Last Questions and Possible Answers, 3

Posted on Monday 20 November 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

This is my third post, following this one in March and this one in June, in which I consider the John Brockman book The Last Unknowns, in which he gathers deep unanswered questions about “the universe, the mind, the future of civilization, and the meaning of life” from numerous scientists and philosophers and other of the “smartest people on the planet.”

Out of the perhaps 250 contributors to this 325 page book, I’ve covered 32 in the earlier posts. This post covers 15 more, and I have 15-20 more to do, based on my notes.

Again, I’m quoting their questions and giving my own takes on the nature of possible answers, based on my reading and thoughts over many years. (It’s worth mentioning that I’m sure the contributors to this book all have good ideas about the answers to their questions. It’s just that those answers may not be universally accepted. But it’s not as if I claim to have some special insight beyond their expertise.)

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A Clear, Crisp Day in the Bay Area

Posted on Sunday 19 November 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Going through today’s links, and earlier backlogged links, and today focusing on political matters. Are there better things to do with an hour or two of my life, a couple times a week, than to pay attention to the crazies? Maybe. Except that the crazies might take over and destroy the world. And I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that I’ve noticed it happening.

  • Tom Nichols on being adults in a time of juvenile politics; and on Trump’s crossing a crucial line (with the “vermin” speech);
  • E.J. Dionne Jr. on Republicans’ allergy to actual ideas;
  • Salon’s Amanda Marcotte on Republicans’ abandonment of “small government” in preference to fighting culture wars;
  • WaPo’s Dana Milbank on the competence of congressional Republicans;
  • AlterNet and The Economist on Trump as the #1 “biggest danger” in the world;
  • And how even some Republicans, like Chip Roy, are aware of how his party hasn’t accomplished anything he can campaign on.

*

Tom Nichols, The Atlantic, 17 Nov 2023: The Daily Responsibility of Democracy, subtitled “Being adults in a time of juvenile politics is hard but necessary.”

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A Rainy, Foggy Day in the Bay Area

Posted on Saturday 18 November 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

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 on collected links.

  • Dahlia Lithwick on the threats from Trump and his team, and wondering why people, and the mainstream media, aren’t more alarmed;
  • A new study that shows it really does take a village to raise a child;
  • Michael Shermer, responding to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, explains why he is not a Christian;
  • Why people are drawn to horror movies and haunted houses — a first item about narrative;
  • How to be the hero of your own life — a second item about narrative;
  • Michael Johnson and whether homosexuality is a ‘choice’;
  • RFK Jr. wants to stop research on infectious diseases, and how he’s making millions.

Slate, Dahlia Lithwick, 16 Nov 2023: Suppose They Threw a Cage Match Between Fascism and Democracy and Nobody Cared

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Liberals vs. Progressives; What’s the Difference?

Posted on Friday 17 November 2023 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Pamela Paul in NYT distinguishes progressive from liberals; the answer is, the former are driving cancel culture from the left;
  • How I’ve changed my mind about threats from the right, vs. those from the left;
  • Jerry Coyne, who follows university politics and their various policy statements emphasizing inclusion over empirical merit, seems to agree.

Today I’m fascinated by the topic of threats from the left. In the big picture, as civilization progresses, it’s usually the right that protests; being conservative, they want to preserve what they think of as the best of the past, and reject change; they presume that their traditions, especially the religious ones, are the only true way to live in the world. Meanwhile, through the discoveries about the reality of the enormous universe we live in, and the clear genetic evidence that humanity did not arise from a single couple a mere 6000 years ago, those religious myths have been discredited. And so the conservatives tend to reject the centuries of advancement in science and technology, preferring their myths, all the while taking advantage of those centuries of progress when it suits them.

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Decency, Bias, and Superstition

Posted on Thursday 16 November 2023 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Over and over, Trump and his team, unable to win arguments on the facts, resort to ad hominem — character assassination;
  • The contrast between conservative insistence on women taking a child to term, rather than abortion, with the mild inconvenience of wearing a mask during a deadly pandemic;
  • Anti-gay legislation in Murfreesboro TN, and other posts about an outed mayor who committed suicide, concerns about contraception and a diminishing population, and Mike Johnson’s take on a “depraved” America in which young people are queer.

Robert Reich, 13 Nov 2023: Have they no sense of decency?, subtitled “Trump and his lackeys are trying to smear Judge Engoron’s law clerk”

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Real Conspiracy Theories and Fake Crises

Posted on Wednesday 15 November 2023 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Benjamin Bradford at CFI about how conspiracy theorists shrug about real conspiracy theories;
  • Big Think on conspiracy theories about places claimed not to exist;
  • Robert Reich on the fake crises Republicans use to distract from real problems.

CFI, Benjamin Bradford, 10 Nov 2023: When Real Conspiracies Are Revealed, Conspiracists Shrug

There *are* some real conspiracy theories — examples in recent years include certain auto makers rigging software so their cars would pass emissions tests, and of course corporate conspiracies over the decades to hide evidence of the deleterious effects of burning fossil fuels and smoking cigarettes — but oddly, these are of little interest to conspiracy theorists. That tells you a lot. (Also, these conspiracies were exposed through the efforts of journalists, i.e. the MSM, mainstream media.) Bradford begins:

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Witnessing History: When People Tell You Who They Are, Believe Them

Posted on Tuesday 14 November 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

It’s difficult to keep a perspective on the news, which may well be history happening in front of our eyes, or may simply consist of passing trends. There are always passing trends. In the long term, history shows that most people at the time don’t notice long-term historical shifts, like the rise of fascism, in this country or that. So are all the news articles and opinion pieces about the possible resurgence of Donald Trump a passing trend, or the foreboding of a dark future for American democracy? First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out…. Is it worth my spending an hour a day compiling stories like these? (The subtitle of this post paraphrases Maya Angelou.) Or if I did not, would future generations accuse me of being unaware of history growing around me? Similar questions could be raised about climate change. That too is a real problem, but I try not to overload my blog with the latest warning from scientists about that every-increasing danger. It’s obvious, to anyone paying attention, and not blinkered by right-wing propaganda.

CNN, 14 Nov 2023: Trump’s extreme rhetoric conjures the prospect of a presidency like no other

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Disconnects about the Economy

Posted on Monday 13 November 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

There have been several articles recently about how, and why, economists think the economy is doing just fine, while ordinary people (voters) don’t. Why would this be? Are these ordinary people simply poisoned by partisan propaganda? Or is it something deeper? A couple substantial ideas show up, among four pieces examined here.

Salon, Kirk Swearingen, 13 Nov 2023: Joe Biden’s economy is, honestly, pretty amazing: How come he doesn’t get credit?, subtitled “Many voters claim Biden’s economy is bad and Trump’s was better. What fantasy version of America do they live in?”

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Things that are True about the World, despite Human Intuitions

Posted on Sunday 12 November 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

After three posts about that Jonathan Rauch book, let’s post some items about conclusions made by the reality-based community.

  • Veritasium on Euclid’s Fifth Postulate, and how there is more to reality than human intuitive thinking;
  • Neil de Grasse Tyson on how scientific debate works;
  • Neil de Grasse Tyson on thinking exponentially;
  • Neil de Grasse Tyson on how people believe things known for centuries to be not true.

Veritasium, 9 Nov: How One Line in the Oldest Math Text Hinted at Hidden Universes…

Veritasium on the science of parallels. A good example of how intuitive thinking by humans is blinkered thinking, and how reality is bigger than human experience. Continue reading →

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The Deep State, or, Jonathan Rauch, THE CONSTITUTION OF KNOWLEDGE, part 3

Posted on Saturday 11 November 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

I’ve said the last two posts that I would quote the passages of Rauch’s book in which he describes what he considers to be the components of the “reality-based community.” And how it struck me that some of these components are likely what the simple-minded right thinks of as the “deep state” that is somehow conspiring to deprive them of their freedom, and which they would eliminate (DeSantis would “cut their throats”), without understanding them or why they are needed to preserve our complex society. So for now (never mind scanning and converting to text, as I suggested earlier) here are two photos showing pages 100-102 of the book. Click on images for expanded views.

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