Category Archives: science fiction

Bertrand Russell, THE PROBLEMS OF PHILOSOPHY

Posted on 6 February 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

This is the third of three short books about philosophy that I read in January. It’s as unlike the other two as those two were unlike each other. (Oxford University Press, 167pp, first published 1912, paperback edition 1959, edition shown … Continue reading →

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Why Progressives Are Moving to the Right: For a Simpler Story

Posted on 17 December 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Busy pre-holiday weekend — making rusks and another batch of lemon bars. So only a single item for today, setting aside yet again the more substantial topics I alluded to yesterday. Here’s one of those pieces where I react to … Continue reading →

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Last Questions and Possible Answers, 4

Posted on 28 November 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

This is my fourth and likely last post, following this one in March and this one in June, and this one eight days ago, in which I consider the John Brockman book The Last Unknowns, in which he gathers deep … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Culture, Human Progress, Philosophy, Religion, Science, science fiction | Leave a comment

My Essay Accepted for Publication

Posted on 29 October 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

The news this late October is that I’ve had an 11,000 word essay, the one I’ve been working on since June, accepted by Gary Westfahl for publication in a volume of essays to be published in a year or so … Continue reading →

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Deep Questions and Tribal Answers

Posted on 6 October 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

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 →

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An SF “Quiz” from 25 Years Ago

Posted on 4 October 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Here’s a “quiz” I composed way back in 1996 or so, inspired by an earlier list by Connie Willis of quotes and names from classic (1950s and 1960s) works of SF, that she read off at some convention in 1995, … Continue reading →

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Science and Political Items

Posted on 29 September 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

First, a couple science bits. Let’s start with an intriguing episode of Veritasium. Veritasium: Math Has A Fatal Flaw. Maybe not a “flaw” but an aspect beyond human intuitive understanding: how in any system of mathematics, there exist true statements … Continue reading →

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Scientific Reality and Ideological Imagination

Posted on 21 July 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Reality check about warp drives; Reality perspective about the Kardashev ladder; My evolving ideas about traditional vs. honest science fiction; How the latest conservative panic appears in the new film Sound of Freedom; How House Republicans are openly discriminating against … Continue reading →

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The Supreme Court’s Conservative Rollback

Posted on 30 June 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Topics today: This week’s Supreme Court decisions on affirmative action and discrimination against gays; My wondering why such discrimination against, say, mixed-race couples, and people of other religions, isn’t also OK (or maybe it is?) Republican hysteria about immigrants, whom … Continue reading →

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Trip Report: Preservation Park and the Locus Awards

Posted on 25 June 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

No blog post yesterday; I was busy from about 2pm to around 8pm attending one day of the Locus Awards Weekend (this link might expire soon) in downtown Oakland, about 10 miles down the hills from our house.