Welcome to Issue #80 of ThinkSpace Thursday
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📚 Light Reading
Epicurus’ philosophy: The pursuit of pleasure as a moral imperative
When you think of something pleasurable, what do you think of? The Greek philosopher Epicurus taught that pleasure was the highest good. He believed that by removing anxiety and enjoying life’s simple pleasures, we could be happy.
The purpose of your life is whatever the hell you want it to be
Stop listening to all the commercials. Cast away the definitions of success that have been conditioned into you. Don’t worry about what your friends will think; worry about your own moral conscience. What kind of life will you feel at peace with?
Why frenemies may be hazardous to your health
We often think about relationships on a spectrum from positive to negative. We gravitate toward loving family members, caring classmates, and supportive mentors. We do our best to avoid the cruel uncle, the playground bully, and the jerk boss. But the most toxic relationships aren’t the purely negative ones. They’re the ones that are a mix of positive and negative.
🔎 Study of the Week
Common Cents: Bank Account Structure and Couples’ Relationship Dynamics
When a romantic relationship becomes serious, partners often confront a foundational decision about how to organise their personal finances: pool money together or keep things separate? This study found that couples with joint accounts are happier, and their marriages do better.
📺 Video of the Week
Alan Savory on science and how we're going to kill ourselves because of stupidity (2 min.)
🎙 Podcast Episode
In an old-school conversation from 1987, J. P. Stern and Bryan Magee discuss the life of Friedrich Nietzsche. There’s a lovely sense of nostalgia in listening to people who speak so eloquently.
🗣 Quote of the Week
The Greek geographer and philosopher Strabo (64 BC–c. 24 AD) on the benefits of reading fiction:
“For man is eager to learn, and his fondness for tales is a prelude to this quality. It is fondness for tales, then, that induces children to give their attention to narratives and more and more to take part in them. The reason for this is that myth is a new language to them — a language that tells them, not of things as they are, but of a different set of things. And what is new is pleasing, and so is what one did not know before; and it is just this that makes men eager to learn. But if you add thereto the marvellous and the portentous, you thereby increase the pleasure, and pleasure acts as a charm to incite to learning.”
👀 Perception Watch
Man baby
😲 WTF
People have trouble solving problems that require high-level reasoning. On the other hand, basic motor and sensory functions such as walking are no trouble at all. In computers, however, the roles are reversed.
It is very easy for computers to process logical problems, such as devising chess strategies, but it takes a lot more work to program a computer to walk or accurately interpret speech. This difference between natural and artificial intelligence is known as Moravec’s Paradox.
Because abstract thought has been a part of human behavior for less than 100,000 years, our ability to solve abstract problems is a conscious one. Therefore, it is much easier for us to create technology that emulates such behavior. On the flip side, actions such as speaking and moving are not ones that we need to actively consider, so it is harder to put these functions into agents of artificial intelligence.
😁 In the Memetime
📖 Book Club
The Cynics were ancient Greek philosophers who stood athwart the flood of society’s material excess, unexamined conventions, and even norms of politeness and thundered “No!” This book is a delightful collection of brief ancient writings about Cynicism.
🤔 Contemplation Corner
In 2021, there were only 176 deaths among 2.2 billion airline passengers.
In the same year, ~1.3 million people died in road accidents.
🎧 The Song of the Week
“Without music, life would be a mistake.” — Nietzsche
Listen to the ThinkSpace Thursday playlist on Spotify.
🧠 Go Deeper with ThinkSpace
Join a vibrant community of professionals who share a passion for thinking and living well. Every month, we explore the ideas of a different philosopher and apply them to modern life. Click here to learn more.
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👍 Thanks for Reading
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Live well, and I’ll see you next week.
John