Search Results for: how the mind works

Carl Sagan’s THE DEMON-HAUNTED WORLD: Science As a Candle in the Dark

Posted on Friday 31 January 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

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 →

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Intuitive Theories about Intuitive Theories

Posted on Friday 24 January 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

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 →

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But What’s at Stake? Hal Clement’s Needle

Posted on Wednesday 22 January 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

Needle (Astounding Science Fiction, May-June 1959; expanded to book form: Doubleday, 222 pages, $2.50 in hardcover, 1950) by Hal Clement Hal Clement (legal name Harry Stubbs) was one of the stable of science fiction writers developed by John W. Campbell … Continue reading →

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Peter Watts essay: “Understanding Sarah Palin, or, God Is In the Wattles”: Summary and Comments

Posted on Saturday 21 December 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

From the book Peter Watts Is An Angry Sentient Tumor: Revenge Fantasies and Essays (Tachyon, November 2019), a selection of posts from the blog of Peter Watts, which has been running since 2007. Watts is the noted author of high … Continue reading →

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Principles

Posted on Monday 16 December 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

This page summarizes principles and guidelines for understanding the world, in particular how to evaluate claims made in politics, by advertising and the news media, and by religion, science, and pseudo-science. These principles fall into roughly three groups: logical fallacies, … Continue reading →

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Isaac Asimov: THE EARLY ASIMOV (1972)

Posted on Monday 18 November 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

This is a book I’d never read before, and debated recently about whether to ever read it. On the one hand, life is too short to read every book one might have accumulated, and this book consists, frankly, of all … Continue reading →

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Robert A. Heinlein: SIXTH COLUMN (1941/1949)

Posted on Thursday 14 November 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

This was the earliest novel-length work by Heinlein, though it was serialized in Astounding magazine (Jan, Feb, and March 1941) and not published in book form until 1949, by which time two or three other Heinlein novels had been published … Continue reading →

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Richard Dawkins: OUTGROWING GOD: A Beginner’s Guide (2019)

Posted on Wednesday 30 October 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

This book, clearly aimed at younger readers, repeats many of themes from his earlier 2006 book THE GOD DELUSION, boiled down and made even more pointed. The first part of the book is structured as a series of “but what … Continue reading →

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Martin Rees: ON THE FUTURE: Prospects for Humanity (2018)

Posted on Tuesday 29 October 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

Martin Rees is a British astronomer and astrophysicist who looks rather like Richard Gere (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Rees); he holds or has held all sorts of high positions in British science and academia. He’s published several books, of which the half dozen … Continue reading →

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Asimov, I, ROBOT

Posted on Friday 16 August 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

(The photo shows a 1969-era Science Fiction Book Club edition of a Doubleday hardcover, with the jacket copy claiming the book is “Long out of print and in great demand”; a 1984 mass market paperback from Del Rey; and the … Continue reading →

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