I suspect that this initiative might worsen the crisis of traditional bookstores: people who own a Kindle will be prone to buying their paper books from Amazon (where then they may get the Kindle version at a heavily discounted price) rather than somewhere else (where they wouldn't have that incentive.)

I agree. Personally I'm more with Schopenhauer on this than with Seneca. The article you posted is great, but unfortunately many people seem to be only to happy and even proud to be making noise, as if being noisy were some kind of achievement. I guess the void in their head has to be filled with something, and noise seems to do the trick.

According to the Nineteenth-Century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer:

The amount of noise which anyone can bear undisturbed stands in inverse proportion to his mental capacity.

On the other hand, here's what the First-Century Latin Philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca had to say about it:

But I assure you that this racket means no more to me than the sound of waves or falling water; although you will remind me that a certain tribe once moved their city merely because they could not endure the din of a Nile cataract. Words seem to distract me more than noises; for words demand attention, but noises merely fill the ears and beat upon them. Among the sounds that din round me without distracting, I include passing carriages, a machinist in the same block, a saw-sharpener near by, or some fellow who is demonstrating with little pipes and flutes at the Trickling Fountain, shouting rather than singing.

EDIT: I replied before reading the article you linked to. Glad to see the NY Times also mentions Schopenhauer.

We can travel from major air hub to major air hub at a substantial percentage of Mach 1. That's a long way from "unthinkable."

It was unthinkable by most people at the start of the Twentieth Century. That's the sense in which I meant it.

How much does it affect your life?

In many ways. I was born in one country, I lived for several years in another country, and now I live in yet another country. But I wasn't talking about my personal possibility for travel. I was thinking of businesses, and goods being transported around the world in a way that wasn't possible at the start of the Twentieth Century. Some of the food I eat, most of the clothes I wear and all of the products I use are not made locally, but they're made somewhere else entirely, and that's only because faster transportation has made this possible.

Americans, if we're going to be specific, have been wandering for 150 years... and are here because of wanderlust. We've been nomads since the Reformation. And hey - if you want to visit the Empty Quarter it's just as much of a bitch for you as it was for TE Lawrence once you break clear of Riyadh. You aren't going to, though, so it doesn't much matter.

What was that thing about unfounded assertions? I travel a lot, I live in a country that's not my native one, and I'm not American.

And you have superficial relationships with disparate people all over the globe but you have fewer superficial relationships with people in your neighborhood.

Once again, it's not about my own vantage point. I was referring to how other people (everyone) can communicate with anyone else. Before the era of mass communication, few people had a clue of what it meant to live in a different country or even a different city. Few people could imagine what it meant to live in a different social class, or to lead a different kind of life. Throughout the Twentieth Century governments have fallen, the rights of women and minorities have gained more prominence, and several other aspects of everyday life have been revolutionized in ways that have only been made possible by an increase in the possibilities of communication. This is analyzed brilliantly by the sociologist Joshua Meyrowitz in his book "No Sense of Place".

I don't know what "mentalities" you think you need to "catch up", but the last adaptation I made was "shit - a lot of the people who hire me are on Facebook, I better set up an account."

Here are a few examples of mentalities that need catching up:

- Religious beliefs and practices don't make any sense in light of the current scientific progress, but many people still think they do. Additionally, many people still believe that an ethical behavior can only stem from religious beliefs, but that's false, too. These beliefs in turn leads people to cause damage to other people (or to inhibit their freedom) in the name of religion or a "higher power". Of course the situation is not the same everywhere.

- Patriotism and excessive nationalism don't make sense either, and at the very least they need to be revisited. When many corners of the world are getting every day more alike, being "proud" of having been born in one place rather than another, and assuming certain "rights" because of that, is an unfounded prejudice that can only have negative results.

- The idea, that many have, that there is a nearly-perfect form of government and that form is a democratic republic is well-intentioned but naive. The best form of government hasn't been invented yet. And when it does get invented, it might be too late because technology (and society with it) will have changed again in the meantime. For millennia the world hasn't changed much, and there were just a handful of forms of government to choose from. Now none of them suits our society, but change in that department is much much slower than technological change, so we live in the present surrounded by institutions created by our great-grandfathers and run by our fathers and grandfathers.

The thing you're missing is that victory belongs to those who adapt. The world you live in is being dictated by people who have figured out how best to take advantage of the situation.

No, it's dictated by their parents and grandparents – by people who managed to adapt to the TV and the remote control, but not quite to the Internet. Until a few years ago, George W. Bush was one of the most important men in the world in terms of the power he held; would you say that his mentality is adapted to the realities of our present time? I don't think so.

It's excellent, but next time take advantage of hubski's dual link/text submission format and give us a few of your thoughts if you have the time.

Will do. Actually, that makes more sense that simply posting a link.

I think in this generation we've finally grasped that change, especially with regard to technology, isn't going away anytime soon. We've left the Space Age and entered the Information Era. Growing up with change has fostered an understanding and an acceptance of change and new ideas that was previously not present in our society (so yes we're starting, finally, to catch up, I think). This should in turn make it easier and easier to adapt to new changes, until we've fully caught up (if that's possible). I honestly believe, and this may be wishful, that this is the generation where we turn the corner. I see no reason why I, in 30 years, shouldn't be able to keep up with change just as well as people born in 2020.

I agree, I think from now on we'll be better at dealing with change at a personal level. I wonder whether it'll be possible for institutions, governments, and laws to catch up any time soon.

I found a very good explanation of this theory in the book "The Origin of Life" by Paul Davies (Also called "The Fifth Miracle"). I don't remember too much of it (I guess I'll have to re-read it) but it's a very good book and I would recommend it.

In fact the range of environments that bacteria can adapt themselves to live in is simply astonishing. For example, some of them can live in volcanoes and hydrothermal vents, others live in bodies below the freezing point of water. From there to space it's just a small step (but a giant leap for mankind.)

This whole article is about American-style coffee, right? There's no mention of espresso or Turkish coffee or other delicious amenities.

I've been saying this since I was a kid.

Is this the kind of link that's okay to post here, or should one preferably start a discussion instead? It's my first day here so I'm still trying to find my way around.