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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Category Archives: MInd
Emergence, Complexity, and the Potential for Human Understanding
Here are a couple scientific topics that I don’t pretend to understand, at least not in any depth. What I find fascinating is how, while the big-scale scientific conclusions have been fairly stable for several decades (as noted two weeks … Continue reading
Steven Pinker: THE BLANK SLATE, post 2
(Advisory: I’m traveling to Austin TX tomorrow through Sunday, and so will not be posting here until next Monday, likely.) A key point about this book is that Pinker shows how the facts (the science) of human nature undermine both … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, MInd, Psychology, Steven Pinker
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Steven Pinker: THE BLANK SLATE, post 1
Subtitled: “The Modern Denial of Human Nature” (Viking, Oct. 2002, 509pp, including 75pp appendix, notes, references, and index) This is an enormous, thorough book on a topic already covered to some extent by several of the other major books I’ve … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, MInd, Psychology, science fiction, Steven Pinker
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Oliver Sacks, THE MAN WHO MISTOOK HIS WIFE FOR A HAT
Like the Pinker and Wilson volumes I’ve covered here recently, this is another classic nonfiction book, one I first read years ago without taking notes (maybe before I began taking notes on my reading). So I skimmed through it again … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, MInd, Psychology, science fiction
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EO Wilson, CONSILIENCE, 8
Chapter 9, The Social Sciences Now Wilson begins takes his conclusions about human nature and searches for ways to bring insight, if not explanation, to various aspects of human culture, in particular studies in the humanities that are supposedly resistant to … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Human Progress, MInd, Psychology, Science
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EO Wilson, CONSILIENCE, 7
Chapter 8, The Fitness of Human Nature This is perhaps the core chapter of the book, in that it brings together ideas about the mind, genes, and culture from the previous two chapters, and sets up a basis for the … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Culture, Human Progress, MInd, Science, science fiction
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More Dispatches from Alternative Realities
How Katie Britt, like other clueless Republicans, claims victimhood, and pleads for cash; Robert Wright on how the Trump-Biden choice won’t solve anything; Short items about Trump’s obsession with Hitler; how violent crime is down but you wouldn’t know it … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Culture, MInd, Politics
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EO Wilson, CONSILIENCE, 6
Chapter 7, From Genes to Culture This chapter is about “gene-culture coevolution.” Also, this is the point in the book where Wilson mentions C.P. Snow’s “Two Cultures” (which I discussed here almost six years ago.) Key points in this chapter: … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Human Progress, MInd, Science
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EO Wilson, CONSILIENCE, 5
Chapter 6: The Mind Here’s the chapter in Wilson that corresponds to Pinker’s entire book. There are ideas here that reflect some of Nagel‘s topics, as well, and some of the thoughts I had while reading his book. Key points … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Human Progress, MInd, Science
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Steven Pinker, HOW THE MIND WORKS, post 4
Chapter 8, “The Meaning of Life,” is the last 45 page chapter of this 565 page (counting only text) book. Here he covers matters of human culture, much as Wilson did at the end of his 1978 book. Given that … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, MInd, Music, Psychology, Religion, Steven Pinker
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