Category Archives: Narrative

How Humans Select Particular Stories Over Reality

As I mentioned in Thursday’s post, I keep finding books in my library that could be considered straight-out philosophy (e.g. on ethics and morality) or at least philosophy-adjacent (some of the more abstruse physics and evolutionary texts, in the way … Continue reading

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Humans Live By Telling Stories That Privilege Themselves

About Holocaust deniers; About measles deniers; About denial of sociology; About the appeal of extinction panic. Salon, Gary M. Kramer, 25 Jan 2024: “There will always be Holocaust deniers”: How “Zone of Interest” reveals unsettling truths about us, subtitled “The … Continue reading

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Thinking About Narratives

A way in which the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer story makes sense; Contemplating the range of all human activities, including playing games and telling stories; The Mojave Desert, and Apple Valley as a portal between two worlds. Posted on Facebook … Continue reading

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A Rainy, Foggy Day in the Bay Area

We got our walk in today during a break in the rain; when it started again, it turned to fog. (Meanwhile, making significant progress on the next expansion of sfadb.com today. Real soon now.) Various items for today; catching up … Continue reading

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How “Meaning” is just another example of the Narrative Bias

Three pieces from Big Think. How history is told by story-tellers, and cannot be taken literally; How philosophy advances science by asking forbidden questions; How questions about the “meaning of life” reveal the narrative bias. —— Three sciency links, all … Continue reading

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The Broadest Possible Terms

Let’s return to yesterday’s item from OnlySky, which strikes me as a way to expand one of my key themes. In fact, perhaps we can build one of my hierarchies to begin with the most basic conception of what science … Continue reading

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Narrative Bias and Control

Another take on why conspiracy theories have become so popular; How home-schoolers who decided to send their kids to public schools exposed the three lies about home-schooling that convinced them to do so; The Week on the state of book … Continue reading

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Music, Narrative, Religion | Leave a comment

Fox News Admits They Were Wrong; Reviews by Michael Dirda

First, a follow up to my Media Literacy post three days ago. Stop the Presses! Something amazing has happened! Salon, Amanda Marcotte, 23 May 2023: Fox News falls for another hoax, as the Dominion defamation settlement pays off, subtitled “The … Continue reading

Posted in Mathematics, Narrative, Science, science fiction | Leave a comment

Math, Literature, and Maps

Today’s topics: A curious new geometric shape; The connections between math and literature; A new perhaps better map projection of the world NY Times, Siobhan Roberts, 28 Mar 2023: Elusive ‘Einstein’ Solves a Longstanding Math Problem, subtitled “And it all … Continue reading

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The Gaps Between Beliefs and Reality

Items today about how Americans treat Presidents’ Day and other holidays; about more Republicans lying on their resumes; why Fox News viewers don’t care the network is lying to them; and why Putin’s fabulations about his war in Ukraine appeal … Continue reading

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