“No amount of ideology can change the profound dependence of each human person not only on other human beings, but on air and water and other species as well––the invisible ‘others,’ the great ‘cloud of witnesses’ we depend on. But whereas ‘independence’ is a word enshrined in history, ‘interdependence’ is an uncelebrated academic neologism. Efforts […]
“I have suggested that climate change poses a fundamental challenge to how we think of our lives having meaning, and that respecting those who will follow is part of how we might constructively respond to this challenge. Such a response does not depend on sweeping views about right, duties, and responsibilities but only on modest […]
“I have heard talk about a light at the end of the tunnel: Is it the brightness of day out in the world of life, or is it a train bearing down on us? Only time will tell, and our only choice seems to be to keep going toward it, whatever it may be. Perhaps […]
“In time, coyote may give rise to a dozen new canids. Collembola might found whole new orders of invertebrates, with lifeways beyond our imagining. And if some sort of upright ape is among the array, it might not bear much resemblance to those who pulled the plug, pushed the plunger, pulled the trigger on the […]
“When I die, wash my body with a cotton cloth. Bury me in a split-wood coffin crafted from trees that died a natural death. Lay me to rest in clothes I have already worn thin. Do not seal out the water and bugs and burrowing critters. Let me be absorbed back into the Earth. Let […]
“We need to become wiser than Socrates. Certainly ‘the unexamined life is not worth living,’ and certainly we should strive to ‘know thyself.’ And while the classic search in philosophy has been to figure out what it means to be human, Socrates was sometimes wrong in his search for the good life. Socrates loved Athens, […]
“‘In a war one is either living like a prince or a vagabond. I have seen Lord Wellington––his Grace, I should say––sleeping under a tree with only a rock for a pillow. At other times I have seen thieves and beggars snoring upon feather-beds in palace bed-chambers. War is a very topsy-turvy business.’” ––Jonathan Strange […]
“Lovers are rarely the most rational beings in creation and so it will come as no surprize to my readers to discover that Strange’s musing concerning Miss Woodhope had produced a most inexact portrait of her. Though his imaginary conversations might be said to describe her opinions, they were no guide at all to her […]
James Barrat’s Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era is a disturbing, plangent response to the rosy-minded, “rapture of the nerds” mentality that has recently swept across the futurist landscape. Toeing the line between rational prudence and alarmist hand-wringing, Barrat makes the case not only that advanced artificial intelligence is […]
“‘I really have no desire to write reviews of other people’s books. Modern publications upon magic are the most pernicious things in the world, full of misinformation and wrong opinions.’ ‘Then sir, you may say so. The ruder you are, the more the editors will be delighted.’ ‘But it is my own opinions I wish […]