Lovely long read about
Bede the Venerable and books in a dark time. What an amazing technology they were, what a boon to humanity's ability to preserve and share information. Parts of the longread go into the technolgoy of it, the scribes having to be chemists as well to make their own colors of inks; reminds me of how lately I've been thinking about the physicality of the making of brass instruments and of sailing ships (thanks to reading "Master + Commander")
Our future selves are strangers to us.
This isn't some poetic metaphor; it's a neurological fact. FMRI studies suggest that when you imagine your future self, your brain does something weird: It stops acting as if you're thinking about yourself. Instead, it starts acting as if you're thinking about a *completely different person.*
I wonder how it looks for our past selves?
Projects!
