{"id":3624,"date":"2023-08-05T19:04:25","date_gmt":"2023-08-05T23:04:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/oliver-sacks-on-how-to-save-humanity-from-itself-the-marginalian\/"},"modified":"2023-08-05T19:04:25","modified_gmt":"2023-08-05T23:04:25","slug":"oliver-sacks-on-how-to-save-humanity-from-itself-the-marginalian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/oliver-sacks-on-how-to-save-humanity-from-itself-the-marginalian\/","title":{"rendered":"Oliver Sacks on How to Save Humanity from Itself \u2013 The Marginalian"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/hop.clickbank.net\/?affiliate=infohatch&amp;vendor=J1R2C\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10614 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px.png\" alt=\"Profit Gen\" width=\"400\" height=\"217\" srcset=\"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px.png 400w, https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px-300x163.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The poetic neurologist <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/tag\/oliver-sacks\/\">Oliver Sacks<\/a> (July 9, 1933\u2013August 30, 2015) was one of those rare seers capable of bending their gaze past the horizon of their culture\u2019s givens. He wrote presciently about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2023\/05\/02\/oliver-sacks-making-up-the-mind\/\">consciousness, our search for meaning, and ChatGPT 30 years before ChatGPT<\/a>. He challenged the blind spots of Western medicine with his empirically tested faith in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2019\/05\/27\/oliver-sacks-gardens\/\">the healing power of nature<\/a>. And as he was dying, he wrote poignantly about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2015\/05\/18\/oliver-sacks-on-the-move\/\">the measure of a life fully lived<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Man-Who-Mistook-His-Wife\/dp\/0684853949\/?tag=braipick-20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" width=\"680\" height=\"675\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-63358 jetpack-lazy-image\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/oliversacks_scourfield.jpg?w=800&amp;ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/oliversacks_scourfield.jpg?resize=240%2C238&amp;ssl=1 240w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/oliversacks_scourfield.jpg?resize=320%2C318&amp;ssl=1 320w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/oliversacks_scourfield.jpg?resize=768%2C762&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/oliversacks_scourfield.jpg?resize=600%2C596&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/oliversacks_scourfield.jpg?resize=32%2C32&amp;ssl=1 32w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/oliversacks_scourfield.jpg?resize=50%2C50&amp;ssl=1 50w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/oliversacks_scourfield.jpg?resize=64%2C64&amp;ssl=1 64w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/oliversacks_scourfield.jpg?resize=96%2C96&amp;ssl=1 96w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/oliversacks_scourfield.jpg?resize=128%2C128&amp;ssl=1 128w\" data-lazy-sizes=\"(max-width: 680px) 100vw, 680px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/oliversacks_scourfield.jpg?resize=680%2C675&amp;is-pending-load=1#038;ssl=1\"\/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" data-lazy-fallback=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/oliversacks_scourfield.jpg?resize=680%2C675&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"680\" height=\"675\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-63358\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/oliversacks_scourfield.jpg?w=800&amp;ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/oliversacks_scourfield.jpg?resize=240%2C238&amp;ssl=1 240w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/oliversacks_scourfield.jpg?resize=320%2C318&amp;ssl=1 320w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/oliversacks_scourfield.jpg?resize=768%2C762&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/oliversacks_scourfield.jpg?resize=600%2C596&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/oliversacks_scourfield.jpg?resize=32%2C32&amp;ssl=1 32w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/oliversacks_scourfield.jpg?resize=50%2C50&amp;ssl=1 50w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/oliversacks_scourfield.jpg?resize=64%2C64&amp;ssl=1 64w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/oliversacks_scourfield.jpg?resize=96%2C96&amp;ssl=1 96w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/oliversacks_scourfield.jpg?resize=128%2C128&amp;ssl=1 128w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 680px) 100vw, 680px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oliver Sacks (Photograph: Adam Scourfield)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>An epoch before <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2023\/07\/29\/john-j-plenty-fiddler-dan\/\">the civilizational cult of More<\/a> metastasized in the grim golden age of Big Data and megaeverything, reducing human beings to data points in an immense scatterplot of corporate profit, Dr. Sacks considered what it would take to save humanity from itself. <\/p>\n<p>When <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/Cvh0OISstuX\/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&amp;igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">asked<\/a> about his key concept for the near future, he answers in his warm English accent, New York Botanical Garden t-shirt, and passionate conviction:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>In two words\u2026 human scale. <\/p>\n<p>I think we have to preserve the human scale \u2014 in life, in building, in architecture, in technology. The human scale doesn\u2019t mean we can\u2019t have grand visions of the universe, it doesn\u2019t preclude the development of physics and cosmology, but it does mean one shouldn\u2019t be an anonymous person \u2014 an anonymous non-person, one of a thousand non-people \u2014 in a skyscraper. <\/p>\n<p>I think the challenge is how can one preserve the human scale in great cities, in megalopolis, in corporations, in high technology\u2026 but, my God, we must do so \u2014 or there will be genocide, atomic bombs, and we\u2019ll all perish and take the planet with us. Human scale is the thing that will save us.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Complement with the poetic naturalist Henry Beston on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2016\/07\/26\/henry-beston-northern-farm-smallness\/\">the sacredness of the small scale<\/a>, then revisit Oliver Sacks on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2017\/11\/09\/oliver-sacks-the-river-of-consciousness-the-creative-self\/\">the three essential elements of creativity<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2018\/01\/15\/oliver-sacks-identity-self-narrative\/\">the building blocks of personhood<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2016\/03\/15\/writers-on-music\/\">the power of music<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async defer src=\"https:\/\/platform.instagram.com\/en_US\/embeds.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/hop.clickbank.net\/?affiliate=infohatch&amp;vendor=J1R2C\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10614 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px.png\" alt=\"Profit Gen\" width=\"400\" height=\"217\" srcset=\"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px.png 400w, https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px-300x163.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The poetic neurologist Oliver Sacks (July 9, 1933\u2013August 30, 2015) was one of those rare seers capable of bending their gaze past the horizon of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-purpose"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}