Search Results for: how the mind works

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 →

Posted in Lunacy, Philosophy, Politics, Religion | Comments Off on Consensus Reality Is Disappearing Before Our Eyes

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 →

Posted in Astronomy, conservatives, Lunacy, Narrative, Religion | Comments Off on Plot Armor

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 →

Posted in Book Notes, Culture, Education, Morality, Politics | Comments Off on Robert Reich, THE COMMON GOOD

Human Nature, Morality, Politics

Posted on Wednesday 28 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

I think the title here is the name for the broad category of my interests. They all blend together. They connect. For today: Would conservatives ever allow a revision of the US Constitution? No matter how dysfunctional it’s become, no … Continue reading →

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Brian Greene: UNTIL THE END OF TIME, post 4

Posted on Friday 9 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

More summary of this Brian Greene book. Earlier: post 1, post 2, post 3. In these chapters Greene summarizes how imagination, extrapolating from dreams and the perception of patterns, led to the formalization of myths into religions, which may have … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Meaning, Religion | Comments Off on Brian Greene: UNTIL THE END OF TIME, post 4

Subhumans, Deference, Bluster

Posted on Tuesday 6 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

JD Vance blurbs a book that says progressives are subhuman; Trump is hostile toward women and non-white people who are not sufficiently deferential to he who is destined to rule; Trump blusters about bitcoin, about which he has no idea. … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Lunacy, Politics | Comments Off on Subhumans, Deference, Bluster

Tribal Antics, Racism, Misogyny

Posted on Friday 2 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Thought for the day. It occurs to me that — at the risk of tossing out another simplistic dichotomy — the OT is pure tribal morality, while the NT, parts of it anyway (Jesus, maybe, though not Paul), presents a … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Religion | Comments Off on Tribal Antics, Racism, Misogyny