Category Archives: science fiction

Obsolete Laws, Morality, and Beliefs

Posted on Thursday 11 April 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

The world is changing, and conservatives deny this by appealing to values of a simpler past. How Republicans are resorting to obsolete laws — the Comstock laws, the 1864 Alabama ruling — to enforce their morality upon everyone; How the … Continue reading →

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Oliver Sacks, THE MAN WHO MISTOOK HIS WIFE FOR A HAT

Posted on Tuesday 26 March 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

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 →

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Putting Things Into Perspective: Science, Expertise, Liberalism

Posted on Friday 22 March 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Items today are follow-ups to items from the past couple days, it turns out. Ethan Siegel at Big Think puts that dark matter claim into the perspective of how science works; Tom Nichols’ update of The Death of Expertise aligns … Continue reading →

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Exceptionalism, and Science Fiction

Posted on Thursday 21 March 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

A screed by Brian Karem at Salon about how “America has lost its collective mind”; How ideas of American exceptionalism have been reflected in 20th century science fiction; Examples about “don’t say gay” laws; Trump’s fascist rhetoric; Trump’s dementia; how … Continue reading →

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EO Wilson, CONSILIENCE, 11

Posted on Wednesday 20 March 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

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 →

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EO Wilson, CONSILIENCE, 7

Posted on Thursday 14 March 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

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 →

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Dishonesty? Or Cognitive Decline?

Posted on Monday 11 March 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

About Katie Britt’s response to Joe Biden’s SOTU speech, from Amanda Marcotte, AlterNet, The New Republic, Heather Cox Richardson, Saturday Night Live, and Paul Krugman; Trump’s cognitive decline, and how ‘polarization’ in the US is due to GOP’s radicalization; And … Continue reading →

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Agents of Chaos

Posted on Saturday 24 February 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

A piece in The Atlantic about people who embrace chaos and nihilism — and spread conspiracy theories just to alleviate boredom, or burn it all down; And an example of this: Washington Post on Libs of Tik Tok; And recalling … Continue reading →

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Astronomy and the History of Common Knowledge

Posted on Saturday 17 February 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

How far away are the stars? and How has the cosmic distance records progressed over time? My speculations about how people throughout history have perceived the size of the world; Veritasium’s person-on-the-street interviews reveal that many people have no clue … Continue reading →

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Bertrand Russell, THE PROBLEMS OF PHILOSOPHY

Posted on Tuesday 6 February 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

This is the third of three short books about philosophy that I read in January. It’s as unlike the other two as those two were unlike each other. (Oxford University Press, 167pp, first published 1912, paperback edition 1959, edition shown … Continue reading →

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