Sublime

In fact, it’s Douggie’s growing conviction that the greatest flaw of the species is its overwhelming tendency to mistake agreement for truth.

This paradox of comprehension was articulated explicitly by a great physicist of an earlier age: “Sir Isaac Newton, when asked what he thought of the infatuations of the people, answered that he could calculate the motions of erratic bodies, but not the madness of a multitude” (quoted from The Church of England Quarterly Review, 1850).

Flexible behavior in the face of changing conditions: What else can you call it but wicked smart?

We are not, one of Adam’s papers proves, wired to see slow, background change, when something bright and colorful is waving in our faces.