Mark R. Kelly
» Founder in 1997 and site-runner for 20 years of Locus Online (Hugo Award winner in 2002). Founder in 2012 and still site-runner of sfadb.com (Science Fiction Awards Database). Retired in 2012 after 30 years as a software engineer for a certain rocket engine factory.
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Category Archives: Changing One’s Mind
E.O. Wilson: THE SOCIAL CONQUEST OF EARTH (2012)
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
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L&C: The New Yorker on Cults and Narratives
As if I had cued it with yesterday’s post about Why People Believe, particularly the final item by David Brooks, as well as the last of my four new provisional conclusions, the new issue of The New Yorker has a … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Changing One's Mind, Psychology
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Four More Provisional Conclusions
Here’s a first draft of four more provisional conclusions I’ve drawn in recent years; they summarize themes I’ve invoked many times in these posts. I’ll revisit this post and refine, before I add them to a standing page on this … Continue reading
Nonfiction Notes: Bobby Duffy, WHY WE’RE WRONG ABOUT NEARLY EVERYTHING
Bobby Duffy, Why We’re Wrong About Nearly Everything: A Theory of Human Misunderstanding (2018) (US edition Nov 2019) Here’s another book on a seemingly familiar theme: why people so frequently misunderstand the world, and what we can do to correct … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Changing One's Mind, Culture, Social Progress
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Hans Rosling: FACTFULNESS (2018)
This is a book that explores why most people are wrong on key facts about the world, thinking it worse than it is, e.g. concerning poverty, life expectancy, etc. In a sense it’s a modern-day counterpart to Steven Pinker’s THE … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Changing One's Mind, Culture, Social Progress
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Links and Comments: Fiction and Truth, Ignorance and Knowledge, Science Denial and the Scientific Attitude
Three interesting essays this week. In the New York Times Sunday Review section, an essay by Yuval Noah Harari: Why Fiction Trumps Truth, subtitled “We humans know more truths than any species on earth. Yet we also believe the most … Continue reading
Posted in Changing One's Mind, Lunacy, Religion, Science
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Links and Comments: Petty Rage; EO Wilson; Rutger Bregman; Conservative Causes; Zealots
Paul Krugman’s March 11 column, The Power of Petty Personal Rage discusses incidents about plastic straws, hamburgers, and Captain Marvel. The point is that demented anger is a significant factor in modern American political life — and overwhelmingly on one … Continue reading
Posted in Changing One's Mind, Conservative Resistance, Lunacy, Politics
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Links and Comments: Why I am Not a Conservative
Every once in a while an op-ed in the New York Times, or a book review in NYT or PW (Publishers Weekly), will be on the subject of defending conservative values. I have a very basic intellectual grasp of what … Continue reading
Posted in Changing One's Mind, Conservative Resistance, Culture
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Links and Comments: Conspiracy Theories, Cognitive Biases; Changing Minds; All Stories
Catching up on links and comments from this past week. First, a couple book reviews in last Sunday’s NY Times Book Review. First, a review by Adrian Chen of Suspicious Minds: Why We Believe Conspiracy Theories, by Rob Brotherton. Subtitle: … Continue reading
Posted in Changing One's Mind, MInd, Narrative
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Chris Mooney’s THE REPUBLICAN BRAIN
As I alluded in my previous post, I’ve been reading Chris Mooney’s 2012 book The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science — and Reality, which explores how psychology can inform the obvious fact that different people react … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Changing One's Mind, Conservative Resistance, Culture, Evolution, Politics
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