Category Archives: Uncategorized

Without a Deadly Hatred, Is Love Possible?

I recently came across this sentence, which I found puzzling and weirdly appealing: “Without a deadly hatred of that which threatens what we love, love is an empty word for hippies, queers and cowards.” The sentence is commonly attributed to … Continue reading

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How Weighted Voting Will Work in the 25th Century

In “Aurora Rising,” one of the novels of Alastair Reynolds’ masterful “Revelation Space” cycle, he describes the way “weighted voting” works in the Yellowstone solar system, inhabited in the 25th century by around 100 million humans, many of whom lived … Continue reading

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Praise your Masters: A Theory of Creativity

Presented by Thomas Frank, Salon, 2013: In “Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention” (1996), Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi acknowledges that, far from being an act of individual inspiration, what we call creativity is simply an expression of professional consensus. … Continue reading

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Dark Rule Utilitarianism, or a Great Excuse to Download Movies Illegally

I have this friend with a libertarian bent who hasn’t paid for a movie or a TV channel in years. He basically spends his life downloading movies from The Pirate Bay and premium sports from either Youtube or Rojadirecta. Now, … Continue reading

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A Dance to the Music of Anthony Powell

While watching the old TV version of Anthony Powell’s 12-volume cycle “A Dance to the Music of Time,” I was struck by the many similarities the characters and at least some of the narrative arcs present with other works of … Continue reading

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