.
The dude who wandered around the Middle East a couple thousand years ago preached love and understanding and forgiveness: He preached that we must exercise our empathy or we will descend into Hell, which - In a literal sense - means that our world will become horrific if we are incapable of understanding and empathizing with one another.
Saving the world is simple: The sooner we start embracing the people and animals and natural wonders around us as part of us, as our identity, the sooner we will solve all the problems facing us.
This is also what I love about science fiction: It is the literature of the human species, not limited to the individual or nation or religion or even species or planet. Taken as a whole, SF says that we are all in this together, and when we're not - and when we lose our capacity to think of us as in it together - things go to hell in a hurry. As our technology grows more powerful, so too does our capacity to dehumanize and destroy others.
The Cold War was so horrible because it institutionalized anti-empathy. All wars are like this, including the current "war on terror" (and we all know that, right now, that means against Islamic fundamentalism), which is worse in many ways because it is not nation vs. nation or ideology vs. ideology: It's Us vs. Them. There's no reasoning with that, and the side-effects are pervasive and creeping. We all know The Terrorists are evil, right? And they all know that the West is evil. There's no room for understanding when our walls rise up and meet at the top.
When we cease empathizing, when we lose the capacity to imagine the other as our self, we build mausoleums around our cultures, nations, religions, and everything else that constitutes our identity - around our very selves! But empathizing is hard, I know. Listening to the news is painful, because it's all about suffering and loss. As the Dread Pirate said, "Life is pain, princess. Anyone who says differently is selling something." Heck, every week I see an animal on the side of road, needlessly killed by inattentive drivers, and that makes me suffer a little more. When I can, I stop and move the dead thing to the bushes and tell it that it's safe now, but at a deeper level that's just for me, to ease my empathic suffering.
One can argue that the most selfish thing you can do is to empathize. But as Rifkin says, "To empathize is to civilize," so this is one need we should satisfy whenever we can.
To be able to feel others in our heart: This is what it means to love. When people say that love is what life is all about, that there's nothing greater than to love and be loved in return, they don't mean some cheesy Hallmark version of love; they mean empathize with each other. This is all that matters in life. This is how we save the world.
Go out and empathize today!
Love,
Chris
What he's saying here is that we need to broaden our sense of identity from selfish or tribal or religious or national identity to identifying as part of human civilization, as a fellow living being, as part of the Earth's biosphere - and I would add, as part of the Milky Way Galaxy, as part of the universe as a whole. He says that we are "soft-wired for sociability, attachment, affection, companionship," and that our "first drive is to belong. It's an empathic drive."
He summarizes, "If we are truly Homo Empathicus, then we need to bring out that core nature. Because if it doesn't come and out it's repressed by our parenting, our educational system, our business practices, our government, the secondary drives take over: the narcissism, materialism, utilitarianism, violence, and aggression."
This is the primary theme in all I write. It's what Transcendence is about, what Empire Ship is about, and what my upcoming young-adult SF books will be about - that we must be empathic in all we do, because all we produce (our "fictions," technology and nationalism (in its broadest sense) and religion build barriers to understanding one another. Those walls we build rise so naturally when we don't exercise empathy - which is hard! It hurts to feel the suffering around us - and the wall-building grows as we stifle our empathic capacity, thereby limiting our ability to see others as like us in some way, even as human.
Lack of understanding leads to lack of empathy. Lack of empathy leads to easy dehumanization (or de-bunny-ization or so forth). Next, our identity shrinks until at some point it shrivels down to just Me. Then selfish drives take over, and it feels right and sensible that all I care about is what I want, because I can't imagine what others would think or feel. Now it's easy to hurt others; it's easy to disregard others, to lock them away in dungeons, to steal from them or take advantage of them, to rape or kill them.
It's only natural that prisoners and victims develop powerful empathy for their abusers, because the victim's world makes no sense: Why would someone do this to me? So they grope for understanding, exercising their empathic powers, delving into the minds of their abusers. This is why we have Stockholm Syndrome, why people stay with their abusive parents or partners.
It also explains why people who consistently behave in sociopathic ways - guards at secret prisons, habitual criminals, investment bankers - appear to lose their humanity. It's why military training works hard to erase the humanity of the target, and why soldiers make poor police. In fact, I would like to see a study that seeks to cure "sociopaths," because I hypothesize that such people might be curable over time if they exercise their atrophied empathy.
The dude who wandered around the Middle East a couple thousand years ago preached love and understanding and forgiveness: He preached that we must exercise our empathy or we will descend into Hell, which - In a literal sense - means that our world will become horrific if we are incapable of understanding and empathizing with one another.
Saving the world is simple: The sooner we start embracing the people and animals and natural wonders around us as part of us, as our identity, the sooner we will solve all the problems facing us.
This is also what I love about science fiction: It is the literature of the human species, not limited to the individual or nation or religion or even species or planet. Taken as a whole, SF says that we are all in this together, and when we're not - and when we lose our capacity to think of us as in it together - things go to hell in a hurry. As our technology grows more powerful, so too does our capacity to dehumanize and destroy others.
The Cold War was so horrible because it institutionalized anti-empathy. All wars are like this, including the current "war on terror" (and we all know that, right now, that means against Islamic fundamentalism), which is worse in many ways because it is not nation vs. nation or ideology vs. ideology: It's Us vs. Them. There's no reasoning with that, and the side-effects are pervasive and creeping. We all know The Terrorists are evil, right? And they all know that the West is evil. There's no room for understanding when our walls rise up and meet at the top.
When we cease empathizing, when we lose the capacity to imagine the other as our self, we build mausoleums around our cultures, nations, religions, and everything else that constitutes our identity - around our very selves! But empathizing is hard, I know. Listening to the news is painful, because it's all about suffering and loss. As the Dread Pirate said, "Life is pain, princess. Anyone who says differently is selling something." Heck, every week I see an animal on the side of road, needlessly killed by inattentive drivers, and that makes me suffer a little more. When I can, I stop and move the dead thing to the bushes and tell it that it's safe now, but at a deeper level that's just for me, to ease my empathic suffering.
One can argue that the most selfish thing you can do is to empathize. But as Rifkin says, "To empathize is to civilize," so this is one need we should satisfy whenever we can.
To be able to feel others in our heart: This is what it means to love. When people say that love is what life is all about, that there's nothing greater than to love and be loved in return, they don't mean some cheesy Hallmark version of love; they mean empathize with each other. This is all that matters in life. This is how we save the world.
Go out and empathize today!
Love,
Chris
December 2, 2010
Astrobiology announcement press conference!
Watch on NASA TV!
Sounds like the arsenic-life thing is the topic!
EDIT: Yes! Here's the full story in text format via the Washington Post.
Chris
Sounds like the arsenic-life thing is the topic!
EDIT: Yes! Here's the full story in text format via the Washington Post.
Chris
Blind from the font!
Does anyone have a suggestion on how to make LJ readable again? I'm going blind with this new, blurry, skinny font. It's not just IE, either; also in Chrome.
Ugh!
Chris
Ugh!
Chris
December 1, 2010
Thursday: NASA Announces Alien Discovery!
(Disclaimer: This announcement could be as mild as "New method for tracking Earth-sized planets established" or as wild as "ALIENS CONTACTED US! HOLY CRAP PEOPLE!")
There'll be a live news conference on NASA TV tomorrow (Thursday) at 11:00am Pacific / 1:00pm Central / 2:00pm East Coast time entitled, "News Conference on Astrobiology Discovery; Science Journal Has Embargoed Details Until 2 p.m. EST On Dec. 2."
Click the image to see more of Wayne Barlowe's Darwin IV aliens from his fantastic book, Expedition.
More info on the NASA website.
Did you read James Gunn's The Listeners ? I'm just sayin'.
Chris
There'll be a live news conference on NASA TV tomorrow (Thursday) at 11:00am Pacific / 1:00pm Central / 2:00pm East Coast time entitled, "News Conference on Astrobiology Discovery; Science Journal Has Embargoed Details Until 2 p.m. EST On Dec. 2."
Click the image to see more of Wayne Barlowe's Darwin IV aliens from his fantastic book, Expedition.
More info on the NASA website.
Did you read James Gunn's The Listeners ? I'm just sayin'.
Chris
Happy Book Publication to Me!
Years ago when I thought about what I'd do to as a present for publishing my first book, I wanted something that doesn't really interest me any more. So I've been thinking about it for a while and updated my desire to something that I would love, that I've wanted for a long time, and that's appropriate re: the book. A mondo-sized Dob! Meet my new Meade Lightbridge 16" Dobsonian reflector. This is the simplest form of telescope to use: just point and shoot. No complicated computers that fail, no motors that fail, no nothing but the observer and the instrument and the sky. I imagine I'll eventually rig up a tracking system for easier view-sharing among friends, but as big as this is, its short focal ratio means magnification is only about half that of my GPS-powered 'scope (which is currently out of service, despite hours of effort in software and hardware troubleshooting), and thus images will remain in the field of view longer.
I've missed the lovely Orion 10" Dob that I sold when I bought my bells-and-whistles Schmidt-Cassegrain 'scope, but one doesn't just replace a telescope with one of the same size. And considering Dobs are much cheaper than SCTs, I decided to take the big leap up to 16 inches of light-gulping power! If you're a boat owner, you know what I mean, only it's two-inch-itis instead of two-foot-itis. On the practical side, it's about as big an instrument as I can carry around by myself - note that the truss-beams unscrew, and the tube lifts out of the base, making it really portable for its size.
Snapped this shot a few minutes ago after I finished assembling it... can't wait to try it out later!
Next star party, y'll're invited.
Chris
November 29, 2010
Hadley Rille Books Editor Writes 50,000 Words in One Day!
Today, to celebrate Hadley Rille Books' 5-year anniversary - and his own birthday! - Eric T Reynolds (
![[info]](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1380442897i/1319734.gif)
ericreynolds
) is writing 50,000 words. IN ONE DAY.
So far: about 5000 words in two hours. You can track his progress on his Facebook account. Go wish him luck!
Best,
Chris
ericreynolds
) is writing 50,000 words. IN ONE DAY. So far: about 5000 words in two hours. You can track his progress on his Facebook account. Go wish him luck!
[image error]Also in celebration of this wonderful publishing house's anniversary, Eric is giving away a Kindle 3G! You get one free registration, and the more books you buy, the more entries you get. Help Hadley Rille sell 5000 books by December 31! I hear they have this science fiction novel entitled Transcendence (at a nice discount directly from the publisher), which would make a lovely present ;-)
Best,
Chris
November 25, 2010
Thankful!
I'm thankful that we have John Scalzi to provide us with a proper SFnal script for Thanksgiving grace.
I'm thankful that we have Daniel Radcliffe, who is far more charming and funny and geeky than I had ever imagined:
And of course that Tom Lehrer gave us "The Elements" in the first place:
I'm thankful to live in a time when we have something like the Hubble Space Telescope and that we can all look at the most-amazing photos ever taken, and that we can do it any time we want from the comfort of our own homes:
Click the image to see more about the Carina Nebula, aka "The Pillars of Creation."
I'm thankful for the Cassini mission to Saturn - and to the Voyager, Galileo, and all the other amazing missions - which take us to a place humans won't likely visit for a while yet:
Click the image to see info about this shot of Saturn.
I'm thankful that we had Carl Sagan to show us how glorious and amazing the universe is, and I'm thankful for the Symphony of Science folks for making videos like this:
I'm thankful that we have people like Brian Greene to carry Sagan's torch into the future.
In short: I'm thankful to live in this Age of Wonders, and I can't wait to see what comes next!
Now to the personal, though everything above feels personal to me.
I'm thankful to have met SF Grand Master James Gunn, who not only shaped my understanding of science fiction since an early age but shaped much of who I am, and who continues to do so.
I'm thankful to be a part of this crazy and diverse and open and thoughtful and important thing we call Science Fiction! We're a big family (with all the good and irritating that comes with that), and I'm thankful to have been welcomed to join you.
I'm thankful for having had the good fortune to meet so many kind and interesting and wonderful people, and to be honored to call several of them friends.
I'm even thankful for having met a number of horrible and monstrous people, because they are also human, and it's my quest to understand what it means to be human.
I'm thankful for the loves of my life - both dear friends and lovers - because you have helped make me the man I am today. I'm certain that without the capacity to love, we cannot be fully human. The greatest thing in life is to love and be loved in return ;-)
Okay, I need to stop at some point or this will become (more) maudlin! I hope you have a fine day and get to spend time with those you love.
Chris
I'm thankful that we have Daniel Radcliffe, who is far more charming and funny and geeky than I had ever imagined:
And of course that Tom Lehrer gave us "The Elements" in the first place:
I'm thankful to live in a time when we have something like the Hubble Space Telescope and that we can all look at the most-amazing photos ever taken, and that we can do it any time we want from the comfort of our own homes:
Click the image to see more about the Carina Nebula, aka "The Pillars of Creation."
I'm thankful for the Cassini mission to Saturn - and to the Voyager, Galileo, and all the other amazing missions - which take us to a place humans won't likely visit for a while yet:
Click the image to see info about this shot of Saturn.
I'm thankful that we had Carl Sagan to show us how glorious and amazing the universe is, and I'm thankful for the Symphony of Science folks for making videos like this:
I'm thankful that we have people like Brian Greene to carry Sagan's torch into the future.
In short: I'm thankful to live in this Age of Wonders, and I can't wait to see what comes next!
Now to the personal, though everything above feels personal to me.
I'm thankful to have met SF Grand Master James Gunn, who not only shaped my understanding of science fiction since an early age but shaped much of who I am, and who continues to do so.
I'm thankful to be a part of this crazy and diverse and open and thoughtful and important thing we call Science Fiction! We're a big family (with all the good and irritating that comes with that), and I'm thankful to have been welcomed to join you.
I'm thankful for having had the good fortune to meet so many kind and interesting and wonderful people, and to be honored to call several of them friends.
I'm even thankful for having met a number of horrible and monstrous people, because they are also human, and it's my quest to understand what it means to be human.
I'm thankful for the loves of my life - both dear friends and lovers - because you have helped make me the man I am today. I'm certain that without the capacity to love, we cannot be fully human. The greatest thing in life is to love and be loved in return ;-)
Okay, I need to stop at some point or this will become (more) maudlin! I hope you have a fine day and get to spend time with those you love.
Chris
November 24, 2010
Squirrel of Discovery
Especially for
weaselmom
:
Click the image to see more wonderful photos by Chris Buzelli.
What do you think happens next? What's in there? Is this curious squirrel about to embark on an adventure into places we can only imagine? Is this the transformational moment in Squirreldom?
I love this guy's art, how each piece suggests an entire story, usually something magical. I discovered Chris Buzelli because of the art he painted for Kij Johnson's creepy new story, "Ponies."
If you like this piece, check out his galleries.
Chris
weaselmom
:
Click the image to see more wonderful photos by Chris Buzelli.
What do you think happens next? What's in there? Is this curious squirrel about to embark on an adventure into places we can only imagine? Is this the transformational moment in Squirreldom?
I love this guy's art, how each piece suggests an entire story, usually something magical. I discovered Chris Buzelli because of the art he painted for Kij Johnson's creepy new story, "Ponies."
If you like this piece, check out his galleries.
Chris
November 22, 2010
Astro-Porn of the Day: The Universe Before the Big Bang
Have to share this cool story on theoretical cosmology (is there any other type?) that I heard about from James Gunn, who's been exploring his intuitive hunch that there must have been something before the Big Bang:
Click the pic to see the io9 story.
Great stuff.
Chris
Click the pic to see the io9 story.
Great stuff.
Chris
Christopher McKitterick's Blog
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