life | Ulysse Sabbagh

Feb 8, 2018 ∞

A list of 25 Principles of Adult Behavior by John Perry Barlow

February 7th marked the death of John Perry Barlow. He founded the Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) and wrote lyrics for the Grateful Dead (occasionally). He was a remarkable man who fought for the freedom of the Internet. Here is a list of principles that adults should follow. I'm 25 now and trying my best to make him proud:

1. Be patient. No matter what.
2. Don’t badmouth: Assign responsibility, not blame. Say nothing of another you wouldn’t say to him.
3. Never assume the motives of others are, to them, less noble than yours are to you.
4. Expand your sense of the possible.
5. Don’t trouble yourself with matters you truly cannot change.
6. Expect no more of anyone than you can deliver yourself.
7. Tolerate ambiguity.
8. Laugh at yourself frequently.
9. Concern yourself with what is right rather than who is right.
10. Never forget that, no matter how certain, you might be wrong.
11. Give up blood sports.
12. Remember that your life belongs to others as well. Don’t risk it frivolously.
13. Never lie to anyone for any reason. (Lies of omission are sometimes exempt.)
14. Learn the needs of those around you and respect them.
15. Avoid the pursuit of happiness. Seek to define your mission and pursue that.
16. Reduce your use of the first personal pronoun.
17. Praise at least as often as you disparage.
18. Admit your errors freely and soon.
19. Become less suspicious of joy.
20. Understand humility.
21. Remember that love forgives everything.
22. Foster dignity.
23. Live memorably.
24. Love yourself.
25. Endure.

[Source: A list of 25 Principles of Adult Behavior by John Perry Barlow]

May 16, 2013 ∞

Why we’ll never meet aliens

Hint: it’s not because we don’t want to or they don’t exist.

If you combine all our current knowledge of statistics and astronomy, it’s nearly comical to believe we’re the only intelligent life in the universe. It’s easy to get lost in the numbers thrown around—there are billions of stars and planets in our galaxy and billions of galaxies. Humans are rather bad at fully understanding such large numbers. Despite where this article might lead, it isn’t really about science. It’s about thinking big. Big enough to consider that if there are any aliens with the ability to come visit us, they would almost assuredly not care to.

Nov 25, 2012 ∞

Organic molecules on Mars?

Wishful thinking, if you were to ask The Economist’s “Babbage”. He links the briefings editor’s blog, Mainly Martian:

…thousands of tonnes of organic material arrive at the surface of Mars every year. Once it gets there, it either has to be got rid of or it accumulates. Recent work has also shown that most of the Martian meteorites studied have been found to contain organics that were aparently created on Mars through means that have no link to biology (Science paper here). So not only should people presume there are at least some organics on Mars—people have actually found and studied organics from Mars.

Let’s keep on searching then.