First Lines of Max Brooks "World War Z"

 "It goes by many names: 'The Crisis,' 'The Dark Years,' 'The Walking Plague,' as well as newer and more 'hip' titles such as 'World War Z' or 'Z War One.' I personally dislike this last moniker as it implies an inevitable 'Z War Two.' For me, it will always be 'The Zombie War,' and while many may protest the scientific accuracy of the word zombie, they will be hard-pressed to discover a more globally accepted term for the creatures that almost caused our extinction. Zombie remains a devastating word, unrivaled in its power to conjure up so many memories or emotions, and it is these memories, and emotions, that are the subject of this book." 

- Max Brooks, World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

Nothing like the Brad Pitt movie, Brooks' excellent novel is essentially a collection of short stories detailing the contours of a zombie outbreak. Relentlessly inventive and covering all sorts of details, I particularly appreciated its global approach - while there is a huge focus on the US, large chunks of the book take place in all areas of the globe, each contributing to the narrative with their unique local color. My only quibble is that the nature of the book - each "short story" is told via an interview - sometimes can feel static: you experience the action at a remove, though a story, rather than by being immersed in it. Regardless I finished the book in a matter of days and would recommend it to anyone who appreciates a good adventure story.

It's the hardest thing to feel

"Love is the only thing that matters,
Love is the only thing that's real.
I know we hear this every day,
It's still the hardest thing to feel."

- Suzanne Vega, Ludlow Street off of her excellent Beauty & Crime album.

First Lines of Arthur Brooks "Strength to Strength"

 "Who are the five greatest scientists who have ever lived? This is the kind of question people like to debate in nerdy corners of the internet that you probably don't visit, and I don't intend to take you there. But no matter how much or little you know about science, your list is sure to include Charles Darwin. He is remembered today as a man who changed our understanding of biology completely and permanently. So profound was his influence that his celebrity has never wavered since his death in 1882.

And yet Darwin died considering his career to be a disappointment."

- Arthur Brooks, Strength to Strength  

As I get older, I have an obvious interest in what success looks like as as an aging person in a society obsessed with youth. Brooks examines middle-aged and elderly satisfaction though many different lenses, and perhaps the most interesting to me was the idea of Fluid vs. Crystalized Intelligence. Put simply, Fluid Intelligence is reasoning and problem solving while Crystallized Intelligence is the combined use of past knowledge. Or as Brooks puts it: "When you are young, you have raw smarts; when you are old, you have wisdom."

Strength to Strength is essentially a survey of ideas. While not all of them resonated with me, I enjoyed the journey. The book certainly helped me (as someone who just turned 50) reframe my tendencies towards synthesis and common sense as a benefit, not a bug. 

Quote of the day

 "The last clear definite function of man - muscles aching to work, mind aching to create beyond the single need - this is man... For man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments."

- John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

First Lines of Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game"

 "I've watched though his eyes, I've listened through his ears, and I tell you he's the one. Or at least as close as we're going to get."

"That's what you said about the brother."

- Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game

First Lines of Richard Powers "The Overstory"

 "First there was nothing. Then there was everything.

Then, in a park above a western city after dusk, the air is raining messages. A woman sits on the ground, leaning against a pine. Its bark presses hard against her back, as hard as life. Its needles scent the air and a force hums in the heart of the wood. Her ears tune down to the lowest frequencies. The tree is saying things, in words before words."

- Richard Powers, "The Overstory"

New observations from Webb, new theories of the universe

 I recently read this article at LGM that summarized the implications of some of the findings from the new Webb telescope.  Long story short, some galaxies appear to have formed much earlier than the standard cosmology model predicts. Which leads to some uncomfortable questions about how accurate the standard model is, and points to how little we actually know about the universe. (Campos points out that our understanding has always been flawed; as I've always pondered, a system that essentially says "this equation explains everything except the odd fact that the majority of universe seems to be "dark matter" which we can't see, study, or explain" doesn't make sense.)

Of course, there's a lot of freaky shit that in the universe that doesn't make sense. Some of the models proposed to help explain these new observations are out there: the laws of physics evolving over time? Or John Wheeler, who thinks that observing the universe may cause it's behavior to change (i.e., his “participatory universe” in which every act of observation was in some sense a new act of creation.) 

I can't say I understand all of what this means but I do enjoy pondering what it could mean. It stretches the mind in good and interesting ways. I can't wait to see where this line of inquiry goes!