What’s Going On In the Search For Extra-Terrestrial Life?
On Acting As An Ancient And Intrinsic Way To Build Connection
A Doctor Meticulously Narrates The Loss Of Intuition, And Slow Recovery
“The most recognisable change, as my intuition returned, was my attitude toward doubt… As I grew comfortable again living and practising medicine with doubt at my side, I felt the tide of self-consciousness flowing out of me, like a child at play.”
Can Mathematics Reconcile The Two Cultures?
“The clash of cultures between the humanities and the natural sciences is reignited over and over because of two images that portray the interrelationship of mind and nature very differently. To achieve peace between the two cultures, we need to overcome both views. We must recognise that the natural and the mental order of things […]
What Is (Or Was) Decolonization Anyway?
“As the actual events of historical decolonisation grow more distant, forms of decolonisation talk increase. Decolonisation was once primarily a scholar’s term that effectively depolarised violent national liberation. Now it ascribes radicalism to projects in the realms of economics, culture, education and ideology – spheres whose purpose is not violent regime change.”
What Is A Crisis: A Philosophical And Etymological Viewpoint
We Need To Rethink What Intelligence Is
“Humanity’s relationship to AI is characterised by similar cycles of underestimation and surprise, followed by exploration, understanding and explanation, and a subsequent downgrading of our belief that intelligence is currently at play… This is sometimes called the ‘AI effect’, explained by the computer scientist Larry Tesler as our tendency to believe that ‘Intelligence is whatever […]
A Deep Dive Into The Power Of Metaphor
What’s The State Of The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis?
“Gurindji speakers’ habit of using cardinal directions would seem to have opened up their powers of perception. At least some Gurindji speakers may be able to consciously feel Earth’s magnetic field. But do English speakers and Gurindji speakers live in ‘distinct worlds’, as Sapir would have it? Having greater sensitivity to some features of the […]
The “Oldest Named Poet”, A Sumerian Woman, Writes Of Change
“Enheduana does not offer clear answers to these questions, and I would not hold her up as a model for good living in difficult times. But her poems fascinate me in part because they describe, with dazzling intensity, a world where change is the norm. These are poems from, and about, unstable times. That is […]