666

 

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, on the essay that complemented the second edition of his book, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, wrote about his visit to his homeland. He brought writings of Seneca, "the great teacher and practitioner of Stoicism". And then he said goodbye. Vale.

After finishing The Black Swan, I moved to Carl Sagan's Cosmos. Funnily enough, it opens with this.

"The time will come when diligent research over long periods will bring to light things which now lie hidden. A single lifetime, even though entirely devoted to the sky, would not be enough for the investigation of so vast a subject . . . And so this knowledge will be unfolded only through long successive ages. There will come a time when our descendants will be amazed that we did not know things that are so plain to them . . . Many discoveries are reserved for ages still to come, when memory of us will have been effaced. Our universe is a sorry little affair unless it has in it something for every age to investigate . . . Nature does not reveal her mysteries once and for all."

- Seneca, Natural Questions, Book 7, first century

I guess the universe is trying to tell me something :-?

PS: I actually read Selfish Gene now. Cosmos first chapter is too flowery, and the second chapter starts talking about the origin of life so... *shrug*