Everyone is an alien to someone. I’m in my late 20s. To anyone under the age of 18 today, I’m from a world they have never been to, and never will. A world we call the 1980s. It was inhabited by creatures with big curly hair that listened to cheesy pop music and grazed on [...]
Archive for the ‘philosophy’ Category
Secondhand Transmission from a Distant World
Posted in general science, misc, philosophy, writing, tagged 80s, aging, aliens, art, fun dip, time travel on April 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
LHC
Posted in general science, philosophy, technology on September 10, 2008 | 1 Comment »
I love Google’s title image for today: It’s a nice mix of recognizing an extremely important scientific accomplishment with just a pinch of end-of-the-world paranoia. The truth is that the world has about the same chance of ending today as it did yesterday. But I think the dimwitted people protesting the large hadron collider aren’t [...]
Arthur C. Clarke, RIP
Posted in book reviews, media, philosophy, psychology, real life, technology on March 18, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Arthur C. Clarke died today (*). The man was a genius. I’ve only recently started reading his books, but his impact has been felt throughout my life. Nearly every piece of science fiction created since the 50s owes something to Clarke. More directly, seeing 2001: A Space Odyssey as a kid, even though I didn’t [...]
Book Review: The Singularity is Near, by Ray Kurzweil
Posted in book reviews, general science, philosophy, technology on November 19, 2007 | 6 Comments »
The singularity refers to a time, sometime in the future, when machines become more intelligent than biological humans, and technology begins to improve rapidly as a result. The Singularity is Near is Ray Kurzweil’s attempt to justify his belief that the singularity is coming sooner than most people think, and what consequences it will have. [...]
Book Review: The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, Book 1), by Phillip Pullman
Posted in book reviews, general science, philosophy on May 31, 2007 | 1 Comment »
The Golden Compass is actually called Northern Lights in every place except North America. I guess the publishers thought that kids would get confused, because they would not know what lights could possibly be doing in the north. Never mind that the book never refers to the titular object as a compass; that’s not confusing [...]
Am I a Materialist?
Posted in general science, philosophy on February 27, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Sometimes I wonder whether I, or any real scientist, can be considered a “materialist” any more. That is, do I really think that matter – chunks of solid ‘stuff’ – is all there is? Here is a quote from Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion which may help clarify (or further confuse) the issue: We have [...]
