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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» Previous Views from Medina Road (2003-2013)
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Recent Posts
- Joshua Greene, MORAL TRIBES, post 2
- Joshua Greene, MORAL TRIBES, post 1
- Believing Anything
- The poorly educated and the “cognishly umpired”
- Slouching
- The Dual-Process Theory of Morality, and Some Examples
- Obsolete Laws, Morality, and Beliefs
- Daniel Dennett, Exploring the Universe, the Eclipse, and How so Many People have no idea what an eclipse is about
- Jaime Green, THE POSSIBILITY OF LIFE
- Eclipse Aftermath, and Politics
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Meta
Category Archives: Philosophy
Conservative Epistemology
The core belief that explains extremism on the right; Peter Wehner on how Republicans have chosen nihilism; My wondering what the deep explanation is for what’s happened on the right; Short items about GOP tax cheats, Trump’s latest outrageous lies, … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Epistemology, Philosophy
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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
Posted in History, Meaning, Narrative, Philosophy, Science
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Deep Questions and Tribal Answers
Science fiction and philosophy; The next frontier of book bans; Ken Ham rues the difficulty of indoctrinating children; Paul Krugman on voters, and why conservatives still think the economy is bad. Big Think, Jonny Thomson, 3 Oct 2023: Apocalypse philosophy: … Continue reading
Posted in Philosophy, Politics, Religion, science fiction
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Change, and Conservative Retribution
A NY Times essay about why to stop resisting change; How the Republicans intend to impeach President Biden purely as a matter of retribution, without any evidence of any crimes committed. Here’s a curious piece from Sunday’s NY Times, though … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Philosophy, Politics
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Items about the 20% and the 1%
Vivek Ramaswamy’s simplistic 10 “truths” includes one about the primacy of the nuclear family (compare my post two days ago); E.J. Dionne Jr. about how Republicans are focused on three different “yesterdays,” all since the 1980s, and not the future; … Continue reading
Posted in Philosophy, Politics, Religion
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Three Philosophical/Scientific Matters
I’m spending most of today’s blog hour doing some housekeeping on the blog itself. For today’s post, just one item, sorta deep, sorta light. Big Think, Scotty Hendricks, 18 Jul 2023: 3 advances in philosophy that made science better, subtitled … Continue reading
Posted in Philosophy, Science, Website Issues
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Consciousness and Choices
The problem of consciousness, and the resolution to a 25-year-old debate, via Vox and NYT’s Carl Zimmer; The paradox of choice, in supermarkets and everywhere else, in our abundant, materialistic world. Vox, Oshan Jarow, 30 Jun 2023: Why scientists haven’t … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Philosophy, Psychology, Science
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Ted Chiang, Carl Sagan, Peter Singer
Ten Chiang characterizes the current examples of “artificial intelligence” as “applied statistics”; How Carl Sagan was wrong about the “reptilian brain”, in The Dragons of Eden; And an interview with Peter Singer, the controversial philosopher, author of The Expanding Circle … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Philosophy, Science
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Last Questions and Possible Answers, 2
This is a sequel to a post I did back in March, Last Questions and Possible Answers, 1, in which I considered the John Brockman book The Last Unknowns, in which he gathers deep unanswered questions about “the universe, the … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Philosophy, Science
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Progressions
Topics in this post: The success of wokeness. How the least religious nations are among the healthiest along many measures. Partha Dasgupta on how the GDP should account for the cost of what we use. Julian Baggini on philosophy and … Continue reading
Posted in Philosophy, Reviews, Science, Social Progress
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