We’re posting the transcripts of my Open College podcasts. Most are available only to subscribers, but here for the holiday season is the thirtieth, on Scrooge’s hero’s journey: To speak of pride, friendship, liberality, and an overarching wisdom about how they all contribute to a fully self-realized life—all of that is to make Dickens’s Scrooge […]
The Real Scrooge [Open College transcripts] Read More »
We’re now posting serially at thinkspot the notes and transcripts of my Open College podcasts. Here’s the twentieth: Newly-engineered materials and robotics have made the physical experiences closer to the real thing, and artificial intelligence has enabled the robots to respond verbally and non-verbally more realistically. Perhaps robots will soon be able to pass sex-and-romance
Sex Dolls — Why Not? [Open College transcript] Read More »
Matt Talley: “I recently finished Explaining Postmodernism by Stephen Hicks. I had heard some really negative remarks from a few FB friends so I was curious to see how they held up after reading the book myself.” The comments after Talley’s review are worth reading too. See also my Open College response to two sets
Talley’s review of Explaining Pomo — and its negative critics Read More »
Be not deceived by apparent progress: systemic witchcraft still plagues our society. In December 1484, the Pope issued the “Witches Bull,” sanctioning the “correcting, imprisoning, punishing and chastising” of witches: “Many persons of both sexes … have abandoned themselves to devils, incubi and succubi, and by their incantations, spells, conjurations, and other accursed charms and
Today’s systemic witch-hunters Read More »
We’re now posting serially at thinkspot the notes and transcripts of my Open College podcasts. Here’s the nineteenth: Professor Henry Louis Gates, Chair of African and African-American Studies at Harvard University wrote: “without complex business partnerships between African elites and European traders and commercial agents, the slave trade to the New World would have been
The Stain of Slavery [Open College notes] Read More »
On December 5, I’ll be in Mexico to speak at La Cuidad de Las Ideas. “La Ciudad de las Ideas is an International Festival of Brilliant Minds, a celebration of creativity and curiosity. With the participation of over 60 speakers, from scientists to opinion leaders, the festival takes place from the 4th to the 6th
Idea Festival 2020: Cuidad de las Ideas (Mexico) Read More »
Eton teacher Will Knowland was fired for this online discussion of sex and gender: (I’m quoted on free speech at the 2:15-minute mark. Thanks to Marian Tupy for the link.) While Knowland’s discussion takes up whether Patriarchy is natural/artificial and good/bad — the implicit lesson of his firing seems to be Thou shalt not challenge
Eton teacher Knowland fired for Patriarchy discussion Read More »
The Black Plague of 1665 and the Lord Mayor of London: In 1665 the plague came to London. They called it the “Black Death”—black because of the color of the nasty lumps that signaled its presence in the victim’s body, and death because of the invariable result. The plague germs were carried by fleas that
The Black Plague, and a political cautionary tale Read More »