The book referenced by Sacks - The Machine Sleeps - is positively, absolutely wonderful. It is, equally wonderfully, free for all, having been published in 1909: http://archive.ncsa.illinois.edu/prajlich/forster.html
To have so clearly seen the future (not ours, but the one ours portends) is truly, completely, and utterly remarkable. I cannot recommend it enough, and it is tantalising to me that Sacks devoted some of his last days to its exposition. To have had just a little more time...
Here is my favorite passage:
"Cannot you see, cannot all you lecturers see, that it is we that are dying, and that down here the only thing that really lives in the Machine? We created the Machine, to do our will, but we cannot make it do our will now. It was robbed us of the sense of space and of the sense of touch, it has blurred every human relation and narrowed down love to a carnal act, it has paralysed our bodies and our wills, and now it compels us to worship it. The Machine develops - but not on our lies. The Machine proceeds - but not to our goal. We only exist as the blood corpuscles that course through its arteries, and if it could work without us, it would let us die. Oh, I have no remedy - or, at least, only one - to tell men again and again that I have seen the hills of Wessex as Ælfrid saw them when he overthrew the Danes."
I think you mean "The Machine Stops". I just did a search for The Machine Sleeps and I got a bunch of white noise generators and a book about sleep apnea :-)
One surpising side of Oliver Sacks that I discovered recently was that when he was hanging round Muscle Beach in the 60's, he had a 600lb squat. Brains and Brawn.
Not very likely. Do you have a source for this? For comparison, Bryce Harper, one of the strongest MLB players and a physical freak, squats 405. And that's with modern training and nutrition.
Also compare to the CURRENT world record squats for a man of Sacks' likely size in the 1960s, and you'll see how unlikely this is.
(Edit: I looked it up. Looks like Sacks did indeed set a CA state record with a 600-lb "power lift", which is slightly different from a squat, but certainly close enough. Mea culpa:
I don't think a "power lift" is a specific lift. I believe powerlifting is the practice of a set of lifts, such as squat, bench press, and deadlift [1].
You can check this video [2] in which Oliver Sacks talks about squatting 600lb.
That was a great article. One of the best since his passing. I've read The Machine Stops, many years ago in high school, but I'm going to read it again.
In the last few months there have been a couple of fantastic interviews with Sacks on the Radiolab podcast. They are easy to get, for anyone who wants to hear more. http://www.radiolab.org/search/?q=Sacks
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[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 24.0 ms ] threadTo have so clearly seen the future (not ours, but the one ours portends) is truly, completely, and utterly remarkable. I cannot recommend it enough, and it is tantalising to me that Sacks devoted some of his last days to its exposition. To have had just a little more time...
Here is my favorite passage:
"Cannot you see, cannot all you lecturers see, that it is we that are dying, and that down here the only thing that really lives in the Machine? We created the Machine, to do our will, but we cannot make it do our will now. It was robbed us of the sense of space and of the sense of touch, it has blurred every human relation and narrowed down love to a carnal act, it has paralysed our bodies and our wills, and now it compels us to worship it. The Machine develops - but not on our lies. The Machine proceeds - but not to our goal. We only exist as the blood corpuscles that course through its arteries, and if it could work without us, it would let us die. Oh, I have no remedy - or, at least, only one - to tell men again and again that I have seen the hills of Wessex as Ælfrid saw them when he overthrew the Danes."
Also compare to the CURRENT world record squats for a man of Sacks' likely size in the 1960s, and you'll see how unlikely this is.
(Edit: I looked it up. Looks like Sacks did indeed set a CA state record with a 600-lb "power lift", which is slightly different from a squat, but certainly close enough. Mea culpa:
http://nymag.com/news/features/oliver-sacks-2012-11/index2.h...
)
http://nymag.com/news/features/oliver-sacks-2012-11/
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/why-oliver-sack...
You can check this video [2] in which Oliver Sacks talks about squatting 600lb.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powerlifting
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShUHg32-Y0U
A 400lb squat is nothing special, btw. I'm a fat 44 year old and can manage 370lb or so.
Finally - young Oliver Sacks was a bit of a bad-ass: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/multimedia/archive/00967/b6bcf...
//edit//
Found a pic of the actual lift!! http://flashbak.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/oliver-sachs....
Here's the free epub over at goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/ebooks/download/135676.The_Machine...