Category Archives: science fiction

Steven Pinker: THE BLANK SLATE, post 1

Posted on Tuesday 4 June 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

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 →

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Robert Charles Wilson, OWNING THE UNKNOWN

Posted on Saturday 25 May 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

This is a book about theology, atheism and the idea of God, from the perspective of a science fiction writer. Wilson is a significant contemporary SF writer whose fiction output has slowed in recent years; I reviewed his 2015 novel … Continue reading →

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A Table of Moral Polarities, Initial Take

Posted on Saturday 11 May 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

I’ve been making notes over the past month for a table of moral polarities, in order to align and summarize some of the concepts and the many news examples I’ve compiled lately. Recall how I’ve mentioned that certain attitudes, especially … Continue reading →

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Violence, Evolution, Climate Change, and Cory Doctorow’s THE LOST CAUSE

Posted on Monday 22 April 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

How Republicans increasingly advocate violence; How Tucker Carlson doesn’t understand evolution, and his several dumb objections to evolution; How 10 straight months of record-breaking temperatures won’t persuade the skeptics; And a passage from Cory Doctorow’s 2023 novel The Lost Cause … Continue reading →

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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

Earlier posts: Post 1; Post 2; Post 3; Post 4; Post 5; Post 6; Post 7; Post 8; Post 9; Post 10. Chapter 12, To What End? Wilson’s final chapter ponders options for humanity’s future, and comes down on the … 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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