Category Archives: Human Imperative

Kaizen!

Occasionally on Facebook I get to point out that anything I post without comment is likely something I intend to read later because it strikes me as potentially interesting. These posts often result in comments, which then remind me that I meant to read the thing. It’s a way of outsourcing a reminder to read something […]

False Dichotomies

They’re everywhere. Superman or Batman? Star Trek or Star Wars? Football or baseball? It’s one thing to be asked to state a preference, but these choices are increasingly offered as absolutes. The idea that you might really like both of the items in question (in different ways, for different reasons) seems to get in the […]

Who Should Exist?

One of the first interviews I ever did for this blog was with Nina Paley, an advocate for the (self-refuting) human extinction movement. Here she is having a conversation with Mike Treder in which she affirms that human extinction would not be a bad thing, would not be something she would object to. The human […]

Why Do They Have to Develop?

Here’s a charmer of a quote from the comments section of the article I linked the other day about how a new catalyst enables highly efficient production of hydrogen from water: Ok why do under developed nations even need power honestly? Can’t they just stay under-developed forever? I’d like to think this is a joke. […]

Firemakers

As we discussed in a recent edition of FastForward Radio, the mastery of fire was one of the most significant steps forward in human history. Stephen pointed out that human beings were able to use fire long before we developed the ability to create fire. So fire was a rare and precious substance that fell […]

The Human Imperative

We walk in shadows towards the light. From before the beginning, we have faced a world that has filled us with fear, a world fraught with danger, deprivation, disease, destruction, and death. From before the beginning, we have faced a world that has inspired us to hope, a world that freely offers us pleasure, abundance, […]