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: Morality
Joshua Greene, MORAL TRIBES, post 2
Concluding summary and comments about this book. Some highlights: The author focuses on a modified utilitarianism, which he calls “deep pragmatism,” to solve tribal disputes in the modern world; He observes that “rights” are claims to end disputes, in order … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Morality, progress
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Joshua Greene, MORAL TRIBES, post 1
Here is a substantial book about human morality that offers ideas that, to me, help to knit together the ideas of others. For chronological context, this 2013 book follows, of course, the 1997 Pinker book that I recently read (review … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Morality, progress, Science
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The Dual-Process Theory of Morality, and Some Examples
Today I finished reading this month’s big book (i.e. a substantial nonfiction book), Joshua Greene’s Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them, an extremely interesting book for the way its central idea knits together many of … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Morality, Politics
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The Awe of the Solar Eclipse
Three items today. Addressing a piece that claims that the awe of the solar eclipse, tomorrow, will somehow unite humanity (I think not; it hasn’t before); Another appreciation of Daniel Kahneman, who explained how humans think, and established the idea … Continue reading
How Humanity is Hobbled by Tribalism
I do have a general scheme in work, for which all of these items are supporting evidence. (And how this really does relate to science fiction.) A rogue GOP congressman who spouts unsupported conspiracy theories; How RFK Jr. supporters rationalize … Continue reading
Yuval Noah Harari, UNSTOPPABLE US, Vol. 2
Subtitled: “Why the World Isn’t Fair.” (Bright Matter Books, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House; March 2024. xv + 189pp. With copious illustrations by Ricard Zaplana Ruiz.) This is the second volume in … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Culture, History, Morality
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Imagine Prioritizing Truth Over Being Right
Here’s an amazing notion: there are some people who would rather find the truth, than be right. These are the scientists — some of them, anyway. This concerns Daniel Kahneman, whose death I noted a week ago here. NY Times, … Continue reading
It’s Time for Another Round of… Stupid? Or Cynical?
Stupid or Cynical: Republican/Christian conservatives respond to the coincidence of Easter and Trans Recognition Day; Some MAGA claims are just delusional, example from Steve Bannon; Robert Reich on Trump’s 5-step fascist plan; And how conservatives reject the idea of lab-grown … Continue reading
Nuclear Families and The Bible
I could probably spend every day compiling six or eight or ten of the most egregious examples of MAGA/Trump craziness, but I am trying not to. Let’s try a more substantial piece today. (I was busy with a family dinner … Continue reading
EO Wilson, CONSILIENCE, 11
Chapter 12, To What End? Wilson’s final chapter ponders options for humanity’s future, and comes down on the side of “existential conservatism.” And since it is about humanity’s future, the chapter has some things to say about the themes of … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Human Progress, Morality, Psychology, Science, science fiction
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