Turning Literature into Big Business, The Future of Intelligence, Daoist History
Plus: When Climate Change Melts Your Relationship, Starling Murmuration, Salzburg Trumpet
๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐:
Alex Blasdel | The Guardian | November 9, 2023
โLiterary agents are the matchmakers and middlemen of the book industry, pairing writers with publishers and negotiating the contracts for books, from which they take an industry-standard 15%. In this capacity, Wylie and his firm, The Wylie Agency, operate on behalf of an astonishing number of the worldโs most revered writers .... The agencyโs list of more than 1,300 clients includes Saul Bellow, Joseph Brodsky, Albert Camus, Bob Dylan, Louise Glรผck, Yasunari Kawabata, Czesลaw Miลosz, VS Naipaul, Kenzaburล ลe, Orhan Pamuk, Josรฉ Saramago and Mo Yan โ and those are just the ones who have won the Nobel prize.โ
๐๐ก๐ ๐ ๐ฎ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ ๐จ๐ ๐๐ง๐ญ๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ข๐ ๐๐ง๐๐
Steve Hsu | Latecomer | 24th October 2023
We overestimate the technical risks of genetic engineering in humans. Editing a specific gene may cause side-effects in other genes, but these are foreseeable. On the other hand, we underestimate the social consequences of genetic engineering, if its benefits are captured by an existing elite. It may create a self-replicating class of rulers who are tall, beautiful, super-clever, and live for 200 years
๐๐๐จ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ ๐๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐จ๐ซ๐ฒ
Dingxin Zhao | Noema | 1st November 2023
A modest attempt to explain how Daoist philosophical precepts shape the teaching of history in China. Westerners tend to view history as a linear movement in the general direction of progress. The Daoist model is more dialectical. History is a constant rebalancing of forces. What is stronger now will be weaker later, and vice versa. This does not sum to โprogress.โ It is merely change.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Serendipitous Epiphany to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.