Out of all great transformations we are going through, from climate change to artificial intelligence to gene editing, what are the most consequential we are about to witness? Martin Rees: It depends on what time scale we are thinking about. In the next 10 or 20 years, I would say it’s the rapid development in …
Martin Rees: We Are Living Through A Political And Scientific Transformation Read More »
Steve Bannon’s love of Deconstructionism has got me thinking that a good dose of traditional sign theory, which dominated Western culture for centuries, would be in order, even if people are not believers. It argues that we can make sense of texts by careful readings, believing that they–and by extension, our lives–have meaning. When I …
Bannon, Deconstruction, v. meaningful readings of texts and life Read More »
As the year winds to a close, gifts and giving are foremost in many people’s minds. And now, two new neuroscience studies suggest that our brains prompt us to act more like Santa than Scrooge. In one study, researchers scanned participants’ brains to identify connections between generous behavior and brain activity. In the other, scientists …
Our Brains Are Guided More By Empathy Than Selfishness Read More »
“Readers like to be upset, excited and bowled over,” Adams continued in his 2015 interview with The Guardian, remembering his early literary preferences. “I can remember weeping when I was little at upsetting things that were read to me, but fortunately my mother and father were wise enough to keep going.” Of course, not all …
The Invaluable Lessons Of ‘Watership Down,’ A Dark Classic Read More »
A big culprit in so many thorny issues facing us is religious dogma that keeps people from really seeing and from there getting ourselves and others in balance. As long as we remain dogmatic, locked in manacles of the mind, as the poet William Blake termed it, we make everything worse, not just for others …
The boy, who could barely open the PAW Patrol toy that was given to him, hugged the man and asked him several quick questions. “They say I’m going to die. How can I tell when I get to where I’m going?” the boy asked. Schmitt-Matzen then told the boy that when he got there to …
Tennessee Santa grants final wish to child who died in his arms Read More »