by Richard Subber | Jun 6, 2024 | History, Human Nature, Politics, Power and inequality, Reflections, Tidbits
“I’m a robot, I’m here to help you…”
President Harry Truman viewed the destruction of Berlin and the homeless German civilians struggling to stay alive,
as he waited for word of the first successful test of the atomic bomb at Alamogordo, New Mexico.
Before he knew about the test result, Truman wrote in his diary:
“I hope for some sort of peace—but I fear that machines are ahead of morals by some centuries
and when morals catch up there’ll be no reason for any of it.”
July 16, 1945, at the Potsdam Conference in Germany
from Countdown 1945: The Extraordinary Story of the Atomic Bomb and the 116 Days That Changed the World by Chris Wallace with Mitch Weiss
New York: Avid Reader Press, 2020
p. 123
Truman didn’t need to worry about so-called Artificial Intelligence…
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.
The Reader (Der Vorleser)
Not just a rehash of WWII…
by Bernhard Schlink
–
In other words: Poems for your eyes and ears with 64 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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by Richard Subber | May 26, 2024 | Human Nature, Reflections, Tidbits
among the abominations….
“Wrath and anger, these also are abominations…”
Book of Sirach, 27:30
Resist the temptation…
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Sea Runners
…it informs, it does not soar…
by Ivan Doig
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My first name was rain: A dreamery of poems with 53 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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by Richard Subber | May 21, 2024 | Human Nature, Reflections, Theater and play reviews
doing the right thing…
Movie review:
Arrival
2016, 116 min, rated PG-13 (brief strong language)
Arrival is a reflective experience of first contact with aliens who are not like us. These are aliens who, ultimately, want to do good, but the humans have to learn how to deal with this reality.
Amy Adams plays the linguist Louise Banks, and Jeremy Renner plays the physicist Ian Donnelly. They combine their robust talents to learn how to communicate with the aliens, and to try to convince their human superiors to do the right thing.
Banks and Donnelly fall in love. She saves the world. The aliens depart in peace. Her life is changed.
It’s a movie you can enjoy, no matter how many times you watch it.
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Movie review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.
Book review: “The Gentle Boy”
The Puritans had a dark side…
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
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Above all: Poems of dawn and more with 73 free verse poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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by Richard Subber | May 12, 2024 | Book reviews, Books, History, Human Nature, Power and inequality, World history
energy is the bottom line…
Book review:
Foragers, Farmers, and Fossil Fuels:
How Human Values Evolve
by Ian Morris
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2015
Contributors:
Richard Seaford
Jonathan D. Spence
Christine M. Korsgaard
Margaret Atwood
369 pages
Ian Morris says right up front that not everyone thinks he’s got it exactly right, but his story is an eye opener: how are human values and moral norms related to how human beings use energy?
Human beings need energy to survive, and obviously we need sources of energy.
The first human-like hunter-gatherers used energy that they could kill or pick up, and the first farmers planted their energy sources and domesticated a few animals, and now we depend (fatally?) on fossil fuel energy to live our lives.
Morris explains (attributes causes for) the different ways of “capturing” energy that are connected to how we feel about ourselves and how we deal with others.
If you’re satisfied with what you know about your code of values and the “do unto others…” stuff, then read Foragers, Farmers, and Fossil Fuels and learn some new stuff.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Map of Knowledge
a slo-mo version of Fahrenheit 451
by Violet Moller
Seeing far: Selected poems with 47 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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by Richard Subber | May 9, 2024 | Human Nature, Reflections, Tidbits
don’t be the show…
“Listen and connect with people,
don’t perform for them.”
from The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
New York: Portfolio/Penguin, 2016
p. 76
Would your friends rather talk with you or watch Punch & Judy?
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.
Home Team: Poems About Baseball (book review)
Edwin Romond hits another homer…
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Seeing far: Selected poems with 47 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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by Richard Subber | Apr 28, 2024 | Human Nature, Reflections, Tidbits
getting closer…
“Years ago, a black southerner told me that in the South,
whites do not care how close blacks get
as long as they do not get too high,
but in the North, she said,
whites do not care how high blacks get
as long as they do not get too close.”
from:
The Other Madisons: The Lost History of a President’s Black Family
by Bettye Kearse
Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020
p. 72
Think about it—how much of this statement do you think is wrong?
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.
Book review: Ethan Frome
they were not satisfied with less…
by Edith Wharton
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Writing Rainbows: Poems for Grown-Ups with 59 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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