Exhalation
Metadata
- Author: Ted Chiang
- ASIN: B07P5CS7Z4
- ISBN: 1529014484
- Reference: https://amazon.co.uk/dp/B07P5CS7Z4
- Kindle link
Highlights
Unfortunately, such reasoning is faulty; every form of behavior is compatible with determinism. — location: 764
harmattan — location: 2524
The assessment report of the Europeans was vough; it was exact and precise, but that wasn’t enough to settle the question. The choice of which clan to join had to be right for the community; it had to be mimi. — location: 3051
We don’t normally think of it as such, but writing is a technology, which means that a literate person is someone whose thought processes are technologically mediated. We became cognitive cyborgs as soon as we became fluent readers, and the consequences of that were profound. — location: 3066
griots — location: 3070
And I think I’ve found the real benefit of digital memory. The point is not to prove you were right; the point is to admit you were wrong. — location: 3088
Because I think there are events of another category that are likewise not fixed in a causal chain: acts of volition. Free will is a kind of miracle; when we make a genuine choice, we bring about a result that cannot be reduced to the workings of physical law. Every act of volition is, like the creation of the universe, a first cause. If we had no evidence for the miracle of creation, we might think physical law was sufficient to explain every phenomenon in the cosmos, leading us to conclude that our own minds were nothing more than natural processes. But we know that there is more to what we observe than physical law can encompass; miracles happen, and human choices are surely among them. — location: 3615
I’ve devoted my life to studying the wondrous mechanism that is the universe, and doing so has given me a sense of fulfillment. I’ve always assumed that this meant that I was acting in accordance with your will, Lord, and your reason for making me. But if it’s in fact true that you have no purpose in mind for me, then that sense of fulfillment has arisen solely from within myself. What that demonstrates to me is that we as humans are capable of creating meaning for our own lives. — location: 3625