Category Archives: Species Reset

Human Extinction and Climate Change

Posted on Friday 13 October 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Émile P. Torres at Salon on the history of ideas about human extinction; The latest data on climate change is scary; September was the hottest month ever. Peter Gabriel’s “I Grieve”. – – –   The scary thing is that … Continue reading →

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LQCs: Existential Problems

Posted on Wednesday 9 March 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

There are real, existential problems that humanity needs to worry about.

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Frank: LIGHT OF THE STARS

Posted on Thursday 7 February 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

Adam Frank’s LIGHT OF THE STARS: Alien Worlds and the Fate of the Earth (Norton, 2018) asks, what can thinking about the prospect of alien civilizations tell us about our own fate? Currently our species’ story (by those of us … Continue reading →

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Link and Comment: Adam Frank on the Earth’s Biosphere

Posted on Wednesday 13 June 2018 by Mark R. Kelly

Today’s NYT has an op-ed by Adam Frank, Earth Will Survive. We May Not., which keys off the theme of his new book, LIGHT OF THE STARS: ALIEN WORLDS AND THE FATE OF THE EARTH, just released this past Tuesday. … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: Conservative Susceptibility to Lies; Contempt for Science; Existential Threats

Posted on Monday 13 November 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

» Slate: Why Are Conservatives More Susceptible to Believing Lies?. Subtitle: “An interplay between how all humans think and how conservatives tend to act might actually explain a lot about our current moment.” Longish article about how conservatives are more … Continue reading →

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More from Cory Doctorow’s Locus Interview

Posted on Monday 17 July 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

While editing the ‘excerpts’ from Cory Doctorow’s long interview in the current issue of Locus Magazine, excerpts that I posted online on Sunday (here), I captured several other passages from that interview that particularly appeal to the themes of this … Continue reading →

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Rereading LORD OF THE FLIES

Posted on Friday 17 February 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

Even before the reaction to Tr*mp’s election brought renewed attention to the famous dystopian classics like Nineteen Eight-Four [that’s the proper, bibliographic, title; ‘1984’ is a sort of nickname] and Brave New World, I had contemplated returning to some of … Continue reading →

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Carlo Rovelli, SEVEN BRIEF LESSONS ON PHYSICS

Posted on Wednesday 6 April 2016 by Mark R. Kelly

Very slender book, drawn from a newspaper column and intended for readers who know nothing about science. I read it because it’s short and because a NYT review of the book, pointed out that its final chapter is about human … Continue reading →

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Review of Alastair Reynolds’ SLOW BULLETS

Posted on Saturday 14 November 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

Alastair Reynolds’ short novel SLOW BULLETS – the latest in a series of short novels from Tachyon Publications, following among others Nancy Kress’s Yesterday’s Kin and Daryl Gregory’s We Are All Completely Fine, both awards winners – is a spectacular … Continue reading →

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We Are in a Post-Reality [Science-Fictional!] World

Posted on Saturday 19 September 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

I saw (part of) the Republican debate this past week, and the responses, and saw how the obvious lies and misrepresentations did not seem to matter to the crowd; it was how the candidates played to the crowd. This seems … Continue reading →

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