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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Meta
Category Archives: Humanism
Understanding Human Nature
Ultimately, everything in the daily news makes sense through an honest understanding of human nature. (It is not there are two legitimate “sides” to every issue.) Two thought pieces for today, then a bunch of shorter items. About how macaques … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Evolution, Human Progress, Humanism, Philosophy
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Son of Longtermism
Some 14 days ago, in this post, I linked and quoted from a NYT guest essay by William MacAskill about valuing the future as much as we value the present. Which struck me as a reasonable position to take, a … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Human Progress, Humanism, Philosophy, Science, Social Progress
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Yuval Noah Harari, 21 LESSONS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY (post #2)
Here’s my second concluding post about Harari’s third book. As usual, I find it hard to condense my notes too far, when the author has so many interesting things to say, especially in this second half. In the range of … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Culture, Humanism
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Principles and Moral Guidelines, Update
I polished my Principles page today, tightening a bit, and adding a section at the end listing my favorite alternatives to the Biblical Ten Commandments.
Posted in Humanism, Morality, Philosophy, Psychology
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Links and Comments: Socialism, Conspiracy Theories, Religion, Rationality, Liberalism, William Barr, Republicans
First, a David Brooks column from back in December: I Was Once a Socialist. Then I Saw How It Worked. I was a socialist in college. I read magazines like The Nation and old issues of The New Masses. I … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture, Humanism, Psychology, Religion
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Passages from Pinker
As a palette cleanser from my last post, here are some thoughts from my ongoing reading of Steven Pinker’s THE BETTER ANGELS OF OUR NATURE, a history of the world with focus on violence, that summarizes that history through phases: … Continue reading
Posted in Humanism, Social Progress, Steven Pinker
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Pinker: Better Angels: Passages and Outline from the Preface
This is Steven Pinker’s big 2011 book, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, that takes a long-range view of human history to show that the human condition, over millennia and especially in recent centuries and decades, … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Culture, Evolution, Human Progress, Humanism, Steven Pinker
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Links and Comments: Star Trek and Humanism; John Cleese
A couple more links noticed in recent days, before I lose or forget them; my daily routine, as we settle and unpack in our new home in Oakland, will be a while getting back to have time for more considered … Continue reading
Posted in Humanism, Personal history, Philosophy, Religion
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10 Provisional Conclusions about Life, the Universe, and Everything, subject, of course, to revision based on evidence
Inspired by my post last night about A Secular Ten Non-Commandments, and the book’s invitation to generate one’s own set of beliefs, I sat down today to write out my own response… not of *commandments* (who am I, or anyone, … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Evolution, Humanism, Morality, Philosophy, Religion, Science, Ten Commandments
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Phil Zuckerman, Living the Secular Life
Subtitled: New Answers to Old Questions. This is a book that addresses the growing trend of non-religious people especially in the US, and how they live their lives without the assumptions that the faithful think are necessary for living a … Continue reading
Posted in Atheism, Book Notes, Culture, Humanism, Quote at Length, Religion
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