Unfinished Thoughts

There's a strand of thought running through an episode of Black Mirror called "The Entire History of You" through Severance by Ling Ma that I think deals with this idea that modern technology makes it too easy to be trapped by nostalgia for our own personal history. And I do mean nostalgia in the old etymological sense of pain that comes from fond remembrances. Or at least perceived fondly. In Black Mirror, the concept is almost literal as the main episode in the character is paralyzed by the "grain" implant and rewatching the past moments in his head. The whole episode is just awful to watch (though very well done), with the couple having sex while re-watching some previous encounter that wasn't with each other among other things. Ling Ma's Severance is more subtle and I'm not sure she would agree with how I read her book. The fungal plague that breaks out seems to trap people in their own memories until they la...

How many of the "general" type personal details would someone need to be able to find you using a database of all such information? Things like:  Hometown  Gender  College attended Age bracket  As opposed to more specific things like high school attended (vs. hometown, though that might not matter in places where privates schools are non-existent) or major/degree granted vs. university attended. Some people like to believe they are almost anonymous and others are (in their minds, for sure) the epitome of unique snowflake. But as a thought experiment, how many general or specific things would be needed to find you? Using myself as an example, I feel pretty confident (~75% probability) that a motivated person could identify me using just:  My hometown (suburb of a major US city)  Gender  University attended (gigantic state public university but one I attended as an out-of-state student) Approximate age (maybe a +/- 2 years around my true age)  If y...

That title is overly blunt. I certainly think that wars have been and could be "winnable" in the sense of the ancient stories of Rome sacking Carthage, the Genghis Khan stories of killing every male in towns that did not submit, etc. But is there any country willing to prosecute war on this level? Clearly not. And we're all likely better off for it. But I can't help think of so man works of fiction and history this act of true surrender seems so infrequent. Japan and Germany after WW2 is the prime example but even there, Japanese intransigence towards the US in attempting to continue certain aspects of governance was astonishing at times considering circumstances.  I've had a lot of thoughts about this topic in the last few years after reading and watching (in no particular order) "War: How Conflict Shaped Us" by Margaret MacMillan, The Expanse (both the books and most recent season 5 with Marco Inaros), and - weirdly - recent US politics with the South...

Like many people, I will find myself reading books to children that I have read myself at their age. It's fascinating to see what you notice with 20-30 (or more) years of age & experience, if not wisdom. The Cat in the Hat appears to be about: A divorced (or at least single) mom, A ne'er-do-well, possibly absentee father who the kids see as the titular Cat and... The Fish who I think is an older sibling who actually remembers what a plonker their dad was and warns his two younger siblings (who don't remember) to not allow their dad back into their life. Evidence: Mom clearly has a twin bed At no point is their father ever mentioned No babysitter at all - except the responsible fish!? The cat just kind of... shows up but seems quite familiar with them and the fish definitely seems to know him. He's trying to make up for years of being a deadbeat by showing them a day of super-amazing fun with all his toys. But then he just waltzes...