Search Results for: how the mind works

Factory Settings

Posted on Sunday 20 October 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

The idea of “factory settings” as describing base human nature, and how some people can transcend them; A woman wonders if religion is the only way to instill her child with “scaffolding for spirituality and morality” (answer: no); Richard Dawkins … Continue reading →

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Out of Commission

Posted on Wednesday 16 October 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

More examples of Trump as the rambling, incoherent traitor; How people trust Trump on the economy because he oversimplifies things, and conservatives don’t do complexity or nuance; Thomas B. Edsall on Trump’s appeal to racists; A Florida Republican who thinks … Continue reading →

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The Christian Authoritarian Agenda

Posted on Thursday 10 October 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Long before Project 2025, Christian conservatives have had an agenda to impose their values on everyone; How some conservatives will call any evidence about the good economy fake news; How MAGA disinformation can be deadly, but Trump’s followers would rather … Continue reading →

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Skiffy Flix: The Day the Earth Stood Still

Posted on Wednesday 9 October 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Of all the 1950s science fiction films, this one is arguably the most profound, the least typical, and the most liberal. It involves an alien arriving on Earth, but he is not hostile, despite the knee-jerk fears of the military … Continue reading →

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Consensus Reality Is Disappearing Before Our Eyes

Posted on Wednesday 9 October 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

No matter how dissociated from reality something a politician says is, there are people who will believe it. People who think everything (such as Hurricanes) must happen for a reason are debating between God’s wrath and Deep State weather control; … Continue reading →

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Passages from Brian Greene and Richard Dawkins

Posted on Tuesday 17 September 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

How unusual is this? An esteemed scientist, Brian Greene, with an Opinion piece in a major paper. (I just reviewed his book UNTIL THE END OF TIME ending here.) Washington Post, Brian Greene, 16 Sep 2024: Opinion | Decades later, … Continue reading →

Posted in Cosmology, Evolution | Comments Off on Passages from Brian Greene and Richard Dawkins

Plot Armor

Posted on Friday 6 September 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Beginning with this unusual topic. Not about Trump per se; more a general principle of story-telling. And faith. OnlySky, Dale McGowan, 6 Sep 2024: For the Trump faithful, it comes down to plot armor, subtitled “It’s no surprise that Trump … Continue reading →

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Essays by Harari and Chiang

Posted on Wednesday 4 September 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Both about technology, about AI. The Sapiens author has a new book out next week: Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI. This is an excerpt. NY Times, Yuval Noah Harari, 4 Sep 2024: … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Technology | Comments Off on Essays by Harari and Chiang

Borders and the Fringe

Posted on Tuesday 3 September 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

A speculation by Adam Lee about what will happen when we give up national borders; Items from the fringe about Trump’s three rules; Musk’s preference for high status males; Christian nonsense about evolution; simply lying about the Arlington story; and … Continue reading →

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Robert Reich, THE COMMON GOOD

Posted on Friday 30 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Here’s another shortish book I read recently, not a memoir but a book at the intersection of politics, morality, and human nature, which is itself another theme of my reading the past two or three years. It’s by Robert Reich, … Continue reading →

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