fallslikesnow

Sons of Science ! For this reason are philosophers said to be envious, not that they grudged the truth to religious or just men, or to the wise; but to fools, ignorant and vicious, who are without self-control and benevolence, least they should be made powerful and able to perpetrate sinful things. For of such the philosophers are made accountable to God, and evil men are not admitted worthy of this wisdom. Know that this matter I call the stone; but it is also named the feminine of magnesia or the hen, or the white spittle, or the volatile milk , the incombustible oil in order that it may be hidden from the inept and ignorant who are deficient in goodness and self-control; which I have nevertheless signified to the wise by one only epithet, viz., the Philosopher's Stone . Include, therefore, and conserve in this sea, the fire and the heavenly bird, to the latest moment of his exit. But I deprecate ye all, Sons of Philosophy, on whom the great gift of this knowled...

Lack of predictability is dangerous. On some level we all know this. It goes back across the centuries to, for example, when we lived in the shadows of great castles, daily expecting a drunken and half-insane baronial lord to emerge and do something to destroy our lives. This, and a million stories like it, explain the urge to gated communities, to identical malls, to burgers that taste the same across the planet. They are predictable. secure and safe and they are indirectly part of the drive for happiness. Actually the word happiness is wrong here, When we refer to the tepid glow we get from all our stuff and mechanisms we have to keep safe, to keep our families ever-smiling, surrounded by air bags both real and metaphorical, we mean contentment. And the dirty secret of our contentment is that we know, again on some deep level, that it's the best we've ever had it. Our ancestors were grindingly miserable. Worse that that, they were survivors and survivors are rarely pleas...