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
Search Results for: how the mind works
Family Dynamics and Social Withdrawal
Family Dynamics I wish I could say more about what my younger sisters and brother were doing, the whole time I was growing up. I didn’t pay close attention mostly due to the age difference. I was the oldest, my … Continue reading
Posted in Personal history
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Santa Monica to UCLA
This is a narrative of my childhood from the time we lived in Santa Monica, to my young adulthood when I attended UCLA. A few photos are included, and there are links to separate pages of photos. 1961/1962: Move to … Continue reading
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John Allen Paulos, A MATHEMATICIAN READS THE NEWSPAPER (1995)
John Allen Paulos, A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper. Basic Books, 1995. Author’s Conclusion: Always be smart. Seldom be certain. Journalists should ask, in addition to Who, Where, What, etc., How Many? And How Likely? And no matter how detailed the … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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Links and Comments: Socialism, Conspiracy Theories, Religion, Rationality, Liberalism, William Barr, Republicans
First, a David Brooks column from back in December: I Was Once a Socialist. Then I Saw How It Worked. I was a socialist in college. I read magazines like The Nation and old issues of The New Masses. I … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture, Humanism, Psychology, Religion
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My Religious Upbringing, Such As It Was
My upbringing was not especially religious; my parents attended church, and took their kids to Sunday school, but more out of social habit and propriety, was my impression, rather than from any deep-seated faith. My parents both grew up in … Continue reading
Posted in Personal history, Religion
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Daniel Gilbert, STUMBLING ON HAPPINESS (2006)
The author is a Harvard psychologist, recently familiar for several TV commercials he’s done for Prudential, which typically depict him in a public park doing surveys of groups of people. (https://www.ispot.tv/topic/expert/k7f/daniel-gilbert). This seems to be the only book the author … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes
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Yuval Noah Harari, HOMO DEUS: A Brief History of Tomorrow (2017; 2015 in Israel)
This is, in effect, a sequel to SAPIENS. Top level summary: It opens with a long prologue: now that humanity has largely overcome famine, plague, and war, what next? Three possibilities: immortality, happiness, divinity. However these are predictions; this book … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Evolution, Human Progress, Religion, Science
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Yuval Noah Harari, SAPIENS: A Brief History of Humankind (2015)
Yuval Noah Harari, SAPIENS: A Brief History of Humankind (2015) This is a history of the human species in the context of “Big History” – the first page sketches the history of the entire universe as a backdrop – and … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Evolution, Human Progress, Religion, Science
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Carl Sagan’s THE DEMON-HAUNTED WORLD: Science As a Candle in the Dark
This is a book I think of as one of my foundational nonfiction books, i.e. a major book of central importance for its discussion of a critical theme. That theme, essentially, is that given the prevalence of pseudo-scientific claims in … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Science
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Intuitive Theories about Intuitive Theories
I’m about to read a book (by Andrew Shutlman) about “intuitive theories” and before I do I’m going to write down my take on intuitive theories, since the idea of them has been an occasional theme in these posts, and … Continue reading
Posted in Psychology, Science
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