Meditations

We are being told by futurist Ray Kurzweil and his ilk that “merging with future superintelligent A.I.s is our best strategy for ensuring a beneficial outcome” for humanity. That’s not…

Random processes notwithstanding, evolution has a lot invested in the human brain. But nature knows how and when to cut her losses, and we’re pushing our limits as a sentient,…

Woodland hawks screech from all directions in the parkland, and birds sing raucously. Friendliness and joy are reflected on the faces of the many people using the park for every…

“Ignorance is our natural state; it is a product of the way the mind works.” Statements like that, proffered by cognitive scientists Philip Fernbach and Steven Sloman in the New…

A reader in the Middle East wrote giving voice to a central concern of this column. “There is indeed an evolutionary process taking place with consciousness, but that process takes…

Though I’m not a Buddhist, Buddhist philosophy and poetry (as opposed to the arcane intricacies of various Buddhist traditions) speak to me. The quieting and emptying of the mind and…

An academic philosopher raises an academic question: “How is it possible to regain one’s footing once the sources of rational belief have been radically called into question?” Clearly, not by…

Contemplatives usually want nothing to do with political activism, and activists usually want nothing to do with the contemplative life.