“‘You don’t have to go back, Lededje,’ Sensia said gently. ‘You could stay here, make a new life in the Culture.’ Lededje used the heels of her hands to dry round her eyes. ‘You know, for almost as long as I can remember that was the one thing I wanted?’ she said. She glanced at […]
“Almost every developing species had a creation myth buried somewhere in its past, even if by the time they’d become space-faring it was no more than a quaint and dusty irrelevance (though, granted, some were downright embarrassing). Talking utter drivel about thunderclouds having sex with the sun, lonely old sadists inventing something to amuse themselves […]
“The cosmic understanding of humanity I have presented here is complex but can be boiled down to three main points: (1) the human is a transitional being in the long-term sweep of cosmic evolution; (2) the evolution of humanity and its culture was made possible by our sense of freedom (free will) and understanding of […]
“I gave Anse the children. I did not ask for them. I did not even ask him for what he could have given me: not-Anse. That was my duty to him, to not ask that, and that duty I fulfilled. I would be I; I would let him be the shape and echo of his […]
“Given potential dangers, shall we withhold new technologies until they have been proven to be absolutely safe and harmless? This is the argument known as the precautionary principle (PP), at least in some of its definitions and practices. The PP essentially prohibits any new technology or activity unless it can be scientifically proven that there will […]
“If we create our successor species, does that mean that humanity will not be needed in the future? Yes, but it is true for humanity only in its current form. Humanity will no longer be able to assume a preeminent place in the known universe, and we will no longer play the leading role in […]
“I can remember how when I was young I believed death to be a phenomenon of the body; now I know it to be merely a function of the mind––and that of the minds of the ones who suffer the bereavement. The nihilists say it is the end; the fundamentalists, the beginning; when in reality […]
“Existential despair––the sudden awareness of the truth of one’s existence––is an important ingredient in almost every description of spiritual awakening from ancient to modern times. In a more modest form, moments of sudden awareness of one’s situation (or some aspect of it) occur in the lives of many ordinary people––including Tom Rath, the main character […]
“Regardless of cultural influences, what turns the brain on is still predominantly, though not exclusively, personal: sensory pleasure, love, family, friendship, wealth, material possessions, security, social status, emotional expression, art, sport, spirituality, and so on. And in order for us to experience all these things, we must first survive and reproduce; hence, two of our […]
“With reflective consciousness, a human being can turn itself into a ‘mirror neuron’ for the universe, because humanity is the only thing on Earth that tries to understand what it is all about. I hasten to add that this is still largely a potential; what has emerged so far is a pretty reluctant mirror neuron. […]