Word: humaneness
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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DotComGuy's adversary, his Luddite doppelganger, is Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn, 42, a.k.a. NotComGuy. Vaguely troubled by his dependence on electronics, NotComGuy cooked up his own experiment. Instead of withdrawing from human society into his computer, NotComGuy set out to withdraw from his computer--and his cell phone and fax machine as well--into human society. Reasoning that "this stunt has a difficulty factor 52 times greater than DotComGuy's bagatelle," he announced he would go cold turkey for a week, then report on his discoveries in print...
...there are people who reject any attempt to apply evolutionary theory to human behavior, and, as far as I'm concerned, they can go back to composing their annual letters to Santa Claus. Obviously, humans have been shaped by natural selection (though it's not always so obvious how). We are not the descendants of the kindest or wisest of hominids--only of those who managed, by cunning or luck, to produce a few living offspring. But is rape really an effective strategy for guys who, deep down in their genes, just want to be fruitful and multiply...
There are plenty of evolutionary psychologists who would answer with a resounding no. They emphasize the evolutionary value of the human male's "parental investment"--his tendency to stick around after the act of impregnation and help out with the kids. Prehistoric dads may not have read many bed-time stories, but, in this account, they very likely brought home the occasional antelope haunch, and they almost certainly played a major role in defending the family from four-legged predators. In contrast, the rapist generally operates on a hit-and-run basis--which may be all right for stocking sperm...
...Plato tells on his return do not sit well with the governing authorities, and Plato meets a Socratic fate, put on trial for corrupting the young. By this point, Ackroyd's lively tale has shaded into an invigorating meditation on the changelessness, after no matter how many eons, of human nature and its uneasiness with the unfamiliar...
...true reprogrammer, getting the macho P.J. quite hilariously, yet quite sweetly, in touch with his feminine side. Their sexual battle is fierce and believable. The befuddlement of her family is told with unpatronizing honesty. And, best of all, both combatants emerge, finally, as better people--more tolerant, more human. That goes for Campion too. Her film may contain a kind of feminist parable, but she's less tense about it than she has been, more open in the exploration of her characters and more wayward (and charming) in the way she permits them to develop...