Mark R. Kelly
» Founder in 1997 and site-runner for 20 years of Locus Online (Hugo Award winner in 2002). Founder in 2012 and still site-runner of sfadb.com (Science Fiction Awards Database). Retired in 2012 after 30 years as a software engineer for a certain rocket engine factory.
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Meta
Category Archives: Epistemology
Institutions, Tribes, and Faith
Paul Krugman’s last NYT column, in part about what has changed in the past 25 years, including the collapse of trust in the elites; Helen Lewis echoes Fareed Zakaria yesterday: the mainstream media is part of the “elite” system that … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Epistemology, Religion, Science, Social Progress
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Regression Toward the Tribal
Let’s see now. Here we are in the 21st century. In the past 500 years humankind has shown remarkable progress on two parallel fronts. Along governance: no longer was the divine right of kings (or tribal leaders) recognized; rather, principles … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Epistemology, History, Human Progress, Politics, Science
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Political Truths and Lies
A subject which never ends. My fascination with this, yet again, isn’t about politics per se, so much as trying to understand why people believe what they do, and how humanity struggles with the balance of survival vs understanding. How … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Epistemology, Politics
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Why Do You “Believe”? Who Do You Trust?
One item for today, about which I think is a key principle. NY Times, Zeynep Tufekci, 12 Aug 2024: The Problem Is Not A.I. It’s the Disbelief Created by Trump. This triggers off the recent news items about Trump’s skepticism … Continue reading
Posted in Epistemology, Politics
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I’ve Caught a Cold; How Much of Science Fiction is Obsolete?
I’ve caught colds my entire life; two or three a year. I sneeze, cough, and it usually starts with a sore throat. (Whereas I very rarely have gotten flues, with a temperature and symptoms that go on for a week.) … Continue reading
Posted in Epistemology, Personal history, science fiction
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Stupid Lies
Trump’s stupid lies; How conservatives do not trust people to make their own decisions; Heather Cox Richardson on how we got here; A Republican who boasts about cheating homeless people; On a positive note: Ali Velshi on NPR this morning. … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Epistemology, Morality, Politics
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Trust in Science, Bertrand Russell, and Religious “Truth”
An item about restoring trust in science, which doesn’t say very much except to improve education; A reading from Bertrand Russell, about religion, morals, and science; How a religious thinker thinks historians should only tell history that is “inspiring and … Continue reading
Posted in Epistemology, Philosophy, Religion, Science
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Watching Movies in Theaters; UBI; Reality; Why Everyone Thinks They’re Losing; and Epistemology
Items today: How watching movies in certain theaters (AMC) is a bloated experience; Why UBI studies are not making traction into political policy; A New Yorker graphic essay about how reality might exist only because we’re observing it; E.J. Dionne … Continue reading
Posted in Epistemology, Movies, Politics, Psychology
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Real Conspiracy Theories and Fake Crises
Benjamin Bradford at CFI about how conspiracy theorists shrug about real conspiracy theories; Big Think on conspiracy theories about places claimed not to exist; Robert Reich on the fake crises Republicans use to distract from real problems. CFI, Benjamin Bradford, … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Epistemology, Psychology
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The Deep State, or, Jonathan Rauch, THE CONSTITUTION OF KNOWLEDGE, part 3
I’ve said the last two posts that I would quote the passages of Rauch’s book in which he describes what he considers to be the components of the “reality-based community.” And how it struck me that some of these components … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, conservatives, Epistemology
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