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THE BLUET

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2262-23
In the movie Groundhog Day, a weatherman played by Bill Murray is forced to relive a single day over and over again. Confronted with this seemingly endless loop, he eventually rebels against living through the same day the same way twice. He learns French, becomes a great pianist, befriends his neighbors, helps the poor. Why do we cheer him on? Because we don't want perfect predictability, even if what's on repeat is appealing. Surprise engages us. It allows us to escape autopilot. It keeps us awake to our experience. In fact, the neurotransmitter systems involved in reward are tied to the level of surprise: rewards delivered at regular, predictable times yield a lot less activity in the brain than the same rewards delivered at random unpredictable times. Surprise gratifies.

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A building is an inanimate object, but it is not an inarticulate one. Even the simplest house always makes a statement, one expressed in brick and stone, in wood and glass, rather than in words ― but no less loud and obvious. When we see a rusting trailer surrounded by weeds and abandoned cars, or a brand-new mini-mansion with a high wall, we instantly get a message. In both of these cases, though in different accents, it is "Stay Out of Here." It is not only houses, of course, that communicate with us. All kinds of buildings ― churches, museums, schools, hospitals, restaurants, and offices ― speak to us silently. Sometimes the statement is deliberate. A store or restaurant can be designed so that it welcomes mostly low-income or high-income customers. Buildings tell us what to think and how to act, though we may not register their messages consciously.

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The monarch butterfly has lovely bright colors splashed on its wings. The wings have white spots on the outer margins. The hind wings are rounded, and they are lighter in color than the front wings. The body is black with white spots. The mother butterfly lays only one egg on the underside of milkweed leaves, which hatches about three to five days later. The monarch loves to fly around in the warm sunshine, from March through October, all across the United States. The monarch cannot survive the cold winter temperatures of the northern states. So, it very wisely migrates from the northern states to the south, and hibernates. The monarch is the only insect that can fly more than four thousand kilometers to a warmer climate.

2262-29
Even though institutions like the World Bank use wealth to differentiate between "developed" and "developing" countries, they also agree that development is more than economic growth. "Development" can also include the social and environmental changes that are caused by or accompany economic growth, some of which are positive and thus may be negative. Awareness has grown ― and continues to grow ― that the question of how economic growth is affecting people and the planet needs to be addressed. Countries are slowly learning that it is cheaper and causes much less suffering to try to reduce the harmful effects of an economic activity or project at the beginning, when it is planned, than after the damage appears. To do this is not easy and is always imperfect. But an awareness of the need for such an effort indicates a greater understanding and moral concern than did the previous widespread attitude that focused only on creating new products and services.

2262-30
The most advanced military jets are fly‑by‑wire: They are so unstable that they require an automated system that can sense and act more quickly than a human operator to maintain control. Our dependence on smart technology has led to a paradox. As technology improves, it becomes more reliable and more efficient, and human operators depend on it even more. Eventually they lose focus, become distracted, and check out, leaving the system to run on its own. In the most extreme case, piloting a massive airliner could become a passive occupation, like watching TV. This is fine until something unexpected happens. The unexpected reveals the value of humans; what we bring to the table is the flexibility to handle new situations. Machines aren't collaborating in pursuit of a joint goal; they are merely serving as tools. So when the human operator gives up oversight, the system is more likely to have a serious accident.

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