Author Archives: Mark R. Kelly

Ls&Cs: Engagement with the Universe

Posted on 24 January 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Two contrasting perspectives, today, both passages I just happened to read during my morning web browsing. Rival worldviews. One characterizing religious myths, the other about Kim Stanley Robinson.

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Ls&Cs: Balancing the Left and Right

Posted on 23 January 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

NYT, Jonathan Rauch and Peter Wehner, posted 20 Jan 2022: What’s Happening on the Left Is No Excuse for What’s Happening on the Right

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Ls&Cs: Misleading Maps

Posted on 22 January 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Here’s one of my favorite counter-intuitive facts: how our impressions of the sizes of countries and continents that we get from (flat) maps are wildly inaccurate.

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John Allen Paulos, INNUMERACY: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences (1988)

Posted on 21 January 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

This slender book was first published in 1988 (I have the 1990 paperback edition) and became a bestseller. It was one of the earliest books on the very general theme of how many people don’t understand the world around them, … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Mathematics | Leave a comment

L&Q&Cs: Neal Stephenson on What Might Save Us

Posted on 20 January 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Sunday’s New York Times Magazine had an interview with SF writer Neal Stephenson, whose latest novel is Termination Shock. NYT Times Magazine: Neal Stephenson Thinks Greed Might Be the Thing That Saves Us

Posted in Culture, Psychology, Science | Leave a comment

E.O. Wilson: THE SOCIAL CONQUEST OF EARTH (2012)

Posted on 19 January 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

E.O. Wilson’s THE SOCIAL CONQUEST OF EARTH, from 2012, is in my estimation one of the four most significant books by this scientist and writer. (The others are ON HUMAN NATURE, 1978; CONSILIENCE, 1998; and THE MEANING OF HUMAN EXISTENCE, … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Changing One's Mind, Culture, Evolution, Morality, Religion | Leave a comment

L&Qs&Cs: Wearing Us Down

Posted on 18 January 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

We are weary of this, as I alluded a few posts ago, but that’s what they count on, I think, that the events of the past year, or past five years, will become the new normal. (I refuse to link … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Personal history, Politics | Leave a comment

E.O. Wilson, GENESIS: THE DEEP ORIGIN OF SOCIETIES (2019)

Posted on 17 January 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

This was Wilson’s second to the last original book, and it’s quite short, perhaps simply a long essay; 125 pages divided into 7 chapters with illustrations and blank pages in between; many references, and an index. Key Points The gist … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Evolution | Leave a comment

E.O. Wilson: THE ORIGINS OF CREATIVITY (2017)

Posted on 16 January 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

What is creativity? It is the innate quest for originality. The driving force is humanity’s instinctive love of novelty—the discovery of new entities and processes, the solving of old challenges and disclosure of new ones, the aesthetic surprise of unanticipated … Continue reading →

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L&C: Rationality in Language

Posted on 15 January 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Something a bit abstruse for today. This is via a Facebook post by David Brin on December 21st.

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