Category Archives: Human Progress

Those Who Do, Those Who Can’t

Posted on Friday 10 April 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

As I begin this post the Artemis II mission, named Integrity, while the spacecraft itself is called Orion (if I’m following this correctly), is about 20 minutes from splashdown. Here’s an essay on the chasm between those who understand and … Continue reading →

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David Brin, THE TRANSPARENT SOCIETY

Posted on Saturday 28 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between Privacy and Freedom? (Addison Wesley, April 1998, 378pp, including 42pp of notes, follow-up, acknowledgements, index, and about the author.) Here is a book that has sat my shelves for over a quarter … Continue reading →

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Ziya Tong; THE REALITY BUBBLE

Posted on Saturday 21 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: Blind Spots, Hidden Truths, and the Dangerous Illusions that Shape Our World (Penguin Canada: Allen Lane, 2019, 366pp, including 15pp of acknowledgements and index.) This is a pleasant enough book by a Canadian journalist. Her broad point is that … Continue reading →

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Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan: SHADOWS OF FORGOTTEN ANCESTORS

Posted on Monday 16 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: A Search for Who We Are (Random House, Oct 1992, xvi + 505pp, including 85pp of notes, permissions acknowledgements, and index.) This is perhaps Carl Sagan’s most substantial book, on the grounds that it’s through-written as a single composition; … Continue reading →

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Johan Norberg, PROGRESS

Posted on Tuesday 3 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: Ten Reasons to Look Forward to the Future (UK: Oneworld, Oct 2016, 246pp, including 28pp notes, acknowledgements, and index) Rather as I did with Rutger Bregman a few days, here’s an author who has a new book out recently, … Continue reading →

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SOTU last night

Posted on Wednesday 25 February 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Perspectives on last night’s State of the Union address; Followed by personal thoughts about ICE and why conservatives are especially concerned about crimes committed by immigrants. – – – We saw only a bit of the SOTU address last night, … Continue reading →

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Does ICE need to come and track you down?

Posted on Tuesday 24 February 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Why Trump fears “woke,” why he loves the poorly-educated, and how advances in American history were due to “woke”; How he cares about discrimination only if it’s against Jews or whites; How his creepy emails work on the MAGA faithful; … Continue reading →

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Another Take on the Left/Right Divide

Posted on Sunday 22 February 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Kalen Dion on the right/left divide: homogeneity/diversity, and all that implies; What do historians mean that tomorrow won’t be better than today? Because human nature; The modern economy and the limits of human cognition; Conservative values: the Biblical right to … Continue reading →

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Does Western Civilization Depend on Christian Monotheism?

Posted on Thursday 19 February 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Challenging David Brooks, the retiring NYT columnist, and his idea of building a humanist culture, from Bruce Ledewitz and Robert Reich; Brooks’ problem, claims Ledewitz, is that Brooks can’t let go of religion; “the past collapsed for a reason”; And … Continue reading →

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The Clash Within

Posted on Sunday 15 February 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

How there isn’t a clash of civilizations (e.g. Christian vs. Muslim) so much as a clash between modernity and those who resent it: WOKE vs MAGA; Items about ensuring the “right” people will vote, the erosion of the separation of … Continue reading →

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