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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Meta
Category Archives: Thinking
Three brief (non-political) items today.
On entertaining new ideas; Reality and quantum mechanics; Nature as the great recycler. Here’s the first post in a new column that sounds interesting. Washington Post, Daniel Pink, 29 Jan 2024: Opinion | American imagination needs an adrenaline shot. Here’s … Continue reading
Epistemology: What Does Anyone Actually “Know”?
Slate, Ben Mathis-Lilley, 10 Jun 2022: Does Donald Trump Really “Know” Anything?.
Posted in Epistemology, Thinking
Comments Off on Epistemology: What Does Anyone Actually “Know”?
Novella et al: THE SKEPTICS’ GUIDE TO THE UNIVERSE
Novella, Dr. Steven, et al. The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe: How to Know What’s Really Real in a World Increasingly Full of Fake. Grand Central, 2018. *** I read this shortly after publication, nearly three years ago now, and … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Science, Thinking
Comments Off on Novella et al: THE SKEPTICS’ GUIDE TO THE UNIVERSE
Ls&Cs: More About Thinking, or Not
Once again, the general theme is how some people think things through, and how others prefer “stories” or being told what to think. Heroes and villains; conservative media vs. coastal elites; when an enemy is not a speaker of a … Continue reading
Ls&Cs and Thoughts: Thinking and Science
Following up from yesterday, some more thoughts and links about the notion of thinking, and how that’s what science is all about, while so many people seem to have no understanding of what thinking, let alone science, actually is.
Links and Comments: Thinking, or Not
Scientific American: Nine COVID-19 Myths That Just Won’t Go Away. Subtitle: From a human-made virus to vaccine conspiracy theories, we rounded up the most persistent false claims about the pandemic. I’m beginning to think that many, perhaps most, people, do … Continue reading
Posted in Psychology, Thinking
Comments Off on Links and Comments: Thinking, or Not
Arguing with a Flat Earther
Vox: How to argue with flat-earthers, subtitled, “But not necessarily convince them.” People committed to the belief that the Earth is flat (or that the universe was created 6000 years ago) will have answers to all your challenges, all your … Continue reading
Posted in Psychology, Thinking
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Thought Leaders
A couple days ago I was dipping into Peter Singer’s latest book, Ethics in the Real World: 82 Brief Essays on Things That Matter, and saw him mention something about his being a “thought leader” according to some German outfit … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Links, Philosophy, Thinking
Comments Off on Thought Leaders
Links and Comments: Two from Today’s NYT
First, fascinating essay by Michael P. Lynch (author of just-released The Internet of Us: Knowing More and Understanding Less in the Age of Big Data): Trump, Truth and the Power of Contradiction. How is it Trump can say completely contradictory … Continue reading
Links and Comments: Truth and Slavery
This article in The New Yorker, After the Fact by Jill Lepore, considers the current US presidential race in light of a new book by Michael Patrick Lynch, The Internet of Us, subtitled “Knowing More and Understanding Less in the … Continue reading
