25 OCT 2017 by ideonexus
The False Promise of WWW Enlightenment
Never before have so many people been connected together in an instantly responsive network through which memes can spread faster than natural viruses. But the notion that taking the whole world online would create a utopia of netizens, all equal in cyberspace, was always a fantasy—as much a delusion as Luther’s vision of a “priesthood of all believers.” The reality is that the global network has become a transmission mechanism for all kinds of manias and panics, just as the combinati... 1 
notes
notes26 APR 2015 by ideonexus
Shock: Social Science Fiction
What happens when a mind is no longer tied to a body?
What happens when those of greatest ability are
enslaved by those of greatest power? What happens when
Humanity is the new kid on the block? When minds are read
like books and books are illegal?
Shock: Social Science Fiction is a game, a set of rules, that
you’re about to use with your friends to create some science
fiction stories. You’ll create a world sitting around a
table, or on a floor in a circle, and use these rules to
reach a...Folksonomies: storytelling collaborative storytelling
Folksonomies: storytelling collaborative storytelling
1 Collaborative Storytelling.
28 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Infer From the Present to the Past
As historians, we refuse to allow ourselves these vain speculations which turn on possibilities that, in order to be reduced to actuality, suppose an overturning of the Universe, in which our globe, like a speck of abandoned matter, escapes our vision and is no longer an object worthy of our regard. In order to fix our vision, it is necessary to take it such as it is, to observe well all parts of it, and by indications infer from the present to the past. Folksonomies: inference
Folksonomies: inference
1 notes
notesHow historians should work, rather than "overturning of the Universe" in silly speculation.
02 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
How Ballooning Changed Our Perspective of the Earth
Ballooning produced a new, and wholly unexpected, vision of the earth. It had been imagined that it would reveal the secrets of the heavens above, but in fact it showed the secrets of the world beneath. The early aeronauts suddenly saw the earth as a giant organism, mysteriously patterned and unfolding, like a living creature. For the first time the impact of man on nature was clearly revealed: the ever-expanding relationship of towns to countryside, roads to rivers, cultivated fields to fore... 1 notes
notesThe same way the "Earthrise" photo changed our perspective, ballooning revealed the Earth to be a dynamic, interconnected organism.
10 AUG 2011 by ideonexus
Nonexistence is Preferable to the Afterlife
“What will happen? When we leave the world of the dead, will we live again? Or will we vanish as our daemons did? Brothers, sisters, we shouldn’t follow this child anywhere till we know what’s going to happen to us!”
Others took up the question: “Yes, tell us where we’re going! Tell us what to expect! We won’t go unless we know what’ll happen to us!”
Lyra turned to Will in despair, but he said, “Tell them the truth. Ask the alethiometer, and tell them what it says.”
... 1 notes
notesIn Pullman's vision of the afterlife, things are dreary and static, the dead long to dissipate and have their atoms return to the world and become other things. An atheist alternative to the boredom of heaven.
29 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
Evolution Versus Engineering
What's the difference between evolution and engineering? Engineering is the designing of a whole out of parts suited to their individual purposes. Evolution is the process of tiny incremental changes, each making some small or large improvement in the ability of the thing to survive and reproduce. A good engineer avoids the kluge-jargon for the use of a part not particularly suited to its purpose. But evolution favors, even cherishes, the kluge. Suddenly finding a new purpose for a part witho...Evolution is all about kludges.
29 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
Computers Illustrate Our Slavery to Memes
nfestations of mind viruses that chain us to information terminals, frantically aiding the replication of information, may well take over if we don't intervene.
Do you think it's a far-fetched scenario of the future that humans could become slaves to a race of computers? Look inside any large office building and see how many people spend eight hours a day following the instructions on their display screen to the point of damaging their vision and injuring their hands from the strain. What ar... 1 notes
notesWe spend all day pushing and replicating memes online, slaving away at our computers.
01 JAN 2010 by ideonexus
Nature is the Word of God We Should Study
Could a man be placed in a situation, and endowed with power of vision to behold at one view, and to contemplate deliberately, the structure of the universe, to mark the movements of the several planets, the cause of their varying appearances, the unerring order in which they revolve, even to the remotest comet, their connection and dependence on each other, and to know the system of laws established by the Creator, that governs and regulates the whole; he would then conceive, far beyond what...Folksonomies: spiritual naturalism
Folksonomies: spiritual naturalism
1 notes
notesThomas Paine's beautiful exposition on the fascination and greatness of the natural world as a source of spiritual sustenance.
