Think about this: most cooperative organisms are made of component organisms which have very simple behaviors, and thus the group being is generally more capable. More capable of interacting with the world in a flexible and subtle way. Smarter. Take … Continue reading
NYT headline today: US Panel advises that prostate test may do more harm than good.. Here’s why, briefly: around 70% of elevated readings from the test are false positives – they do not indicate cancer. Men who get a positive … Continue reading
Here’s a reasonable working definition of life – a process which produces localised entropy decrease. Intelligent life doubly so. Think about it like this: light from the sun hits the moon and turns to heat. No life involved. Light from … Continue reading
I firmly believe in the present. There literally is no past and no future, just the changing now. Sure, it contains evidence of things that have been, other circuits of the Earth around the Sun. We can be pretty certain … Continue reading
The introduction is here. Do I dare Disturb the universe? In a minute there is time For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse. For I have known them all already, known them all: – Have known the evenings, … Continue reading
I’m terrified of white picket fences. Someone I knew in high school started saving cash from a weekend job to use as deposit on a house. That seemed like a joke, but a few years later I met him and … Continue reading
Introduction With a rare exception or two I haven’t written here for several years. Various things have intervened – moving to a new country, starting a new business, and preceding all that some formal study. What I’d like to do … Continue reading
This is a very thoughtful, if jokey, consideration of non-violence from someone who understands violence a lot better than pacifism. Here, she’s exactly right: Pacifism as a concept kind of pisses me off. Still, non-violence intrigues me, not least because … Continue reading
If society is in tune with human proclivities it works better, because people enjoy what they do. You only have to look at small boys playing “hunting”, or notice the difference between the incentives necessary to get people to sit … Continue reading
Much of this has a European focus, and I apologise for that, especially because colonialism and its devastating effect on the world are consequently not given proper attention. The focus of the article is narrow and designed as a contrast … Continue reading
This article is the first in a series. I’m leading up to something and it takes quite a long time to get there, but it’s generally about my idea that people are far less self-interested than it appears. NB: In … Continue reading
From Trace elements: Our culture is based on control, codification, and the application of force to achieve the ends we desire. We live in a world composed of resources and subject to analysis, and we’ve reached a point where the … Continue reading
Following a post by Robin Warner, a rant on decaf. You see, I have a guiding principle which steers me away from decaf. It’s based on the idea that fun is temporary – nothing lasts forever and you can have … Continue reading
Everywhere that desire throws off the heavy armor of lack and expresses its own joyful plenitude, it quickly finds itself captured as an image and offered back to itself as representation. Thus the strategy for any desire that would arm … Continue reading
Positive and negative freedom Suppose a person is on their way to an appointment, and they reach an intersection where they can go left or right. There are several possible reasons why they might choose to go one way or … Continue reading
It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.  – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry When I was about six years old I received the essential bodhichitta teaching from an old … Continue reading
What follows is my submission to the Colin Brown Human Rights Project. This is a community consultation process carried out by the Law Reform Institute of Tasmania, at the behest of the Tasmanian State Government. The project is described here … Continue reading
This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not … Continue reading
A touching scene from a television documentary this evening: a family celebrates orthodox Easter in procession with candles. They stop at intervals, shielding the candles from wind, as the priest intones the ritual. The child’s face shows boredom but he’s … Continue reading