- Blog
-
The Web of Finger-Wags and How-Dare-Yous
Far too much of my experience of the Web is now dominated by folks pointing out with snideness or outrage just how horrible some person or persons are, in a kind of Niagara Falls of finger-wags and how-dare-yous. There is no room for human error, no space for discussion, no benefit of doubt. Sometimes these…
-
I Don’t Really Know What’s Happening, So I’m Going to Call it “Emergent”
Freddie de Boer on some of the pseudoscience found in the writing and evangelism about artificial intelligence: … there’s the notion of intelligence as an “emergent phenomenon.” That is, we don’t really need to understand the computational system of the brain because intelligence/consciousness/whatever is an “emergent phenomenon” that somehow arises from the process of thinking.…
-
As it Turns Out, Things Are Pretty Far Apart
A beautiful piece of web art by Josh Worth, a kind of science lesson/meditation/poem in a browser window. Start with the idea that the Moon is represented by a single pixel, start scrolling to the right, and then gape at the vast, mind-defying nothingness that is our tiny corner of the galaxy. And don’t give…
-
All Small
We are all small.
-
Frivolity to Grow Your Soul
These are all connected in my mind. First, Alan Jacobs’ “commonplace Tumblr” quotes Auden (of whose work I am almost entirely ignorant): If a poet meets an illiterate peasant, they may not be able to say much to each other, but if they both meet a public official, they share the same feeling of suspicion;…
-
The One Unwelcome Intrusion on the Near-Perfect “Gravity”
Having just now seen Gravity with my wife this weekend, I have a feeling that I had more faith in the movie’s power than even the filmmakers did. I realize I’m a little late to the party, but allow me to first add to the chorus of saying that Gravity is an extraordinary film, unlike almost anything I’ve…
-
The Loudest Voice is a Bawling Baby
Frank Rich: …these days Fox News is the loudest voice in the room only in the sense that a bawling baby is the loudest voice in the room. In being so easily bullied by Fox’s childish provocations, the left gives the network the attention on which it thrives and hands it power that it otherwise…
-
Stretching Awake on the Rooftops of Tarbean
If you have ever slept the whole night without moving, then awoke in the morning, your body stiff with inaction. If you can remember how that first terrific stretch feels, pleasant and painful, then you may understand how my mind felt after all these years, stretching awake on the rooftops of Tarbean. I spent the…
-
That’s What Civilization Is
Kevin Kelly: Most of the problems in the future are going to be created by technologies we’re creating today. Technology is a means of producing new problems. It’s a means of producing new solutions, but the fact that we have a choice between those two is what tips the balance very, very slightly in the…
-
Follow Your Passion into Oncoming Traffic
I am sour. Expanding on yesterday’s post on the pressure we feel to have careers that realize the “follow your passion” and “do what you love” ideals, here’s Miya Tokumitsu: By keeping us focused on ourselves and our individual happiness, [“do what you love”] distracts us from the working conditions of others while validating our own choices and…
-
Do Not Follow Your Passion When it Jumps off the Empire State Building
Do what you love! Sacrifice all! Wait, no. First, Emily Hauser: The whole notion of following one’s passion is so steeped historic, economic, and social privilege that it fairly reeks. … when we tell people to follow their passion, and hold fabulously successful role models up to them, we’re not only misleading them, we’re actually being…
-
Writing on the Surface of a Lake
Is it cool if I try and work something out with you here? Okay, cool. Thanks. I mentioned a few days ago on Twitter that I was considering giving up this blog entirely, and only writing for pay from here on out. The utter lack of attention and/or engagement that this blog gets, in contrast…
pav dot quest 