There is no such thing as society

 --- Margaret Thatcher, recorded by the New Statesman, "Margaret Thatcher in quotes," 8 april 2013, archived by the WayBackMachine

New Statesman:

I think we have gone through a period when too many children and people have been given to understand “I have a problem, it is the Government’s job to cope with it!” or “I have a problem, I will go and get a grant to cope with it!” “I am homeless, the Government must house me!” and so they are casting their problems on society and who is society? There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and there are families and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first… There is no such thing as society. There is living tapestry of men and women and people and the beauty of that tapestry and the quality of our lives will depend upon how much each of us is prepared to take responsibility for ourselves and each of us prepared to turn round and help by our own efforts those who are unfortunate.

A.I.’s new mastery of language means it can now hack and manipulate the operating system of civilization

 --- Yuval Harari, Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin, You Can Have the Blue Pill or the Red Pill, and We’re Out of Blue Pills, New York Times, March 2023

Excerpt

In the beginning was the word. Language is the operating system of human culture. From language emerges myth and law, gods and money, art and science, friendships and nations and computer code. A.I.’s new mastery of language means it can now hack and manipulate the operating system of civilization. By gaining mastery of language, A.I. is seizing the master key to civilization, from bank vaults to holy sepulchers.

...

The time to reckon with A.I. is before our politics, our economy and our daily life become dependent on it. Democracy is a conversation, conversation relies on language, and when language itself is hacked, the conversation breaks down, and democracy becomes untenable. If we wait for the chaos to ensue, it will be too late to remedy it. 

But what is "A.I."? What is the "it" that can hack and manipulate? The language presumes agency, and it's not clear that "A.I." has agency. If it's a dataset and algorithm, it doesn't have a clear boundary, and depends on a corporation to provide infrastructure to run on. Seems like an anthropomorphic fallacy to me.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has

 --- attrib. to Margaret Mead. See QuoteInvestigator discussion, which concludes: "Donald Keys appears to be the crucial initial propagator of the quotation although it remains unclear how he learned about the statement. The precise phrasing and the ascription to Margaret Mead hinge on his veracity. There is no substantive support for competing ascriptions, and QI would tentatively assign the saying to Mead."

the older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment

--- Ben Franklin, speech to the Federal Convention, 17 Sept. 1787 (The Founders' Constitution, Volume 4, Article 7, Document 3)

Excerpt

I confess that there are several parts of this constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them: For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that the older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment, and to pay more respect to the judgment of others.

Via A.J. Jacobs, in conversation with Russ Roberts, EconTalk podcast 6 May 2024, Living with the Constitution (with A.J. Jacobs)

literature as a playground on which to confront ambiguity and paradox

--- Anja Lange, undated CU Boulder profile page (accessed 8 Jun 2024)

Excerpt

Anja joined the Herbst Program in the fall of 2001.  Since then, she has been teaching literature not only for its own merit but also as a vehicle for gaining insight into engineering and other fields.  The problems in professional engineering will never be as clear-cut as those in the classroom, so Anja offers her engineering students literature as a playground on which to confront ambiguity and paradox.  It might seem counter-intuitive, but Plato, Shakespeare, Voltaire, Melville, and T.S. Eliot can help Herbst students become better engineers by helping them engage in self-learning and interactive problem-solving.  Anja believes that the synergy found in an interdisciplinary study helps one fully understand our civic responsibilities; these responsibilities are even greater for the engineer.

The worst thing to happen to climate scientists on Twitter was climate scientists on Twitter

--- Matthew Burgess, quoted in Stephanie Hanes, "A climate scientist questioned his findings. It didn’t go well.", CS Monitor, Jun 2024

Excerpt

Matthew Burgess, a self-proclaimed “moderate Canadian” and assistant professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, says the politics he noticed within academia prompted him to study polarization around climate change – and to look for common ground.

“It felt like the conversations in the hallways were about how we need to change all of society over decades. But the only ones who were trusted or who could do anything about it were the left-most third of the Democratic Party,” he says. “That’s a dumb theory of change.”

He decided to do outreach on college campuses about polarized climate discussions. He says he spoke with conservatives and progressives and everyone in between, finding eager audiences among each and a willingness to be open – that is, to trust.

“Scientists sometimes overcomplicate the problem of being trusted,” he says. “The best way of gaining trust is to be trustworthy.”

That means acknowledging the downsides of climate action, he says. It means acknowledging where scientific expertise ends and personal, subjective opinion begins. It means acknowledging the big, ethical questions that come along with it. For instance, is it fair to prevent lower-income countries from developing the same fossil fuel-based energy systems that helped make the U.S. and Europe rich?

It also means keeping partisanship and incivility off social media. “The worst thing to happen to climate scientists on Twitter was climate scientists on Twitter,” he says.

And it means better explaining how science actually works.

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "Thank You," that would suffice.

 --- attrib to Meister Eckhardt; disputed, see Wikiquote

Nothing of what I do makes sense for a cheap food system, but ... as food security, then I start to make sense

--- Farmer Heinz Thomet, quoted in Sophie Hill, "In Maryland, just two farmers grow rice. Here’s why." CS Monitor, Oct 2023

A nice example of the trade-off between efficiency and resilience.

Excerpt

“Nothing of what I do makes sense for a cheap food system, but if you recognize a decentralized food system as food security, then I start to make sense,” says Mr. Thomet. “If you look at diversified farms as part of the resilience towards a global weather pattern change, then I start to make change.”

the law less as strategic or rule-based and more as a muddled, dangerous beast

--- Vajra Chandraskera, The Saint of Bright Doors, p. 165 

Excerpt

[Caduv:] "Keep the boundaries of allowed speech vague, and you can claim that your enemies have crossed them whenever you need to suppress them. The Ministry of Information and Mass Media is nothing more than a blacklist-in-waiting."

Fetter nods tiredly. It's the same attitude Mother-of-Glory has to the law. Fetter himself thinks of the law less as strategic or rule-based and more as a muddled, dangerous beast. A rabid leopard, like Caduv's character in the play. None of the others understand that the law might do anything, at any time, to anyone, and justify itself any way it likes—it is feral, like the invisible laws and powers of the world of which it is a pale imitation. It's because none of them can see the devils, he thinks.