EnliteAI

enliteai

The internet has ushered in an era where individuals can invest like never before. A vast amount of information and trading tools are readily available online, empowering them to make informed decisions. Additionally, individual investor communities like r/WallStreetBets have utilized social media to create significant buzz around certain stocks, thereby influencing their prices. In short, the internet has radically empowered individual investors. Now, a puzzling question arises. Despite the enthusiastic adoption and utilization of the internet so far, why aren't people embracing Web3 yet? Ironically, Web3 represents the next iteration of the internet, defined as "the Internet of Money." The Web3 Adoption Gap: Users vs. Investors Despite 580 million people holding cryptocurrency by the end of 2023, the daily average of Unique Active Wallets (UAW) interacting with Web3 or dApps remained modest at 4.2 million. Since the emergence of Web3, active users have comprised less than 1% of the global population. Two primary factors typically impede the adoption of new technologies: lack of product-market fit and ineffective marketing and communication strategies. Given the sizable number of investors, it can be inferred that they are aware of the potential of Web3. Therefore, we may need to revisit the current Web3 marketing approaches. Airdrop marketing, where projects distribute free tokens for specific actions, is often associated with crypto marketing. This method has the remarkable ability to transform a project from obscurity to achieving significant Key Performance Indicators. By immediately enlivening a project, airdrops attract users, generate transactions, create liquidity, and boost brand awareness. Recipients view airdrops as potential windfalls requiring no initial investment, making them highly desirable. While both projects and users favor airdrops for the excitement they generate around Web3, it's crucial to evaluate their actual effectiveness in driving meaningful adoption and engagement. Web2 Marketing: Leveraging Rewards for Network Effects Offering rewards to attract customers is nothing new, with origins dating back to the early 1700s. Initially used to foster customer loyalty, businesses provided discounts, points, coupons, and cashbacks to encourage repeat purchases. This approach evolved to directly incentivize customer acquisition with the rise of the Internet, particularly during the Web2 era characterized by the concept of ‘the web as a platform’. PayPal's phenomenal marketing strategy, which attracted over 100,000 users within a month, set a benchmark for many startups. Elon Musk explained it in an interview, stating: “We started off first by offering people $20 if they opened an account. And $20 if they referred anyone. And then we dropped it to $10. And we dropped it to $5. As the network got bigger and bigger, the value of the network itself exceeded any sort of carrot that we could offer.”  The more users a platform has, the more valuable it becomes - this network effect has been the hallmark of web2. Traditional marketing focused on maximizing revenue and profit by targeting specific customer segments who could afford their products. However, the internet era shifted the focus to user acquisition. In particular, startups aiming for rapid scale-up coined the term 'growth hacking' for marketing strategies solely focused on recruiting the maximum number of users in the shortest time. This made the role of a growth hacker the most sought-after position in marketing. Online vs. On-chain: Calibrating Marketing for Divergent Users Based on indicators alone, it appears that a record-breaking successful growth hacking is occurring in Web3. Last February, Starknet announced the STRK token distribution worth $2 billion, the largest airdrop in crypto history, to 1.3 million eligible wallets. Blast has not launched its mainnet yet, but secured $1.1 billion worth of liquidity by promising an airdrop in May 2024. This substantial amount of deposits was collected on a network that is not even operational. As a result, there is a growing perception that the hallmark of Web3 is a pyramid scheme. Observations suggest that user engagement and liquidity sharply decline immediately following the airdrop events. In contrast, PayPal reportedly invested around $60 million in rewards marketing and ceased the program upon reaching 100 million users. Yet it has sustained its growth, currently serving over 400 million users. This raises the question: what is amiss with Web3's marketing that prevents it from fostering sustainable growth? An important distinction to make is that Web2 online platforms and Web3 on-chain networks differ fundamentally in their nature. As a result, the audiences they target are bound to diverge as well. 1. Platform vs.  Protocol: Network Effects in Infrastructure Web2 platform companies can only sustain growth by locking users into their platforms and monopolizing the market. However, Web3 represents a ‘protocol network’ characterized by ‘interoperability’ and ‘composability.’ For instance, you may have heard of Airbnb's famous growth hacking story, where Airbnb reverse engineered Craigslist's high-traffic website to acquire early users. In contrast, Web3 projects operate within a decentralized system owned by their communities and based on open source principles. These projects can seamlessly integrate with others, either by building their dApps on existing platforms or interacting with other dApps. They do not need permission from other projects to collaborate or access their users. From the perspective of integrated projects, as more projects combine with its protocol, the ecosystem expands and the token value increases, nurturing a virtuous cycle that attracts even more users and projects to join. This phenomenon, particularly prominent in DeFi, is referred to as ‘money legos,’ where each DeFi dApp serves as a building block, continuously delivering new and diverse products. In the Web2 era, the 'network effect' was synonymous with acquiring a large number of users. However, in the Web3 era, the power dynamics have shifted. A large user base no longer holds the same influence, as users are more interchangeable. Instead, the network effect at the infrastructure stage is more crucial. Marketing strategies that solely distribute airdrops to secure early users may overlook the essence of Web3. 2. Platform vs. Community: Users vs. Owners The most common definition of Web3 is the "internet of value," allowing value to be exchanged peer-to-peer without intermediaries. From a marketer's perspective, this definition only explains the features of blockchain technology and is not enough to explain user benefits. The true innovation lies in (a) that anyone can issue their own currency (b) that activities on the network establish economies, and (c) The token price can increase through the joint efforts of the community, so the community members collaborate with the common goal of growing the project. As a result, while the Web2 network is owned by the company, the Web3 network serves as a public infrastructure where users collectively own the protocol and have a vested interest in its success. To sum it up in one word, it is a community, more precisely, an economic community. While traditional marketing viewed customers as ‘consumers’ focused on purchasing products, the Web2 era redefined them as ‘users’ expected to interact with the network through actions like following, liking, and sharing. In Web3, however, customers take on a new role as ‘community members’ who actively contribute by investing in project tokens, participating in governance, and proposing and promoting initiatives. This represents a shift from the Web2 approach, where marketing efforts aimed at increasing passive user interactions. Web3 marketing should focus on engaging users to foster a sense of belonging and loyalty, encouraging their active participation in the project's development and adoption. Although the Web3 network operates as an open public infrastructure, it is not a product for everyone. To cultivate a robust community, targeting individuals with the financial means to invest, the time to dedicate, intelligence, interest in technology and the economy, and a passion for economic empowerment provided by Web3 is essential. Therefore, marketing that focuses on accelerated scale-up in the early stages does not align with Web3. Conclusion If the network effect was the driving force behind Web2 growth, Web3 is defined by the powerful community effect. In this new era, the path to growth lies not in mere user acquisition but in curating a dedicated community of quality members. Marketing efforts must be tailored to identify and invite individuals who can actively engage and contribute their expertise, ideas, and passion. Empowering these invested members with avenues for continuous collaboration and value creation is the key to unlocking the true potential of Web3 projects and propelling them toward long-term sustainability and impact. The internet has ushered in an era where individuals can invest like never before. A vast amount of information and trading tools are readily available online, empowering them to make informed decisions. Additionally, individual investor communities like r/WallStreetBets have utilized social media to create significant buzz around certain stocks, thereby influencing their prices. In short, the internet has radically empowered individual investors. Now, a puzzling question arises. Despite the enthusiastic adoption and utilization of the internet so far, why aren't people embracing Web3 yet? Ironically, Web3 represents the next iteration of the internet, defined as "the Internet of Money." The Web3 Adoption Gap: Users vs. Investors Despite 580 million people holding cryptocurrency by the end of 2023, the daily average of Unique Active Wallets (UAW) interacting with Web3 or dApps remained modest at 4.2 million. Since the emergence of Web3, active users have comprised less than 1% of the global population. Two primary factors typically impede the adoption of new technologies: lack of product-market fit and ineffective marketing and communication strategies. Given the sizable number of investors, it can be inferred that they are aware of the potential of Web3. Therefore, we may need to revisit the current Web3 marketing approaches. Airdrop marketing, where projects distribute free tokens for specific actions, is often associated with crypto marketing. This method has the remarkable ability to transform a project from obscurity to achieving significant Key Performance Indicators. By immediately enlivening a project, airdrops attract users, generate transactions, create liquidity, and boost brand awareness. Recipients view airdrops as potential windfalls requiring no initial investment, making them highly desirable. While both projects and users favor airdrops for the excitement they generate around Web3, it's crucial to evaluate their actual effectiveness in driving meaningful adoption and engagement. Web2 Marketing: Leveraging Rewards for Network Effects Offering rewards to attract customers is nothing new, with origins dating back to the early 1700s. Initially used to foster customer loyalty, businesses provided discounts, points, coupons, and cashbacks to encourage repeat purchases. This approach evolved to directly incentivize customer acquisition with the rise of the Internet, particularly during the Web2 era characterized by the concept of ‘the web as a platform’. PayPal's phenomenal marketing strategy, which attracted over 100,000 users within a month, set a benchmark for many startups. Elon Musk explained it in an interview, stating: “We started off first by offering people $20 if they opened an account. And $20 if they referred anyone. And then we dropped it to $10. And we dropped it to $5. As the network got bigger and bigger, the value of the network itself exceeded any sort of carrot that we could offer.”  The more users a platform has, the more valuable it becomes - this network effect has been the hallmark of web2. Traditional marketing focused on maximizing revenue and profit by targeting specific customer segments who could afford their products. However, the internet era shifted the focus to user acquisition. In particular, startups aiming for rapid scale-up coined the term 'growth hacking' for marketing strategies solely focused on recruiting the maximum number of users in the shortest time. This made the role of a growth hacker the most sought-after position in marketing. Online vs. On-chain: Calibrating Marketing for Divergent Users Based on indicators alone, it appears that a record-breaking successful growth hacking is occurring in Web3. Last February, Starknet announced the STRK token distribution worth $2 billion, the largest airdrop in crypto history, to 1.3 million eligible wallets. Blast has not launched its mainnet yet, but secured $1.1 billion worth of liquidity by promising an airdrop in May 2024. This substantial amount of deposits was collected on a network that is not even operational. As a result, there is a growing perception that the hallmark of Web3 is a pyramid scheme. Observations suggest that user engagement and liquidity sharply decline immediately following the airdrop events. In contrast, PayPal reportedly invested around $60 million in rewards marketing and ceased the program upon reaching 100 million users. Yet it has sustained its growth, currently serving over 400 million users. This raises the question: what is amiss with Web3's marketing that prevents it from fostering sustainable growth? An important distinction to make is that Web2 online platforms and Web3 on-chain networks differ fundamentally in their nature. As a result, the audiences they target are bound to diverge as well. Web2 online platforms and Web3 on-chain networks differ fundamentally in their nature. 1. Platform vs.  Protocol: Network Effects in Infrastructure Web2 platform companies can only sustain growth by locking users into their platforms and monopolizing the market. However, Web3 represents a ‘protocol network’ characterized by ‘interoperability’ and ‘composability.’ For instance, you may have heard of Airbnb's famous growth hacking story, where Airbnb reverse engineered Craigslist's high-traffic website to acquire early users. In contrast, Web3 projects operate within a decentralized system owned by their communities and based on open source principles. These projects can seamlessly integrate with others, either by building their dApps on existing platforms or interacting with other dApps. They do not need permission from other projects to collaborate or access their users. From the perspective of integrated projects, as more projects combine with its protocol, the ecosystem expands and the token value increases, nurturing a virtuous cycle that attracts even more users and projects to join. This phenomenon, particularly prominent in DeFi, is referred to as ‘money legos,’ where each DeFi dApp serves as a building block, continuously delivering new and diverse products. In the Web2 era, the 'network effect' was synonymous with acquiring a large number of users. However, in the Web3 era, the power dynamics have shifted. A large user base no longer holds the same influence, as users are more interchangeable. Instead, the network effect at the infrastructure stage is more crucial. Marketing strategies that solely distribute airdrops to secure early users may overlook the essence of Web3. A large user base no longer holds the same influence, as users are more interchangeable. Instead, the network effect at the infrastructure stage is more crucial. 2. Platform vs. Community: Users vs. Owners The most common definition of Web3 is the "internet of value," allowing value to be exchanged peer-to-peer without intermediaries. From a marketer's perspective, this definition only explains the features of blockchain technology and is not enough to explain user benefits. The true innovation lies in (a) that anyone can issue their own currency (b) that activities on the network establish economies, and (c) The token price can increase through the joint efforts of the community, so the community members collaborate with the common goal of growing the project. As a result, while the Web2 network is owned by the company, the Web3 network serves as a public infrastructure where users collectively own the protocol and have a vested interest in its success. To sum it up in one word, it is a community, more precisely, an economic community. While traditional marketing viewed customers as ‘consumers’ focused on purchasing products, the Web2 era redefined them as ‘users’ expected to interact with the network through actions like following, liking, and sharing. In Web3, however, customers take on a new role as ‘community members’ who actively contribute by investing in project tokens, participating in governance, and proposing and promoting initiatives. This represents a shift from the Web2 approach, where marketing efforts aimed at increasing passive user interactions. Web3 marketing should focus on engaging users to foster a sense of belonging and loyalty, encouraging their active participation in the project's development and adoption. Although the Web3 network operates as an open public infrastructure, it is not a product for everyone. To cultivate a robust community, targeting individuals with the financial means to invest, the time to dedicate, intelligence, interest in technology and the economy, and a passion for economic empowerment provided by Web3 is essential. Therefore, marketing that focuses on accelerated scale-up in the early stages does not align with Web3. individuals with the financial means to invest, the time to dedicate, intelligence, interest in technology and the economy, and a passion for economic empowerment provided by Web3 Conclusion If the network effect was the driving force behind Web2 growth, Web3 is defined by the powerful community effect. In this new era, the path to growth lies not in mere user acquisition but in curating a dedicated community of quality members. Marketing efforts must be tailored to identify and invite individuals who can actively engage and contribute their expertise, ideas, and passion. Empowering these invested members with avenues for continuous collaboration and value creation is the key to unlocking the true potential of Web3 projects and propelling them toward long-term sustainability and impact. If the network effect was the driving force behind Web2 growth, Web3 is defined by the powerful community effect.

Web3 Marketing is not about the Network Effect

I awoke, and my first thought was, Adrian and Clara are dead.

I discovered the total revolution that the disasters of Raymond

Common Sense Applied to Religion; Or, The Bible and the People by Catharine Esther Beecher, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . WRONG ACTION OF MIND, AND ITS RESULTS IN A FUTURE STATE. here CHAPTER XXVII. WRONG ACTION OF MIND, AND ITS RESULTS IN A FUTURE STATE. We are now to inquire as to the results of the wrong action of mind in a future state, so far as reason and experience can furnish data for any anticipations. The following are the principles of mind from which we reason on this subject. It appears that its constitution is such that the repetition of one particular mode of securing happiness induces a habit; and that the longer a habit continues, the more powerful is its force. An early habit of selfishness is always formed in the human mind, and the penalties following from self-indulgence and selfishness are not sufficient to prevent the continued increase of this habit. Though men, from the very beginning of existence, feel that they are happier in obeying the dictates of conscience, and that increase of guilt is increase of sorrow, yet this does not save them, in numberless cases, from increasing evil habits. It is also established by experience that, when a strong habit is formed, the mere decisions of the will are not sufficient for an immediate remedy. In this life, it requires a period of long and painful efforts of the will to rectify an established habit. Every human being is conscious how difficult it is to force the mental and bodily faculties to obey its decisions when contrary to the stream of a long-indulged habit. There are few who have not either experienced or witnessed the anguish of spirit that has followed the violations of solemn resolutions, those firmest decisions of the will, in the contest between habit and conscience. Another principle of mind is this, that when selfishness and crime have been long indulged, the natural constitution of mind seems changed, so that inflicting evil on others is sought as an enjoyment. In illustration of this, it is related of Antiochus Epiphanes that, in his wars with the Jews, after all opposition had ceased, and all danger and cause of fear was removed, he destroyed thousands for the mere pleasure of seeing them butchered. An anecdote is related of him, too horrible to record in all its particulars, where he sat and feasted his eyes on the sufferings of a mother and her seven sons, when the parent was doomed to witness the infliction of the most excruciating and protracted tortures on each of her seven children, and then was tortured to death herself. It is recorded of Mustapha, one of the Turkish sultans, that by honorable capitulations he gained the person of a brave Venetian commander called Bragadino, who was defending his country from the cruelty of invaders. After having promised him honorable protection, he ordered him, bound hand and foot, to behold the massacre of his soldiers, then caused his person to be cut and mutilated in the most horrible manner, and then taunted him as a worshiper of Christ, who could not save his servants. When recovered of his wounds, he obliged him to carry loaded buckets of earth before the army, and kiss the ground whenever he passed his barbarous tormentor. He then had him hung in a cage, to be tormented by his own soldiers, who were chained as galley-slaves, that they might be agonized by the indignities and sufferings of their venerated commander. After the most protracted sufferings and indignities in the public place, at the sound of music he was flayed alive. The history of some of the Roman emperors, even of some who, in early childhood and youth, were gentle, amiable, and kind, presents the same horrible picture. Nero set fire to Rome, and dressed the Christians in garments of flaming pitch, to run about his garden for his amusement. Tiberius tormented his subjects, and murdered them in cruel pangs, to gratify his love of suffering, while Caligula butchered his people for amusement with his own hand. The mind turns with horror from such revolting scenes, and asks if it is possible human nature can be so perverted and debased. But this is the humiliating record of some of the , even of our own countrymen, that have occurred in some parts of this refined and Christian nation. "Many of the interludes are filled up with a , which becomes memorable by feats of . When two boxers are wearied with fighting and bruising each other, they come to close quarters, each endeavoring to twist his forefinger into the earlocks of his antagonist. When they are thus fast clenched, the thumbs are extended, and are turned out of their sockets. The victor is hailed with shouts of applause from the sporting throng, while his poor antagonist, thus blinded for life, for his misfortune." now amusements boxing match gouging both the eyes is laughed at One very striking fact bearing on this subject has been established by experience, and that is, that , either mental or bodily, tends to awaken the desire to inflict evil upon other minds. This is probably one mode of accounting for the increased cruelty of the Roman emperors. As the powers of enjoyment diminished by abuse, and the horrors of guilt harassed their spirits, this dreadful desire to torment others was awakened. extreme suffering There are many undisputed facts to establish the principle that extreme suffering is the cause of terrible malignity. The following is from a statement of Mr. Byron, who was shipwrecked on the coast of South America: "So terrible was the scene of foaming breakers, that one of the bravest men could not help expressing his dismay, saying it was too shocking to bear. In this dreadful situation malignant passions began to appear. The crew grew extremely riotous, and fell to beating every thing in their way, and broke open chests and cabins for plunder that could be of no use. So earnest were they in this wantonness of theft, that in the morning a strangled corpse was found of one who had contested the spoil." A still more terrible picture is given in an account of the loss of the Medusa frigate on the coast of Africa. In the midst of dreadful suffering from cold, danger, and famine, it is recorded that "a spirit of sedition arose and manifested itself by furious shouts. The soldiers and sailors began to cut the ropes, and declared their intention of murdering the officers. About midnight, they rushed on the officers like desperate men, each having a knife or sabre, and such was their fury that they tore their clothes and their flesh . The next morning the raft was strewed with dead bodies. The succeeding night was passed in similar horrors, and the morning sun saw twelve more lifeless bodies. The next night of suffering was attended with a horrid massacre, and thus it continued till only fifteen remained of the whole one hundred and fifty!" with their teeth Another principle of mind having a bearing on this subject is the fact that those qualities of mind which are the causes of enjoyment in others around may be viewed with only pain and dislike by a selfish person. Thus intellectual superiority, in itself considered, is a delightful object of contemplation; but if it becomes the means of degradation or of contemptuous comparison to a selfish mind, it is viewed with unmingled pain. Benevolence and truth are objects of delightful contemplation to all minds when disconnected with obligations or painful comparisons, but if they are viewed as causes of evil to a selfish mind, it will view them with unmingled dislike and hatred. Now we find that there are two classes of minds in this world: those who are more or less benevolent, and find their happiness in living to promote the general interests of their fellow-beings, and those who are selfish, and are living to promote their own enjoyment irrespective of the general happiness. If, then, we reason from the known laws of mind and from past experience, we must suppose that the habits of mind which are existing in this life will continue to increase, and if the mind is immortal, a time must come when one class will become perfectly benevolent and the other perfectly selfish. A community of perfectly benevolent beings, it has been shown, would, from the very nature and constitution of mind, be a perfectly happy community. Every source of enjoyment of which mind is capable would be secured by every individual. It can be seen, also, that there must, in the nature of the case, be an entire separation between two such opposite classes; for it is as painful for minds suffering from conscious guilt, shame, and malignity, to look upon purity, benevolence, and happiness, as it is for the virtuous to associate with the selfish, the debased, and the abandoned. This separation, therefore, would be a voluntary one on both sides, even did we suppose no interference of Deity. But if the Creator continues his present constitution of things, we may infer that his power would be exerted to prevent the intrusion of malignity into a perfect and well-ordered community; for he has so constituted things , that those who are incorrigible pests to society are confined from interfering with its interests. here From the laws of mind, then, and from past experience as to the tendencies of things, we can establish the position that, at some future period, if the mind of man is immortal, the human race will be permanently divided into two classes, the perfectly selfish and the perfectly benevolent. Should it be objected to this conclusion that when the mind passes into another world more effectual motives may be brought to operate, it may be replied that it is not the office of reason to meet of , but to show what the are by deductions from principles already known. A thousand possibilities may be asserted, such as the annihilation of mind or the alteration of its powers, but these are mere suppositions, and have nothing to do with the conclusions of reason. suppositions possibilities probabilities If mind is immortal and continues its present nature, habits will continue to strengthen; and in regard to motives, we know already that the will not save from continuance in crime. How often has a man who has yielded to habits of guilt been seen writhing in the agonies of remorse, longing to free himself from the terrible evils he has drawn around him, acknowledging the misery of his course and his ability to return to virtue, and yet, with bitter anguish, yielding to the force of inveterate habits and despairing of any remedy. fear of evil consequences We know, also, that it is a principle established by long experience, that punishment does not tend to soften and reform. Where is the hardened culprit that was ever brought to repentance and reformation by lashes or the infliction of degradation? Such means serve only to harden and brutify. Experience forbids the hope that punishment will ever restore a selfish and guilty mind to virtue and peace. Reason and experience, then, both lead to the conclusion that the two classes of minds into which mankind are here divided will, on leaving this world, eventually become two permanently distinct communities—one perfectly selfish, and the other perfectly benevolent. What, then, would reason and experience teach us as to the probable situation of a community of minds constituted like those of the human race, who, in the progress of future ages, shall establish habits of ? perfect selfishness and crime In regard to the Creator, what may we suppose will be the feelings of such minds? If he is a benevolent, pure, and perfectly happy being, and his power is exerted to confine them from inflicting evil on the good, he will be the object of unmingled and tormenting envy, hatred, and spite; for when a selfish mind beholds a being with characteristics which exhibit its own vileness in painful contrast, and using his power to oppose its desires, what might in other circumstances give pleasure will only be cause of pain. If they behold, also, the purity and happiness of that community of benevolent beings from which they will be withdrawn, the same baleful passions will be awakened in view of their excellence and enjoyment. There is no suffering of the mind more dreaded and avoided than that of . It is probable a guilty creature never writhes under keener burnings of spirit than when all his course of meanness, baseness, ingratitude, and guilt is unveiled in the presence of dignified virtue, honor, and purity, and the withering glance of pity, contempt, and abhorrence is encountered. This feeling must be experienced, to its full extent, by every member of such a wretched community. Each must feel himself an object of loathing and contempt to every pure and benevolent mind, as well as to all those who are equally debased. shame Another cause of suffering is ungratified desire. In this world, perfect misery and full happiness is seldom contrasted. But in such circumstances, if we suppose that the happiness of blessed minds will be known, the keenest pangs of ungratified desire must torment. Every mind will know what is the pure delight of yielded and reciprocated affection, of sympathy in the happiness of others, of the sweet peace of conscious rectitude, and of the delightful consciousness of conferring bliss on others, while the ceaseless cravings of hopeless desire will agonize the spirit. Another cause of suffering is found in the . In such a degraded and selfish community, all ties of country, kindred, friendship, and love must cease. Yet all will know what the endearments of home, the mild soothings of maternal love, the ties of fraternal sympathy, and all the trust and tenderness of friendship and love. What vanished blessing of earth would not rise up, with all the sweetness and freshness that agonizing memory can bring, to aggravate the ! loss of enjoyment were loss of all But the mind is so made that, however wicked itself, guilt and selfishness in others is hated and despised. Such a company, then, might be described as those who were "hateful and hating one another." It has been shown that both suffering and selfishness awaken the desire to torment others. This, then, will be the detested purpose of every malignant mind. Every action that could irritate, mortify, and enrage, would be deliberately practiced, while disappointed hopes, and blasted desires, and agonizing misery would alone awaken the smile of horrible delight. And if we suppose such minds in a future state reclothed in a body, with all the present susceptibilities of suffering, and surrounded by material elements that may be ministers of hate, what mind can conceive the terror and chaos of a world where every one is actuated by a desire to torment? Suppose these beings had arrived at only such a degree of selfishness as has been witnessed in this world; such, for example, as Genghis Khan, who caused unoffending prisoners to be pounded to death with bricks in a mortar; or Nero, who dressed the harmless Christians in flaming pitch for his amusement; or Antiochus Epiphanes and Mustapha, who spent their time in devising and executing the most excruciating tortures on those who could do them no injury. What malignity and baleful passions would actuate such minds, when themselves tormented by others around, bereft of all hope, and with nothing to interest them but plans of torment and revenge! What refined systems of cruelty would be devised in such a world! what terrific combinations of the elements to terrify and distress! If such objects as "the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, and the worm that never dies," could be found, no Almighty hand would need to interfere, while the "smoke of their torment" would arise from flames of their own kindling. To fearful sufferings thus inflicted would be added the pangs of agitating ; for where all around were plotting misery, what relief, by day or by night, from its withering terrors? Then surely "fear would come upon them like desolation, and destruction as a whirlwind." fear Another cause of suffering is inactivity of body and mind. It has been seen that the desire of good is what gives activity to the intellectual and moral powers. In such a world, no good could be hoped or sought, but the gratification of inflicting ill. And even a malignant mind must often weary in this pursuit, and sink under all the weight and misery of that awful , when, in torpid inactivity, it has nothing to love, nothing to hope, nothing to desire! death of the soul Another cause of misery is the consciousness of guilt; and such, even in this life, have been the agonies of remorse, that tearing the hair, bruising the body, and even gnawing the flesh have been resorted to as a temporary relief from its pangs. What, then, would be its agonizing throes in bosoms that live but to torment and to destroy all good to themselves and to other minds? In this life, where we can allow the mind to be engrossed by other pursuits, and where we can thus form a habit of suppressing and avoiding emotions of guilt, the conscience may be seared. But it could not be thus when all engaging and cheerful pursuits were ended forever. Then the mind would view its folly, and shame, and guilt in all their length and breadth, and find no escape from the soul-harrowing gaze. To these miseries must be added despair—the loss of all hope. Here hope comes to all; but, in such a community, that fearful susceptibility of the soul—that terrific power of —would bind in chains which would be felt to be stronger than brass and heavier than iron. If the spirit is conscious that its powers are immortal, with this consciousness would come the despairing certainty of increasing and never-ending woe! habit This terrifying and heart-rending picture, it must be remembered, is the , and who can point out its fallacy? Is not habit appalling in its power, and ofttimes, even in this life, inveterate in its hold? Are not habits increased by perpetual repetition? Is not the mind of man immortal? Do not the tendencies of this life indicate a period when a total separation of selfish and benevolent minds will be their own voluntary choice? If all the comforts, gentle endearments, and the enlivening hopes of this life; if all the restraints of self-interest, family, country, and laws; if in Christian lands the offers of heaven, and the fearful predictions of eternal woe; if the mercy and pardon, and all the love and pity of our Creator and Redeemer, neither by fear, nor by gratitude, nor by love, can turn a selfish mind, what hope of its recovery when it goes a into a world of spirits, to sojourn in that society which, according to its moral habits, it must voluntarily seek? And if there exists a community of such selfish beings, can language portray, with any adequacy, the appalling results that must necessarily ensue? deduction of reason stranger About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Catharine Esther Beecher (2017). Common Sense Applied to Religion; Or, The Bible and the People. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/55531/pg55531-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

WRONG ACTION OF MIND, AND ITS RESULTS IN A FUTURE STATE.

Off on a Comet! a Journey through Planetary Space by Jules Verne, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . DREARY MONTHS here CHAPTER XIII. DREARY MONTHS Henceforth, then, with a velocity ever increasing, Gallia would re-approach the sun. Except the thirteen Englishmen who had been left at Gibraltar, every living creature had taken refuge in the dark abyss of the volcano’s crater. And with those Englishmen, how had it fared? “Far better than with ourselves,” was the sentiment that would have been universally accepted in Nina’s Hive. And there was every reason to conjecture that so it was. The party at Gibraltar, they all agreed, would not, like themselves, have been compelled to have recourse to a stream of lava for their supply of heat; they, no doubt, had had abundance of fuel as well as food; and in their solid casemate, with its substantial walls, they would find ample shelter from the rigor of the cold. The time would have been passed at least in comfort, and perhaps in contentment; and Colonel Murphy and Major Oliphant would have had leisure more than sufficient for solving the most abstruse problems of the chess-board. All of them, too, would be happy in the confidence that when the time should come, England would have full meed of praise to award to the gallant soldiers who had adhered so well and so manfully to their post. It did, indeed, more than once occur to the minds both of Servadac and his friends that, if their condition should become one of extreme emergency, they might, as a last resource, betake themselves to Gibraltar, and there seek a refuge; but their former reception had not been of the kindest, and they were little disposed to renew an acquaintanceship that was marked by so little cordiality. Not in the least that they would expect to meet with any inhospitable rebuff. Far from that; they knew well enough that Englishmen, whatever their faults, would be the last to abandon their fellow-creatures in the hour of distress. Nevertheless, except the necessity became far more urgent than it had hitherto proved, they resolved to endeavor to remain in their present quarters. Up till this time no casualties had diminished their original number, but to undertake so long a journey across that unsheltered expanse of ice could scarcely fail to result in the loss of some of their party. However great was the desire to find a retreat for every living thing in the deep hollow of the crater, it was found necessary to slaughter almost all the domestic animals before the removal of the community from Nina’s Hive. To have stabled them all in the cavern below would have been quite impossible, whilst to have left them in the upper galleries would only have been to abandon them to a cruel death; and since meat could be preserved for an indefinite time in the original store-places, now colder than ever, the expedient of killing the animals seemed to recommend itself as equally prudent and humane. Naturally the captain and Ben Zoof were most anxious that their favorite horses should be saved, and accordingly, by dint of the greatest care, all difficulties in the way were overcome, and Zephyr and Galette were conducted down the crater, where they were installed in a large hole and provided with forage, which was still abundant. Birds, subsisting only on scraps thrown out to them did not cease to follow the population in its migration, and so numerous did they become that multitudes of them had repeatedly to be destroyed. The general re-arrangement of the new residence was no easy business, and occupied so much time that the end of January arrived before they could be said to be fairly settled. And then began a life of dreary monotony. Then seemed to creep over everyone a kind of moral torpor as well as physical lassitude, which Servadac, the count, and the lieutenant did their best not only to combat in themselves, but to counteract in the general community. They provided a variety of intellectual pursuits; they instituted debates in which everybody was encouraged to take part; they read aloud, and explained extracts from the elementary manuals of science, or from the books of adventurous travel which their library supplied; and Russians and Spaniards, day after day, might be seen gathered round the large table, giving their best attention to instruction which should send them back to Mother Earth less ignorant than they had left her. Selfish and morose, Hakkabut could never be induced to be present at these social gatherings. He was far too much occupied in his own appropriated corner, either in conning his accounts, or in counting his money. Altogether, with what he had before, he now possessed the round sum of 150,000 francs, half of which was in sterling gold; but nothing could give him any satisfaction while he knew that the days were passing, and that he was denied the opportunity of putting out his capital in advantageous investments, or securing a proper interest. Neither did Palmyrin Rosette find leisure to take any share in the mutual intercourse. His occupation was far too absorbing for him to suffer it to be interrupted, and to him, living as he did perpetually in a world of figures, the winter days seemed neither long nor wearisome. Having ascertained every possible particular about his comet, he was now devoting himself with equal ardor to the analysis of all the properties of the satellite Nerina, to which he appeared to assert the same claim of proprietorship. In order to investigate Nerina it was indispensable that he should make several actual observations at various points of the orbit; and for this purpose he repeatedly made his way up to the grotto above, where, in spite of the extreme severity of the cold, he would persevere in the use of his telescope till he was all but paralyzed. But what he felt more than anything was the want of some retired apartment, where he could pursue his studies without hindrance or intrusion. It was about the beginning of February, when the professor brought his complaint to Captain Servadac, and begged him to assign him a chamber, no matter how small, in which he should be free to carry on his task in silence and without molestation. So readily did Servadac promise to do everything in his power to provide him with the accommodation for which he asked, that the professor was put into such a manifest good temper that the captain ventured to speak upon the matter that was ever uppermost in his mind. “I do not mean,” he began timidly, “to cast the least imputation of inaccuracy upon any of your calculations, but would you allow me, my dear professor, to suggest that you should revise your estimate of the duration of Gallia’s period of revolution. It is so important, you know, so all important; the difference of one half minute, you know, would so certainly mar the expectation of reunion with the earth—” And seeing a cloud gathering on Rosette’s face, he added: “I am sure Lieutenant Procope would be only too happy to render you any assistance in the revision.” “Sir,” said the professor, bridling up, “I want no assistant; my calculations want no revision. I never make an error. I have made my reckoning as far as Gallia is concerned. I am now making a like estimate of the elements of Nerina.” Conscious how impolitic it would be to press this matter further, the captain casually remarked that he should have supposed that all the elements of Nerina had been calculated long since by astronomers on the earth. It was about as unlucky a speech as he could possibly have made. The professor glared at him fiercely. “Astounding, sir!” he exclaimed. “Yes! Nerina was a planet then; everything that appertained to the planet was determined; but Nerina is a moon now. And do you not think, sir, that we have a right to know as much about our moon as those ”—and he curled his lip as he spoke with a contemptuous emphasis—“know of theirs?” terrestrials “I beg pardon,” said the corrected captain. “Well then, never mind,” replied the professor, quickly appeased; “only will you have the goodness to get me a proper place for study?” “I will, as I promised, do all I can,” answered Servadac. “Very good,” said the professor. “No immediate hurry; an hour hence will do.” But in spite of this condescension on the part of the man of science, some hours had to elapse before any place of retreat could be discovered likely to suit his requirements; but at length a little nook was found in the side of the cavern just large enough to hold an armchair and a table, and in this the astronomer was soon ensconced to his entire satisfaction. Buried thus, nearly 900 feet below ground, the Gallians ought to have had unbounded mental energy to furnish an adequate reaction to the depressing monotony of their existence; but many days would often elapse without any one of them ascending to the surface of the soil, and had it not been for the necessity of obtaining fresh water, it seemed almost probable that there would never have been an effort made to leave the cavern at all. A few excursions, it is true, were made in the downward direction. The three leaders, with Ben Zoof, made their way to the lower depths of the crater, not with the design of making any further examination as to the nature of the rock—for although it might be true enough that it contained thirty per cent. of gold, it was as valueless to them as granite—but with the intention of ascertaining whether the subterranean fire still retained its activity. Satisfied upon this point, they came to the conclusion that the eruption which had so suddenly ceased in one spot had certainly broken out in another. February, March, April, May, passed wearily by; but day succeeded to day with such gloomy sameness that it was little wonder that no notice was taken of the lapse of time. The people seemed rather to vegetate than to live, and their want of vigor became at times almost alarming. The readings around the long table ceased to be attractive, and the debates, sustained by few, became utterly wanting in animation. The Spaniards could hardly be roused to quit their beds, and seemed to have scarcely energy enough to eat. The Russians, constitutionally of more enduring temperament, did not give way to the same extent, but the long and drear confinement was beginning to tell upon them all. Servadac, the count, and the lieutenant all knew well enough that it was the want of air and exercise that was the cause of much of this mental depression; but what could they do? The most serious remonstrances on their part were entirely in vain. In fact, they themselves occasionally fell a prey to the same lassitude both of body and mind. Long fits of drowsiness, combined with an utter aversion to food, would come over them. It almost seemed as if their entire nature had become degenerate, and that, like tortoises, they could sleep and fast till the return of summer. Strange to say, little Nina bore her hardships more bravely than any of them. Flitting about, coaxing one to eat, another to drink, rousing Pablo as often as he seemed yielding to the common languor, the child became the life of the party. Her merry prattle enlivened the gloom of the grim cavern like the sweet notes of a bird; her gay Italian songs broke the monotony of the depressing silence; and almost unconscious as the half-dormant population of Gallia were of her influence, they still would have missed her bright presence sorely. The months still glided on; how, it seemed impossible for the inhabitants of the living tomb to say. There was a dead level of dullness. At the beginning of June the general torpor appeared slightly to relax its hold upon its victims. This partial revival was probably due to the somewhat increased influence of the sun, still far, far away. During the first half of the Gallian year, Lieutenant Procope had taken careful note of Rosette’s monthly announcements of the comet’s progress, and he was able now, without reference to the professor, to calculate the rate of advance on its way back towards the sun. He found that Gallia had re-crossed the orbit of Jupiter, but was still at the enormous distance of 197,000,000 leagues from the sun, and he reckoned that in about four months it would have entered the zone of the telescopic planets. Gradually, but uninterruptedly, life and spirits continued to revive, and by the end of the month Servadac and his little colony had regained most of their ordinary physical and mental energies. Ben Zoof, in particular, roused himself with redoubled vigor, like a giant refreshed from his slumbers. The visits, consequently, to the long-neglected galleries of Nina’s Hive became more and more frequent. One day an excursion was made to the shore. It was still bitterly cold, but the atmosphere had lost nothing of its former stillness, and not a cloud was visible from horizon to zenith. The old footmarks were all as distinct as on the day in which they had been imprinted, and the only portion of the shore where any change was apparent was in the little creek. Here the elevation of the ice had gone on increasing, until the schooner and the tartan had been uplifted to a height of 150 feet, not only rendering them quite inaccessible, but exposing them to all but certain destruction in the event of a thaw. Isaac Hakkabut, immovable from the personal oversight of his property in the cavern, had not accompanied the party, and consequently was in blissful ignorance of the fate that threatened his vessel. “A good thing the old fellow wasn’t there to see,” observed Ben Zoof; “he would have screamed like a peacock. What a misfortune it is,” he added, speaking to himself, “to have a peacock’s voice, without its plumage!” During the months of July and August, Gallia advanced 164,000,000 leagues along her orbit. At night the cold was still intense, but in the daytime the sun, here full upon the equator, caused an appreciable difference of 20 degrees in the temperature. Like birds, the population spent whole days exposed to its grateful warmth, rarely returning till nightfall to the shade of their gloomy home. This spring-time, if such it may be called, had a most enlivening influence upon all. Hope and courage revived as day by day the sun’s disc expanded in the heavens, and every evening the earth assumed a greater magnitude amongst the fixed stars. It was distant yet, but the goal was cheeringly in view. “I can’t believe that yonder little speck of light contains my mountain of Montmartre,” said Ben Zoof, one night, after he had been gazing long and steadily at the far-off world. “You will, I hope, some day find out that it does,” answered his master. “I hope so,” said the orderly, without moving his eye from the distant sphere. After meditating a while, he spoke again. “I suppose Professor Rosette couldn’t make his comet go straight back, could he?” “Hush!” cried Servadac. Ben Zoof understood the correction. “No,” continued the captain; “it is not for man to disturb the order of the universe. That belongs to a Higher Power than ours!” About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Jules Verne (1998). Off on a Comet! a Journey through Planetary Space. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1353/pg1353-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

DREARY MONTHS

THE COST OF LIVING

The Art Of Writing & Speaking The English Language Word-Study, by Sherwin Cody is part of HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . CHAPTER VIII. CRITICISM: Matthew Arnold and Ruskin. The term “criticism” may appropriately be used to designate all writing in which logic predominates over emotion. The style of criticism is the style of argument, exposition, and debate, as well as of literary analysis; and it is the appropriate style to be used in mathematical discussions and all scientific essays. Of course the strictly critical style may be united with almost any other. We are presenting pure types; but very seldom does it happen that any composition ordinarily produced belongs to any one pure type. Criticism would be dull without the enlivening effects of some appeal to the emotions. We shall illustrate this point in a quotation from Ruskin. The critical style has just one secret: It depends on a very close definition of work in ordinary use, words do not have a sufficiently definite meaning for scientific purposes. Therefore in scientific writing it is necessary to define them exactly, and so change common words into technical terms. To these may be added the great body of words used in no other way than as technical terms. Of course our first preparation for criticism is to master the technical terms and technical uses of words peculiar to the subject we are treating. Then we must make it clear to the reader that we are using words in their technical senses so that he will know how to interpret them. But beyond that we must make technical terms as we go along, by defining common words very strictly. This is nicely illustrated by Matthew Arnold, one of the most accomplished of pure critics. The opening paragraphs of the first chapter of “Culture and Anarchy”―the chapter entitled “Sweetness and Light”―will serve for illustration, and the student is referred to the complete work for material for further study and imitation. From “Sweetness and Light.” The disparagers of culture, [says Mr. Arnold], make its motive curiosity; sometimes, indeed, they make its motive mere exclusiveness and vanity. The culture which is supposed to plume itself on a smattering of Greek and Latin is a culture which is begotten by nothing so intellectual as curiosity; it is valued either out of sheer vanity and ignorance, or else as an engine of social and class distinction, separating its holder, like a badge or title, from other people who have not got it. No serious man would call this culture, or attach any value to it, as culture, at all. To find the real ground for the very different estimate which serious people will set upon culture, we must find some motive for culture in the terms of which may lie a real ambiguity; and such a motive the word curiosity gives us. I have before now pointed out that we English do not, like the foreigners, use this word in a good sense as well as in a bad sense. A liberal and intelligent eagerness about the things of the mind may be meant by a foreigner when he speaks of curiosity, but with us the word always conveys a certain notion of frivolous and unedifying activity. In the Quarterly Review, some little time ago, was an estimate of the celebrated French critic, M. Sainte-Beuve, and a very inadequate estimate it in my judgment was. And its inadequacy consisted chiefly in this: that in our English way it left out of sight the double sense really involved in the word curiosity, thinking enough was said to stamp M. Sainte-Beuve with blame if it was said that he was impelled in his operations as a critic by curiosity, and omitting either to perceive that M. Sainte-Beuve himself, and many other people with him, would consider that this was praiseworthy and not blameworthy, or to point out why it ought really to be accounted worthy of blame and not of praise. For as there is a curiosity about intellectual matters which is futile, and merely a disease, so there is certainly a curiosity,―a desire after the things of the mind simply for their own sakes and for the pleasure of seeing them as they are,―which is, in an intelligent being, natural and laudable. Nay, and the very desire to see things as they are implies a balance and regulation of mind which is not often attained without fruitful effort, and which is the very opposite of the blind and diseased impulse of mind which is what we mean to blame when we blame curiosity. Montesquieu says: ‘The first motive which ought to impel us to study is the desire to augment the excellence of our nature, and to render an intelligent being yet more intelligent.’ This is the true ground to assign for the genuine scientific passion, however manifested, and for culture, viewed simply as a fruit of this passion; and it is a worthy ground, even though we let the term curiosity stand to describe it. Starting with exact definitions of words, it is easy to pass to exact definitions of ideas, which is the thing we should be aiming at all the time. The logical accuracy of our language, however, is apparent throughout. Matthew Arnold does not embellish his criticism, nor does he make any special appeal to the feelings or emotions of his readers. Not so Ruskin. He discovers intellectual emotions, and makes pleasant appeals to those emotions. Consequently his criticism has been more popular than Matthew Arnold's. As an example of this freer, more varied critical style, let us cite the opening paragraphs of the lecture “Of Queens' Gardens”——in “Sesame and Lilies”: From “Sesame and Lilies.” It will be well … that I should shortly state to you my general intention… The questions specially proposed to you in my former lecture, namely How and What to Read, rose out of a far deeper one, which it was my endeavor to make you propose earnestly to yourselves, namely, Why to Read I want you to feel, with me, that whatever advantage we possess in the present day in the diffusion of education and of literature, can only be rightly used by any of us when we have apprehended clearly what education is to lead to, and literature to teach. I wish you to see that both well directed moral training and well chosen reading lead to the possession of a power over the ill-guided and illiterate, which is, according to the measure of it, in the truest sense kingly;* conferring indeed the purest kingship that can exist among men. Too many other kingships (however distinguished by visible insignia or material power) being either spectral, or tyrannous; spectral―that is to say, aspects and shadows only of royalty, hollow as death, and which only the “likeness of a kingly crown have on;” or else tyrannous―that is to say, substituting their own will for the law of justice and love by which all true kings rule. *The preceding lecture was entitled “Of Kings's Treasures.” There is then, I repeat (and as I want to leave this idea with you, I begin with it, and shall end with it) only one pure kind of kingship, ―an inevitable or eternal kind, crowned or not,―the kingship, namely, which consists in a stronger moral state and truer thoughtful state than that of others, enabling you, therefore, to guide or to raise them. Observe that word “state” we have got into a loose way of using it. It means literally the standing and stability of a thing; and you have the full force of it in the derived word “statue”―“the immovable thing.” A king's majesty or “state,” then, and the right of his kingdom to be called a State, depends on the movelessness of both,―without tremor, without quiver of balance, established and enthroned upon a foundation of eternal law which nothing can alter or overthrow. Believing that all literature and all education are only useful so far as they tend to confirm this calm, beneficent, and therefore kingly, power,―first over ourselves, and, through ourselves, over all around us,―I am now going to ask you to consider with me further, what special portion or kind of this royal authority, arising out of noble education, may rightly be possessed by women; and how far they also are called to a true queenly power,―not in their households merely, but over all within their sphere. And in what sense, if they rightly understood and exercised this royal or gracious influence, the order and beauty induced by such benignant power would justify us in speaking of the territories over which each of them reigned as ‘Queens' Gardens.’ Here still is the true critical style, with exact definitions; but the whole argument is a metaphor, and the object of the criticism is to rouse feelings that will lead to action. It will be observed that words which by definition are to be taken in some sort of technical sense are distinguished to the eye in some way. Matthew Arnold used italics. Ruskin first places “state” within quotation marks, and then, when he uses the word in a still different sense, he writes it with a capital letter―State. Capitalization is perhaps the most common way for designating common words when used in a special sense which is defined by the writer―or defined by implication. This is the explanation of the capital letters with which the writings of Carlyle are filled. He constantly endeavors to make words mean more than, or something different from, the meaning they usually have. The peculiar embellishments of the critical writer are epigram, paradox, and satire. An epigram is a very short phrase or sentence which is so full of implied meaning or suggestion that it catches the attention at once, and remains in the memory easily. The paradox is something of the same sort on a larger scale. It is a statement that we can hardly believe to be true, since it seems at first sight to be self-contradictory, or to contradict well known truths or laws; but on examination we find that in a peculiar sense it is strictly true. Satire is a variation of humor peculiarly adapted to criticism, since it is intended to make the common idea ridiculous when compared with the ideas which the critic is trying to bring out: it is a sort of argument by force of stinging points. We may find an example of satire in its perfection in Swift, especially in his “Gulliver's Travels”―since these are satires the point of which we can appreciate to-day. Oscar Wilde was peculiarly given to epigram, and in his plays especially we may find epigram carried to the same excess that the balanced structure is carried by Macaulay. More moderate epigram may be found in Emerson and Carlyle. Paradox is something that we should use only on special occasion. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Cody, Sherwin, 2007. The Art Of Writing & Speaking The English Language Word-Study. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved April 2022 from https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/19719/pg19719-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html . Photo by on Waldemar Brandt Unsplash

The Art Of Writing & Speaking The English Language : Chapter VIII - Criticism

The Essays of Adam Smith: THE IMITATIVE ARTS - Part II

The Essays of Adam Smith, by Adam Smith is part of HackerNoon’s Book Blog Post series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . Part I, SEC. I, Chapter II: Of the Pleasure of mutual Sympathy Chapter II. Of the Pleasure of mutual Sympathy BUT whatever may be the cause of sympathy, or however it may be excited, nothing pleases us more than to observe in other men a fellow-feeling with all the emotions of our own breast; nor are we ever so much shocked as by the appearance of the contrary. Those who are fond of deducing all our sentiments from certain refinements of self-love, think themselves at no loss to account, according to their own principles, both for this pleasure and this pain. Man, say they, conscious of his own weakness, and of the need which he has for the assistance of others, rejoices whenever he observes that they adopt his own passions, because he is then assured of that assistance; and 14 grieves whenever he observes the contrary, because he is then assured of their opposition. But both the pleasure and the pain are always felt so instantaneously, and often upon such frivolous occasions, that it seems evident that neither of them can be derived from any such self-interested consideration. A man is mortified when, after having endeavoured to divert the company, he looks round and sees that nobody laughs at his jests but himself. On the contrary, the mirth of the company is highly agreeable to him, and he regards this correspondence of their sentiments with his own as the greatest applause. Neither does his pleasure seem to arise altogether from the additional vivacity which his mirth may receive from sympathy with theirs, nor his pain from the disappointment he meets with when he misses this pleasure; though both the one and the other, no doubt, do in some measure. When we have read a book or poem so often that we can no longer find any amusement in reading it by ourselves, we can still take pleasure in reading it to a companion. To him it has all the graces of novelty; we enter into the surprise and admiration which it naturally excites in him, but which it is no longer capable of exciting in us; we consider all the ideas which it presents rather in the light in which they appear to him, than in that in which they appear to ourselves, and we are amused by sympathy with his amusement which thus enlivens our own. On the contrary, we should be vexed if he did not seem to be entertained with it, and we could no longer take any pleasure in reading it to him. It is the same case here. The mirth of the company, no doubt, enlivens our own mirth, and their silence, no doubt, disappoints us. But though this may contribute both to the pleasure which we derive from the one, and to the pain which we feel from the other, it is by no means the sole cause of either; and this correspondence of the sentiments of others with our own appears to be a cause of pleasure, and the want of it a cause of pain, which cannot be accounted for in this manner. The sympathy, which my friends express with my joy, might, indeed, give me pleasure by enlivening that joy: but that which they express with my grief could give me none, if it served only to enliven that grief. Sympathy, however, enlivens joy and alleviates grief. It enlivens joy by presenting another source of satisfaction; and it alleviates grief by insinuating into the heart almost the only agreeable sensation which it is at that time capable of receiving. It is to be observed accordingly, that we are still more anxious to communicate to our friends our disagreeable than our agreeable passions, that we derive still more satisfaction from their sympathy with the former than from that with the latter, and that we are still more shocked by the want of it. How are the unfortunate relieved when they have found out a person to whom they can communicate the cause of their sorrow? Upon his sympathy they seem to disburthen themselves of a part of their 15 distress: he is not improperly said to share it with them. He not only feels a sorrow of the same kind with that which they feel, but, as if he had derived a part of it to himself, what he feels seems to alleviate the weight of what they feel. Yet by relating their misfortunes they in some measure renew their grief. They awaken in their memory the remembrance of those circumstances which occasion their affliction. Their tears accordingly flow faster than before, and they are apt to abandon themselves to all the weakness of sorrow. They take pleasure, however, in all this, and, it is evident, are sensibly relieved by it; because the sweetness of his sympathy more than compensates the bitterness of that sorrow, which, in order to excite this sympathy, they had thus enlivened and renewed. The cruellest insult, on the contrary, which can be offered to the unfortunate, is to appear to make light of their calamities. To seem not to be affected with the joy of our companions is but want of politeness; but not to wear a serious countenance when they tell us their afflictions, is real and gross inhumanity. Love is an agreeable, resentment a disagreeable, passion; and accordingly we are not half so anxious that our friends should adopt our friendships, as that they should enter into our resentments. We can forgive them though they seem to be little affected with the favours which we may have received, but lose all patience if they seem indifferent about the injuries which may have been done to us: nor are we half so angry with them for not entering into our gratitude, as for not sympathizing with our resentment. They can easily avoid being friends to our friends, but can hardly avoid being enemies to those with whom we are at variance. We seldom resent their being at enmity with the first, though upon that account we may sometimes affect to make an awkward quarrel with them; but we quarrel with them in good earnest if they live in friendship with the last. The agreeable passions of love and joy can satisfy and support the heart without any auxiliary pleasure. The bitter and painful emotions of grief and resentment more strongly require the healing consolation of sympathy. As the person who is principally interested in any event is pleased with our sympathy, and hurt by the want of it, so we, too, seem to be pleased when we are able to sympathize with him, and to be hurt when we are unable to do so. We run not only to congratulate the successful, but to condole with the afflicted; and the pleasure which we find in the conversation of one whom in all the passions of his heart we can entirely sympathize with, seems to do more than compensate the painfulness of that sorrow with which the view of his situation affects us. On the contrary, it is always disagreeable to feel that we cannot sympathize with him, and instead of being pleased with this exemption from sympathetic pain, it hurts us to find that we cannot share his uneasiness. If we hear a person loudly lamenting his misfortunes, which however, upon bringing the case home to ourselves, we feel, can produce 16 no such violent effect upon us, we are shocked at his grief; and, because we cannot enter into it, call it pusillanimity and weakness. It gives us the spleen, on the other hand, to see another too happy or too much elevated, as we call it, with any little piece of good fortune. We are disobliged even with his joy; and, because we cannot go along with it, call it levity and folly. We are even put out of humour if our companion laughs louder or longer at a joke than we think it deserves; that is, than we feel that we ourselves could laugh at it. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Smith, Adam. 2018. The Essays of Adam Smith. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved May 2022 from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/58559/58559-h/58559-h.htm#page13 This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html .

The Essays of Adam Smith: Part I, SEC. I, Chapter II - Of the Pleasure of mutual Sympathy

This is today's reality: Artificial intelligence has already made a lot of buzz in the mobile app development industry. More cheap and available screens, easy real-time access to the data robust analysis tools have become even more powerful - all of this is already a normal part of our daily routine in society. We're approaching the stage of smart everything The implementation of Artificial Intelligence is highly varied, depending on specific industries. Chatbots, spam filters, cloud APIs, natural language processing, face recognition robotics and more are expected to be used for many goals. For example, installing chatbots into retail screens and POSs, inserting built-in intelligence to popular business applications, and integrating with an environment-aware smart detector. And, what is most important, AI will become such a normal thing in everyday life that it's already used in small shops and many industrial factories. AI will become more affordable Apple is taking a shot at a processor planned exclusively to perform AI-related errands, and it will, in the long run, be remembered for huge numbers of its smart gadgets, including iPhones and iPads. Curiously, this is one case where Apple isn't driving the way - partly because it's playing catch up for the lost time. Qualcomm, as of late, discharged the Snapdragon 835 portable processor, which has a module for AI and taking care of man-made brainpower assignments. Snapdragon processors are utilized in numerous Android telephones. Google revealed an AI-related processor back to the Tensor Processor Unit in 2016, in spite of the fact that, until further notice, the chip is utilized in Google server farms for picture acknowledgment and to convey quicker, better query items. Don't be astounded if Google builds up an AI-centered portable processor too. Simultaneously, the cost of sensors has come down, making them affordable for the cheapest vehicles and devices, yet it can be used for anything – from modern machines to shoes, to drink bottles. Increasingly reasonable sensors, implanted in everything from apparel to hardware, will add data to a regularly developing system of associated gadgets. For instance, Wearable X reported $299 yoga pants that will use implanted sensors and a versatile application to help yogis of all capacities to improve their flexibility, etc.. Indeed, even the most costly classes of sensors are seeing costs fall. In April, Velodyne reported another, minimal effort strong state LiDAR framework called Velarray, which could make self-driving autos a modern reality. The sensor is equipped for perceiving objects with low reflectivity up to 200 meters away, flaunts improved vertical and flat fields of view than forerunners, and expects to sell for only two or three hundred bucks when delivered in mass volumes. We'll likely see sensors transmitting information on everything from street conditions, to office use and modern hardware. Undertakings, which are utilizing more mobile phones and wearables than any time in recent history, should transmit, gather and investigate this information to settle on always making smart choices – and they'll be needing to do it progressively. Keen hardware representatives with smartphones on the shop should be fixed, sensors cautioning field administration workers with smartphones that they have to make a quick help call.  This is only the tip of the iceberg. This new equipment is clear proof that AI is genuinely turning into an ordinary reality. Be that as it may, while the equipment improvements are basic, the other piece of the story is the product – or the applications. When we gather the information from every one of these sensors, AI will help examine and instruct representatives on the next steps, yet the venture work environment has changed. Representatives have moved away from work area PCs and paper-and-clipboards and are accomplishing increasingly more business on their smartphones. Conventional business application designers must think of AI as far as versatile applications. What separates mobile apps out from web applications on PCs is their capacity to know about their location and the external world utilizing these sensors. Combining AI with these abilities makes applications significantly more valuable. Here are several cases of AI and machine learning contributions from the sensors that make proposals on what you ought to do alongside with the intensity of a portable application: AI implementation across the industries Buoy Health is an AI-based symptom and medicine controller that applies computer algorithms to identify and cure sicknesses. The principle: a chatbot receives a person’s symptoms and information from their medical companies.  The AI then leads that person to the right protection in accordance with its analysis. Harvard Medical School already uses Buoy’s AI to diagnose and immediately and more smoothly handle many cases. AI implementation in Healthcare creates deep learning medical applications to modernize radiology examinations. The AI platform interprets disorganized therapeutic info (radiology pictures, blood analyses, EKGs, patient therapeutic records) to provide doctors with more useful penetration into a patient’s interactive requirements. Enlitic Komatsu offers a solution, SmartConstruction, that associates work data concerning gear and individuals. SmartConstruction enables clients to review their workplace data by means of automaton or 3D scanning to deliver a 3D model of current conditions, bringing the information into KomConnect to consequently recreate the making of development plans, and afterward transmitting the information into mechanized, driverless, earth-moving vehicles to computerize exhuming. Komatsu's shrewd machine control can wipe out human mistakes and forestall security perils. Simultaneously, Komatsu's versatile application enables clients to see machine data from the Komtrax armada observing framework on their Apple or Android cell phones or tablet gadgets. AI implementation in Development Kasisto has built an AI platform, KAI, which allows banks to create their own personal chatbots and virtual assistants. It’s entrenched in AI logic and human-language recognition and creation, which would imply that it can deal with complex issues about finance and banking service. AI implementation in Banking Here is another example of using AI in financial applications: Simudyne is a tech vendor that applies AI and machine learning to reach thousands of business situations. Simudyne's program enables financial companies to manage resistance testing examinations and manage the risks for market contamination on huge ranges. The CEO of the corporation announced that the simulation supports investment managers to avoid risks and improve critical debt provisioning for the purpose of making better-informed judgments. How to apply AI in current mobile applications Even a few years ago, many revolutionary and innovative technologies needed years to be implemented to business, however, today you can begin easily and reach your goals much more quickly. Business developers all across the globe are already supporting businesses to enhance independence and modernize enterprise processes with restricted resources, by using AI with modern UI design in current applications. How can developers begin to use artificial intelligence for their applications to enhance UX and reduce the chances of failure: Traditionally, signals from mobile apps are set on a timer, but AI provides alerts or warnings set on customers' circumstances or interactive actions. Real-time and Immediate Alerts Applications can make smart, personalized notes relied on various operations and actions that are obtained and then interpreted. Custom Notification Apps can read the shopping habits and routines of customers and are able to provide owners with valuable information to aid them in their business operations. Self-Reading Applications that use AI can do even more than “enough” to create a comfortable and safe environment. For example, such an app can turn off an air conditioner or electric outlet even when a person is not in the house. Smart Actions When AI is integrated into a search engine it is able to make more habitual and less painful processes for mobile users to fasten a search, suggest searching options and grammar improvements, and amplify voice search.. To sum up, applying Artificial Intelligence (AI) to a mobile app can constantly help to streamline the searching process for mobile users. Streamline the searching process For the largest app development corporations, fingertips and face recognition are the most common AI technologies. Artificial intelligence reads eye position, nose size, a form of the lips, etc. Those people who are using the latest iPhones are already familiar with facial identification technology. Google goes further with FaceNet. On the broadly applied Labeled Faces in the Wild (LFW) dataset, they reached a new high certainty of 99.63%. Using an AI and a smart algorithm has managed to associate a face to its owner with excellent accuracy. Face recognition and authentication As reported by Gartner in the , the amount of organizations realizing AI technologies has increased 2.7 times from 2015. 2019 CIO Survey Artificial intelligence (AI) is the most discussed technology and one-ups the data and analytics as a ground-breaking technology. In terms of realization, when told about the company’s projections about coming digital technologies and tendencies, 37% answered that they already extended AI. Actually, AI appears in second, behind cybersecurity (88 %). The Future of Artificial Intelligence in Mobile App Development Based on the Statista report, by the year 2025, the growth of the artificial intelligence (AI) software market worldwide will reach $89 billion. However, the embedding of AI in the mobile application is in the initial phases. There is a lot that can still be changed and modified. Your complete UX can be formed by applying AI and then handled in various mobile apps. We can see a remarkable increase in AI use in 2020 already. AI has already started to integrate into 5G smartphones which means that the customers can get more privileges of ML and AI to gather, maintain, and handle real-time information. With the purpose of getting the new impressive functions in a mobile app, you should think about choosing mobile developers for your company. Here at KitRUM , we're always happy to hear from you and help you to get access to the top 5% of most talented application developers. Previously published at https://kitrum.com/blog/artificial-intelligence-in-mobile-app-development-upcoming-trends-for-2020/

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