Fire and Knowledge

Beside them, little pot-bellied men in light suits and panama hats; clean, pink men with puzzled, worried eyes, with restless eyes. Worried because formulas do not work; hungry for security and yet sensing its disappearance from the earth. In their lapels the insignia of lodges and service clubs, places where they can go and, by a weight of numbers of little worried men, reassure themselves that business is noble and not the curious ritualized thievery they know it is; that business men are intelligent in spite of the records of their stupidity; that they are kind and charitable in spite of the principles of sound business; that their lives are rich instead of the thin tiresome routines they know; and that a time is coming when they will not be afraid any more.

–John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (1939), 155

Our daily lives are a daily mockery of our scientific pretensions. We are learning to know precisely the location of our genes, but significant numbers of us don’t know the whereabouts of our children. Science does not seem to be lighting the way; we seem rather to be leapfrogging into the dark along series of scientific solutions, which become problems, which call for further solutions, which science is always eager to supply, and which it sometimes cannot supply.

–Wendell Berry, Life is a Miracle: An Essay Against Modern Superstition (2000), 33

When an infectious agent – what’s known as an antigen – invades, relevant scouts identify the attacker and put out a call for reinforcements of the right type. While your body is manufacturing these forces, you are likely to feel wretched. The onset of recovery begins when the troops finally swing into action.

White cells are merciless and will hunt down and kill every last pathogen they can find. To avoid extinction, attackers have evolved two elemental strategies. Either they strike quickly and move on to a new host, as with common infectious illnesses like flu, or they disguise themselves so that the white cells fail to spot them, as with HIV, the virus responsible for AIDS, which can sit harmlessly and unnoticed in the nuclei of cells for years before springing into action.

–Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything (2003), 276

From Scientific American:

Environmental group Greenpeace launched a fresh attack on genetically modified maize developed by U.S. biotech giant Monsanto, saying on Tuesday that rats fed on one version developed liver and kidney problems.

Greenpeace said a study it had commissioned that was published in the journal Archives of Environmental Contamination and Technology showed rats fed for 90 days on Monsanto’s MON863 maize showed “signs of toxicity” in the liver and kidneys.

“It is the first time that independent research, published in a peer-reviewed journal, has proved that a GMO authorized for human consumption presents signs of toxicity,” Arnaud Apoteker, a spokesman for Greenpeace France said in a statement.

If you buy corn from the supermarket, chances are it’s genetically modified. They don’t label it, of course, because you wouldn’t buy anything that says “genetically modified.” These types of studies are not new (this has been known for a while), but since it is independent research and published in a peer-reviewed journal, it is bigger news. Another reason to buy organic corn from a local farmer’s market or co-op.

The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups.

–Henry Hazlitt, Economics in One Lesson (1946), 5

Part of the The Reading Interviews series.

Could you tell us a little about yourself?

I am single and I studied electrical engineering in college and grad school. I’m now working as a design/test engineer in the communications industry. I grew up in the Christian Reformed Church of North America and am still a member. When I’m not working, I enjoy running, golf, playing soccer, watching movies and listening to music. Oh yeah, and reading.

What are your favorite books? What do you like about them and how have they influenced you?

Well, I could probably make an incredibly long list but I’ll pick a few. I know I’ll forget some.

• Creation Regained by Al Wolters – This is probably the first book that introduced me to the idea of a Christian worldview and I still consider it to be one of the best books on the subject. Especially helpful were the concepts of "structure" and "direction" and how they can help Christians avoid seeing part of God’s good creation as evil.
• Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Soren Kierkegaard – The first half of the book reads like a series of short devotionals and the second half of the book is like a collection of proverbs. I’ve probably read it once a year since I’ve gotten it. Besides, every Calvinist could use a good dose of Kierkegaard.
• Any Calvin and Hobbes book – What can I say, they are hilarious. I’m not sure how much they’ve influenced me, other than helping to remind me not to take stuff so seriously.
• The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder – I re-read this book about 6 months ago and I realized that I had forgotten how much I liked it. I first read the book when I was still an engineering student and at the time it made me very exited about engineering. I think it in many ways captures what Sam Florman calls the "existential pleasures" of engineering.

Who are your favorite writers? Explain.

Paul Feyerabend is probably one of my favorite writers. Unfortunately, he writes in a subject area that not a lot of people are interested in (philosophy of science). He has a contrarian spirit which is as amusing as often as it is enlightening. Roy Clouser is also a favorite author of mine. I would probably list both of his books – The Myth of Religious Neutrality and Knowing with the Heart – as two of my favorites. Other authors I enjoy reading, in no particular order, are Neil Postman, Albert Borgmann, Del Ratzsch, and Steve Talbott.

What is the best non-fiction and fiction book you have read recently? Explain.

Non-fiction: Suspicion and Faith by Merold Westphal – This book has had a huge effect on how I think about some aspects of my life, even though I’m still processing the book in some ways. It is about what Christians can learn from atheists like Freud, Marx, and Nietzsche. The main theme of the book is that religion is affected by the fall as much as anything else. It is essentially a call for Christians to be honest with themselves – to look at what our true motives are for our actions and beliefs, and to own up to those motives and change them, if necessary.

Fiction: I’ve recently re-read the The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I’ve always enjoyed the Sherlock Holmes stories. Besides the Munch Bunch books and the Choose your Own Adventure books, some of my earliest memories of reading were Sherlock Holmes stories.

Why do you think reading is important? What has led you to make it a priority in your life?

I feel like any way that I answer this question will sound cliche, but reading can open you up to people, places, and ideas that you’ve never heard of, seen, or thought of before. In many ways, I need to make reading a priority because its one of the ways that I learn best. I remember in school other people could go to class without reading the textbooks. I could never do that – I learn way more from reading a text than listening to a lecture.

Are there any other books you would like to recommend?

I usually don’t like to give general book recommendations. It’s not that I don’t think there aren’t great books out there that everybody should read – it’s just that books can be very personal. Some books I would recommend to Christians that I wouldn’t recommend to non-Christians. Some books I would recommend to engineers that I wouldn’t recommend to non-engineers.

Usually when I recommend a book it occurs when I’m talking to somebody and I blurt out "Oooh, you should read such and such by so and so!"

How many books do you normally read at a time?

I usually read one book at a time. Usually when I try to start more than one at a time, I’ll find one of the books more enjoyable than the other and I’ll end up reading that one all the way through before I finish the other. I tend to read a lot of articles and papers on the Internet, too, so those keep me busy while I’m reading books in a linear fashion.

Do you mark and take notes while you read? If so, how?

Usually not. If I do, it’s never in the books themselves, it’s always on a separate sheet of paper or on the computer. I can’t stand highlighting and notes in the margins. I think it’s just a matter of me not liking the idea of my past self thinking he knows what’s important for my present self (if anything, I’d want it the other way around!). I have highlighted before and upon re-reading the book, I’ll have no idea why I highlighted it other than that at one time I must have thought it was important.

Macht blogs at Prosthesis.

This tractor does two things—it turns the land and turns us off the land. There is little difference between this tractor and a tank. The people are driven, intimidated, hurt by both. We must think about this.

–John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (1939), 151

If Steve Jobs wants DRM-free music (and we all do, I hope), why doesn’t the iTunes Store let musicians offer their music without DRM? That seems like a good first step.