Very interesting interview with Susan Blackamore in the Third Way. She talks about how she came to abandon paranormal research and discusses some of the reasons why memetics is still regarded as somewhat suspect as a field of study. Includes some pretty deep philosphical stuff. Blackamore rejects dualism but owns up to how difficult that […]
Why does happiness have such a bad reputation?
Why does happiness have such a bad reputation?
The question, as raised in a new book by Kevin Kelly, is apparently not just hypothetical. In What Technology Wants, tech guru Kevin Kelly sees the “technium” as a seamless extension of complex biology, evolving by the same rules… According to Kelly, technology is an emerging state of cosmic reality. We cannot reject it, so […]
Via Andrea Kuszewski on FaceBook.
I realize the headline violates our rule against personal attacks. But I just have to make an exception in the case of Mr. Irons, who has achieved a level of asininity rare even for a movie star making comments on global issues. Before we delve into the really asinine stuff, let me highlight one area […]
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. […]
On last week’s podcast, we touched briefly on the subject of what kind of government / security infrastructure will need to be implemented in a world in which anyone can make, well, anything. I suggested that some kind of powerful enforcement mechanism will have to be put in place, although much of the “policing” might […]
Always a valuable thing to do… Via Alex Tabarrok.
Chapter 1: Peter Thiel writes a libertarian escape mini-manifesto over at Cato Unbound. Chapter 2: Mike Treder responds at IEET, with a vigorous critique of Thiel’s views. Chapter 3: Michael Anissimov observes that Thiel and the Singularity Institute were mentioned in an entry over at ReadWriteWeb. He notes the recent dust-up over Thiel’s essay and […]