Sunday, February 13, 2005
It's Neal Stephenson, people! Neal Stephenson!
We are in a position akin to that of early physicians who could see that people were getting sick but couldnt do anything about it, because they didnt understand the underlying causes. They knew of a few tricks that seemed to work. For example, nailing up plague houses tended to limit the spread of plague. But even the smart doctors tended to fall under the sway of pet theories that were wrong, such as the idea that diseases were caused by imbalanced humors or bad air. Once that happened, they ignored evidence that contradicted their theory. They became so invested in that theory that they treated any new ideas as threats. But from time to time youd see someone like John Snow, who would point out, Look, everyone who draws water from Well X is getting cholera. Then he went and removed the pump handle from Well X and people stopped getting cholera. They still didnt understand germ theory, but they were getting closer.
We can make a loose analogy to the way that people have addressed the problem of power disorders. We dont really understand them. We know that there are a couple of tricks that seem to help, such as the rule of law and separation of powers. Beyond that, people tend to fall under the sway of this or that pet theory. And so youll get perfectly intelligent people saying, All of our problems would be solved if only the workers controlled the means of production, or what have you. Once theyve settled on a totalizing political theory, they see everything through that lens and are hostile to other notions.
Via InstaPundit, Neal Stephenson's Past, Present, and Future
It's an interview with Neal Stephenson.
Need I say more?
An insane number of bricks
As a kid, I had little say in the attendance of church—I had to go. I never did like attending it—it was too long, and the sermons I found boring (or scary if the Baptist minister did a sermon from the Revelation of St. John the Divine); the only things I enjoyed about church was the architecture and the music (I love church music—but it has to be sans vocals, or the vocals in a language other than English).
Overall, I would have rather stayed home and played with my Lego bricks.
But this Lego-built church (link from Spring) is just … just … words aren't enough to describe it. A 7′ by 5½′ by 30″ church, minifig scale, is incredible.
Architecturally, the design is wonderful and I would love to see a church in real life based on this design, although it would be a bitch to heat and cool, given the volume of the main room and the large amount of glass used.
And the acoustics, and the organ that takes up the entire back wall …
Whoah!
Incredible!
