Babies are born with the instinct to speak, the way spiders are born with the instinct to spin webs. You don't need to train babies to speak; they just do. But reading is different.
Steven PinkerAnything that makes it easier to imagine trading places with someone else increases your moral consideration for that other person.
Steven PinkerPhotography is a kind of virtual reality, and it helps if you can create the illusion of being in an interesting world.
Steven PinkerClimate change could produce a lot of misery and waste without necessarily leading to large-scale armed conflict, which depends more on ideology and bad governance than on resource scarcity.
Steven Pinker