Blog
Recent Titles Include:
- Immanuel Kant, Types of Truths, And Why We'll Never Talk With Aliens
- Cancel Beethoven? Politics Shouldn't Override Artistic Merit
- In Search of (Reading-Induced) Mental Patterns
- On Wanting to Say "God Bless You"
- Misinformation Is Inevitable in An Increasingly Complex World. We Still Have to Challenge It.
Excerpts from the blog:
"In our hubris, we often fail to acknowledge the very limited scope of our understanding. Theorists and physicists seem to think we could "figure it all out," with some even championing the possibility of a unified "theory of everything." Really? Everything? It seems patently absurd." (From "Immanuel Kant, Types of Truths, And Why We'll Never Talk With Aliens")
"How many of us really understand how the world around us works? We depend on technologies whose secrets elude us. We count on a global economy that we could never begin to understand. Even the most learned of individuals would struggle to explain quantum mechanics, the workings of the internet, and the latest theories of global capital." (From "Misinformation Is Inevitable in An Increasingly Complex World. We Still Have to Challenge It.")
"Maybe it's the universal process by which we add what we learn to what we already knew, thereby producing what we're just now knowing (new knowledge + personal experience= new understanding). In any case, reading is one of the principle means by which this process is actuated in my mind, and for that I'm eternally grateful to the magic of the written word." (From "In Search of (Reading-Induced) Mental Patterns")