"Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward — reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories. Paper's full of them.
In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know."

"On the video monitor, they saw Ted Fielding slap the polished sphere and shout, "Open! Open Sesame! Open up, you son of a bitch!"

The sphere did not respond."

He did not want an affair with his boss. He did not even want a one-night stand. Because what always happened was that people found out, gossip at the water cooler, meaningful looks in the hallway. And sooner or later the spouses found out. It always happened. Slammed doors, divorce lawyers, child custody.

"Оплетеният в жици свят е смърт. Всеки биолог знае, че малките изолирани групи се развиват най-бързо. Ако оставите хиляда птици на остров сред океана, тещ е се развият много бързо. Ако ги оставите на голям континент, еволюцията им ще се забави. При нашия вид, при хората, еволюцията се осъществява предимно чрез поведението. За да се приспособим, прибягваме към нов тип поведение. А всеки знае, че новото се появява само в малките групи. Създай комисия от трима души и може би ще свършват някаква работа. При десет души нещата стават сложни. При трийсет души няма никакъв резултат. При трийсет милиона просто няма какво да се надяваме. Това е ефектът от информационните медии - заради тях не може да се случи нищо. Унищожават разнообрацието. Целият свят постепенно става еднакъв. В Банкок, Токио или Лондон... на всеки ъгъл има "Макдоналдс" или "Бенетон". Регионалните различия изчезват. В света на медиите не съществува нищо друго освен първите десет песни, първите десет книги, първите десет филма, идеи и така нататък. Хората се тревожат, че в дъждоносните джунгли на Амазонка намалява разнообразието на видовете. Ами какво да кажем за интелектуалното разнообразие, нашия най-необходим ресурс? То изчезва по-бързо от дърветата. Само че ние все още не сме го разбрали и сега се каним да оплетем едва ли не пет милиарда души в компютърни мрежи. Та това ще доведе до стагнация на целия ни вид! Всичко ще замре. Всички ще мислят едно и също нещо по едно и също време."

Classically, the ability to invent and execute plans was believed to be limited to only three species: chimpanzees, gorillas, and human beings.

You are the reason why he exists on this earth. You don't have the right to abandon him just because he's inconvenient or has trouble in school.

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Raising children is, in a sense, the reason the society exists in the first place. It's the most important thing that happens, and it's the culmination of all the tools and language and social structure that has evolved.

There's one problem with all psychological knowledge - nobody can apply it to themselves. People can be incredibly astute about the shortcomings of their friends, spouses, children. But they have no insight into themselves at all. The same people who are coldly clear-eyed about the world around them have nothing but fantasies about themselves. Psychological knowledge doesn't work if you look in a mirror. This bizarre fact is, as far as I know, unexplained.

Whoever has the power in society determines what can be studied, determines what can be observed, determines what can be thought.

You could not predict what would happen in a single instance, a single throw of the dice, a single pitch in the seventh inning, a single toss of the coin. But you could predict three out of five, four out of ten, seven out of sixteen, and to that extent chance governed everyone, all the time. Just as surely as two equals two.