Categories
imagination physics spacetime

A Universe of Infinite Spacetime

Context: What is the shape of the Universe ? Cosmologists believe that they have successfully measured the curvature of the large scale structure of the Universe and that it has returned a result of zero.  To understand curvature in this context – consider a triangle on a flat sheet of paper: its angles always add […]

Categories
media politics Psychology

Hate Speech: Caveat Emptor

Context: Hate on the Rise After Trump’s Election. It is no surprise, really, that hate crime has surged.  As a far-flung observer of these events it has always been apparent (because it has always been the case) that politicians who do not cautiously vet their own words and public statements can let loose all manner […]

Categories
ignorance media

Post-Truth: Ignorance is Not Strength

We have now graduated past “my ignorance is as good as your knowledge” and have entered a “post-truth” world where any witless assertion whatsoever might be interpreted as defensible fact.  There can surely now be no turning back.  There can be  no “peak post-truth” or “post-post-truth”. We appear to be inextricably trapped in an infinite […]

Categories
Psychology

Ego Extinction in Zen

Sentience is clearly a magnificent experience, infinitely more to be preferred than the antagonistic conditions of unconsciousness or death, but for all its grandeur and richness it carries within itself a bitter seed: foreknowledge of personal death. The grave awareness of personal extinction is not even necessarily a purely human curse. We can do little […]