Wednesday, February 18, 2015

The Rise and Fall of Great Powers by Tom Rachman

"People kept their books, she thought, not because they were likely to read them again but because these objects contained the past--the texture of being oneself at a particular place, at a particular time, each volume a piece of one's intellect..."

Referencing J.M.E. McTaggart, "...human perception deceives us: time only feels like a forward moving flow because of the limits of our minds, whereas time actually exists, as another country and its inhabitants exist even once you leave it."

"...past is like overseas: it still exists, even when you are not there anymore."

"Like a black hole, the Internet generated its own gravity, neither light not time escaping."