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: Science
A Potential Revolutionary Scientific Reinterpretation
No one thinks that all of physics, or cosmology, is solved; the reigning problems in cosmology include contradictory conclusions about the age of the universe, and the nature of “dark matter” and “dark energy,” both terms being placeholders for unknown … Continue reading
EO Wilson, CONSILIENCE, 9
Chapter 10, The Arts and Their Interpretation Here we have perhaps the area most resistant to the idea of biological or psychological interpretation. Because it doesn’t occur, especially to the artists themselves, why people tell certain kinds of stories and … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Human Progress, Psychology, Science
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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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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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EO Wilson, CONSILIENCE, 4
Having finished reading that long Steven Pinker book, and blogging about it, I’m now returning to a contemporaneous book, published just a year after Pinker, E.O. Wilson’s CONSILIENCE, from 1998. After sampling it for years I read it through in … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Human Progress, Science
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Cosmic and Psychological Lessons
Phil Plait on the scale of the cosmos; Beware of pluralistic ignorance; How math education can be better taught with examples about money. – – – Today’s cosmic lesson. Scientific American, Phil Plait, 8 Mar 2024: The Scale of … Continue reading
Posted in Astronomy, Cosmology, Mathematics, Psychology, Science
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The Anthropocene, or Not
Experts have declined to acknowledge “Anthropocene” as an official name for our current geological time; And how to some extent the decision was political, if not in the obvious sense; And wondering why Republicans continue to nominate candidates like Mark … Continue reading
Two Thought-Provoking Pieces, and Notes about the Fringe
Adam Frank on science and the need to account for human experience; How “entropy bagels” and other complex structures emerge from simple rules; Headlines about the fringe: that North Carolina GOP nominee; how Trump is degenerating; his empty pseudo-religion; his … Continue reading
Posted in Meaning, Music, Philosophy, Science
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