by Carl Howard | Nov 14, 2013 | Charity and Philanthropy, History, Interesting Stuff, Resources, Food and Environment, Science and Skepticism, Society
Every year, Edge.org publishes responses of about 100-150 scientists, philosophers, public intellectuals (and alas some, cranks) to a single question. It’s generally an interesting read, previous posts are about the 2011 question (What is the most important invention...
by Carl Howard | Nov 11, 2013 | Atrocities and Oppression, History, Mind, Psychology and Consciousness
Young members of the Khmer Rouge, Tuol Sleng Museum, Phnom Penh It’s a cliche that various horrible events from the 20th century have changed the popular understanding of human behaviour — but it’s true. It particularly hit me in the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum looking...
by Carl Howard | Nov 8, 2013 | Biases and Fallacies, Blog Topics, Science and Skepticism, Society
Via lots of places, a story about the recent San Francisco subway shooting has luddites everywhere lamenting how smartphones have changed Who We Are. What prompted this was footage of a man brandishing a gun on the subway and pointing it at people none of whom noticed...
by Carl Howard | Oct 29, 2013 | Atrocities and Oppression, Biases and Fallacies, Feminism and LGBT
One of my friends is now living in Moscow where he has spent some time debating supporters of Russia’s horrible homophobic laws. Last week, there was a Facebook thread where he wanted to clarify some thinking about gay adoption. The question (paraphrased by me) was...
by Carl Howard | Oct 22, 2013 | Blog Topics, Charity and Philanthropy, Ethics, Resources, Food and Environment, Science and Skepticism, Society
So, you still think we’re not utterly fucked as a species? I offer two exhibits. Exhibit A Namibia is having the worst drought in 30 years. At the time of UNICEF’s video (below), about 1/3 of Namibians were facing food insecurity. Crops have failed and for...
by Carl Howard | Jan 7, 2013 | Atheism and Religion, Blog Topics, Mind, Psychology and Consciousness, Philosophy, Science and Skepticism
Yes. (At least for many of the most useful definitions of machines/beasts.) But I guess there’s a lot more to it — or so a lot of bloviators would like us to believe. There are a lot of opinion pieces out there that decry the materialism/reductionism/scientism...
