(Part 3) Top products from r/Foodforthought

1. The Bible: Eh. I can sort of get behind this, but not for the reason he gives. The Bible's just really culturally important. I also wouldn't bother reading all of it. When I reread the Bible it's normally just Genesis, Exodus, the Gospels, and Eccelesiastes. A lot of it (especially Leviticus) is just tedious. The prophets are fun but I wouldn't call them essential.
   
   
2. The System of the World: Newton intentionally wrote the Principia to make it inaccessible to layman and dabblers. I really don't think you should be recommending a book like this to people who aren't specialists. Sagan's A Demon Haunted World will probably fulfill the stated purpose Tyson sets out better.
   
   
3. On the Origin of Species: A good book that's held up remarkably well, but a more recent book of evolution might be better. The Extended Phenotype or The Selfish Gene would both probably do a better job.
   
   
4. Gulliver's Travels: This is a great book. I support this recommendation.
   
   
5. Age of Reason: Haven't read it. I like Paine otherwise though. No comment.
   
   
6. The Wealth of Nations: Similar to On the Origin of Species. It's still a great read that's held up really well and offers an interesting historical perspective. That said, economic theory has made some pretty important advancements in two centuries (the Marginal Revolution, Keynes, etc). Still, if you want to stick to the time you'll probably get more out of reading Ricardo's Principles of Political Economy.
   
   
7. The Art of War: Very good book. I have nothing to add.
   
   
8. The Prince: Same as the above. Fantastic book.

Great read if you're in high school and never been exposed to these ideas

E: I feel like people are taking this the wrong way. If you're young and have a cursory interest in philosophy, pieces like this are great to stoke that interest. If you are more intellectually mature, or are deeper in to philosophy, there are loads of pieces that better explore The Cave, and that better explore the philosophy stuff behind The Matrix. Great example is "Philosophers Explore The Matrix". It's a great shallow dive in to some of the concepts, and then you can find more material to dive deeper later.

For anyone who is interested in reading about the background of the relationship between The United States and Saudi Arabia, there is a great book called "Thicker Than Oil: America's Uneasy Partnership With Saudi Arabia".

http://www.amazon.com/Thicker-Than-Oil-Americas-Partnership/dp/0195367057

Beyond oil, the United States has a lot riding on its close relationship with Saudi Arabia, particularly a common "adversary" in Iran, and it (Saudi Arabia) being a relatively stable regime in the Middle East. The book highlights the importance of Saudi Arabia's deeply religious state, which was important for the United States to support, as it was a means to oppose "Godless Communism" in the Soviet Union at the time (when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan). The author delves into why this (importance of religion in Saudi Arabia) is obviously less important now than it used to be (for the United States), and why the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia needs to be reassessed.

While it was difficult for me to pick up on what might actually be hidden in those 28 pages, it sounds as though it may be strong evidence which would implicate Saudi Arabia in the attacks, even more than they already have been. Perhaps it was not worth it to the United States government to reveal information that would harm relations with a government whom they've long needed the support from, especially given our long-running tensions with Iran.

It depends on how "traditional" you want to go. China has been around for thousands of years and Chinese traditional medicine, likewise. The answer is that Western culture as a whole has a lot to learn from traditional cultures especially when it comes to indigenous wildlife and their uses and environmental functions. There's an entire field of study about traditional knowledge and it's fascinating.

Of course, what we can learn about medicine from these cultures won't be found in acupuncture or homeopathy most likely. Instead, it would be found by carefully sifting through all the knowledge built up by these cultures about the local wildlife with a specific focus on plants and their uses.

The good news is that these indigenous peoples are usually far more aware of local plants and their uses than scientists who come and visit. The bad news is that they necessarily have to pass their knowledge from generation to generation through stories, songs, legends, dances, myths, rituals, and constant passing of information through instruction. Combine that with a lack of rigorous scientific understanding and you have a terrible disconnect between native peoples and any researchers who come to study them and their environment.

There is huge, hidden value locked away in indigenous societies and it's really easy to forget about because people don't think these cultures have anything important to offer scientifically when they really just don't know how. There's a great book called Ecologies of the Heart by E. N. Anderson. It's truly an eye-opener and has two chapters dedicated to feng-shui (which was originally used to evaluate a plot of land and where to place various buildings and features on it) and Chinese nutritional therapy. For a very long time Asia thought little of surgery (as opposed to Europe which loved cutting people open very early) and focused much more on diet as a means to heal.

I generally love Tom Bissel's writing on games, I think he has a lot of great thoughts and ideas about the industry and the medium as a whole.

If you are at all interested check out his book. I promise I'm not a corporate shill, I just genuinely enjoyed reading it.

Here's how I like to think of it: In Tibetan Buddhism there are two types of Bodhisattvas, the capital "B"-Bodhisattvas which have ascended to god-like status, and the lower-case "b"-bodhisattvas who I think of as ordinary people who do good works or teach others valuable life lessons. I cannot speak to the existence or lack there of existence of Bodhiattvas, any more than I can to the actions of angels on earth. But I can say that the world is full of small-b bodhisattvas. And the community of people who came together to help bring her body back to America (I wrote about them a little in my first book http://www.amazon.com/The-Red-Market-Brokers-Traffickers/dp/0061936464) taught me a lot about what it means to be a member of society and the value of life and death.

I think Emily was delusional because even if she had achieved some sort of spiritual ascendance, her action caused great pain to her family and friends. By being so caught up in her own personal quest, she forgot her position in society.

You shouldn't be surprised to discover that you aren't the first to think of this. It also shouldn't surprise you to discover that not everyone likes this idea.

The fundamental problem you will face is that the credo of the United States, of Japan, of China, of Korea, and of many other economies is "work hard, get ahead." Whenever you see the word "individualism" substitute the phrase "me against the world." In a "me against the world" society, creating an infrastructure in which "work hard, get ahead" is actively thwarted is fundamentally impossible. Nick Reding argues compellingly in Methland that speed is the most uniquely American drug because only amphetamines actually make you work harder rather than chilling out and enjoying the high. He further argues that the rise of methamphetamine and consolidation of the drug market parallels the rise of agribusiness and consolidation of food production - in both cases, wealth is concentrated at the top.

Robert Reich lists several studies in Aftershock that demonstrate that taxing production and taxing the rich buoys the economy exactly as you suggest. He also points out that taxing the upper brackets is always met with fierce resistance, and with wealth concentrated at the top in ways unseen since the Gilded Age, reversing trends at this point is going to take some doing.

But, fundamentally, you're talking about lowering productivity. "Productivity" is the one metric that has gone up through the recession, through 911, through pretty much every economic hiccup since the invention of automation. Voluntarily choosing lower productivity would represent a fundamental shift in society and unfortunately, society seldom does such things smoothly and without protest. This transitional period, its impetus, and possible outcomes are well-explored in Bill McKibben's book Eaarth which, based on your questions and hypotheses, is likely to be something you'd enjoy reading. I only caution you to slug it out through the first half; for some reason, Mr. McKibben felt the need to establish the case for anthropocentric global warming beyond a reasonable doubt, despite the fact that 99.9% of his audience is likely to take anthropocentric global warming as a given.

> I’ve since learnt that they are actually quite intelligent. They can recognise each other, communicate, and grieve the loss of their companions. Some can even use objects as tools, and others make art in the sand to attract mates.

I'm only semi-familiar with animal cognition research, but I found this section very surprising. So, in case others thought it sounded like a stretch, here were some articles I found talking about some of the things he mentioned:

Tool use: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fishes-use-problem-solving-and-invent-tools/

Cognition/emotion: http://www.animalsandsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/170-172-Do-Fish-Feel-Pain.pdf which refers to this book

"Making art in the sand": http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2013/08/15/whats-this-mysterious-circle-on-the-seafloor/ (I wouldn't call mating displays "art" but I see what he was getting at)

(I couldn't find anything about "grieving for their companions")

At least for me, it still reads a little bit like hyperbole, but reading these was useful at challenging my preconceptions.

Here's a great book about what could be the true value and nature of shop class.

Well, what I'm reading now is Down To Earth: Nature's Role in American History. The first couple chapters are about what we know about how native americans inhabited the landscape, and it moves on through the early settlers and on up to the modern day. It's where I got that information. Pretty good book.

>Won't this just cause the "developing" countries to sink further into poverty?

A lot of these workers remit money home to the developing world; remittances sometimes/often outweigh foreign aid. Evidence from modern day skilled migration suggests that migration is a lot more complex phenomenon than we take it for. The UK for example seemed to be facing a rising tide of Polish immigration, but concurrent rising living standards in Poland have drawn back a lot of Polish emigres, who are now going back home. Likewise, a lot of people from China, Taiwan and India in the US decide to go home after some years or decades in the US.

Clemens mentions in this talk some work by economic historians like Hatton and Williamson -- if you have access to a university network or live in a developing country, you can access their research which indicates mass migration ultimately leads to benefits for both the country of emigration and immigration: http://www.nber.org/papers/h0041.pdf and http://www.nber.org/papers/w5259.pdf They also have a book on the subject: http://www.amazon.com/Age-Mass-Migration-Causes-Economic/dp/0195116518

Yup. Modern education is a cargo cult. Especially when you consider robust analyses of educational outcomes in separately adopted twins demonstrating that ~50% of the difference in educational outcomes is predictable and genetic and the other ~50% isn’t predictable based on anything that people think makes a difference (ie school quality, income, parenting style etc are all confounders and not causal). Citation

This article is an excerpt from a book, "Packaged Pleasures", which would probably have the information you're looking for.

The source does not go to a "Hollywood satire site". It goes to a book written by Groucho Marx.

For background, I understand that Elon's views are informed by this book (among others, no doubt): Nick Bostrom: Superintelligence.

It's a dense read, but talks about AI and how it might emerge and behave. (I haven't finished the book, so can't say more than that).

Edit: fixed up punctuation from mobile posting. See below for more detail.

1. I'm arguing that culture is an emergent property of economic and historical forces. Japanese culture especially. A good book on the subject is "Discourses of the Vanishing" (http://www.amazon.com/Discourses-Vanishing-Modernity-Phantasm-Japan/dp/0226388336). You're looking at the wrong level of a systems problem.
   
   
2. The main economic factors are that it so expensive to live on your own and raise a child in Japan right now. A huge percentage of young and even middle aged Japanese people live with their extended families (which is why love hotels are such a big deal). You're not going to have many opportunities for nookie when grandma is in the next room. Likewise it's difficult to strike out on your own on normal wages, which makes starting a family difficult even if you are dating.

The book has 298 5-star reviews and 72 4-star reviews on Amazon, out of 426 total. Maybe you read it before you make disparaging remarks?

This isn't really a very good example.

In the book, "The Poison Paradox", the author points out that the huge toxicity of dioxin is a belief founded upon the effects of dioxin in animals.

Although it is a really nasty chemical, there hasn't really been much evidence of it being highly toxic in humans, other than the symptoms such as chloracne.

So, as a toxic waste story, Love Canal is a bit of a fizzer.

There are much better ones around, such as Erin Brockovich's Hexavalent Chromium