"The Patterning Instinct" by Jeremy Lent, was maybe the best of the books I've been reading lately about our cognitive history and position in reality. Lots of insights into how we got where we are today as a species, speculation upon what could come next, and a recommendation to move beyond the dualistic philosophy that developed from the time of Plato which, he claims, led to our mechanistic interpretation of the universe, to over-exploitation of nature, as well as to our current hyper-capitalism. He suggests that our future, at least one in which we remain recognizably human, may depend upon embracing the insights of systems theory which, he says, align with neo-confucian thought from 12th century China: an understanding that sees the interplay and interconnectedness of all phenomena, rather than their existence in isolation. The last chapter of his book is called "the web of meaning", which is also the title of a more recent book that he has written. I will read that one too. But I'm a slow, minimalistic reader. It will take me a good while to get through Mishra's "The World after Gaza" - which is really excellent, by the way.