#whatireadovershabbat Benjamín Labatut's When We Cease to Understand the World, translated by Adrian Nathan West (2020; New York Review Book, 2021)
“Thinking has interests that do not coincide with those of living,” philosopher Ray Brassier once wrote. That line could be the motto of this collection of haunting stories. Featuring semi-fictionalized versions of historical figures, like physicists Werner Heisenberg and Erwin Schrödinger, the book depicts the collision of scientists with phenomena that warp and destroy the laws of nature and human flourishing. From the invention of Zyklon B to nitrogen harvesting, the discovery of black holes to quantum physics, Labatut suggests that science has led us to the precipice of a terrifying chasm. What we will see when we look down—that is anyone’s guess.
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