Fear and Fragility: The Glass Delusion and Its History

(publicdomainreview.org)

10 points | by Petiver 3 days ago

1 comments

  • ashwinnair99 1 hour ago
    The Glass Delusion is one of those medieval conditions that sounds made up until you read about it. Says a lot that we had a named syndrome for people who thought they were made of glass.
    • Insanity 1 hour ago
      The way we humans see ourselves depends a lot on the technology of the time. An example I quite like is that when steam engines were all the rage, Freud compared the brain to a steam engine. Now that computers are all the hype, we compare the human brain to computers.

      Intuitively the latter does feel closer to the truth (although maybe quantum computer would be even closer to reality). Or maybe that's just our contemporary lens of viewing technology and our place in the world, who knows what's next in a few hundred years. :)

      edit: link for more context https://metaphors.iath.virginia.edu/metaphors/24583