For much of recent history, certainly since industrialization, it isn’t hard to find a white hand somewhere in the chain of command leading to many of the world’s atrocities, or at least those that we in the west are the most aware of.
Often it is the significant hand, the one that either called the shots or pulled the trigger firing them.
Many of today’s political commentators, egged on by eager social media followers, are quick to highlight this, and imagine a world untainted by the white man’s hand. …
Arctic ice melting like Mr Whippy on a stove,
Ocean life extinguished lightning fast like Messi facing goal,
Night temperatures rising like the price of granary rolls,
Psychopaths delight in buying shares in black gold.
Paris climate talks took place at a time
When global temperatures were 1 degree above baseline.
They agreed to limit rises to no more than 1.5,
But they got a massive shock only months down the line.
Unprecedented warming at an accelerating rate,
February’s warning failed to reignite debate.
Nobody’s talking, not even heads of state, about the
Mass extinction that is clearly underway.
Species…
Two conjoined twins, Mohamed and Kristina, often argue, but share a beating heart.
On this occasion, they are arguing about who gets to eat the one candy bar they have left.
Their evil stepfather Josef snaps it in half and offers one piece to each of them.
Just as they are about to enjoy their share, Mohamed notices that Kristina’s piece is a little larger than his, and complains bitterly to Josef, who takes the larger piece from her and bites a little off, then returns it.
However, he has bitten too much off, and now Kristina is upset because her piece is fractionally smaller.
With his own motives, Josef now takes Mohamed’s…
For the purpose of this essay, the word ‘God’ is defined as an entity capable of creating realities in which subjective experience is possible.
This piece does not claim to address the likelihood of a prime mover; only to discuss the possibilities of a creator of this particular subjective reality we find ourselves in.
Premises
If we assume that anywhere in all of space time;
1) Computational simulations of worlds in which subjective experience is possible will eventually become indistinguishable from reality;
and
2) Any self improving machine intelligence will eventually take control from humanity or any dominant biological species in…
Not long ago I wrote an article about ‘Hubris’, an as yet unofficial (in terms of the DSM manual of psychological disorders) condition in which symptoms similar to those found in psychopaths and narcissists may present themselves in individuals with high status. The phrase ‘drunk on power’ springs to mind, which appears to be a reasonably accurate way to describe this condition.
In evolutionary terms, we can imagine a world in which a male has risen to prominence in his group, attaining mating rights with many females. How would such a male retain this position for as long as possible?
…
As someone who spent much of their twenties drifting in and out of activism, generally about issues related to corporate excess, violent discrimination, oil wars and climate change, I have grown frustrated to see left leaning political dialogue now mostly dominated in the mainstream by voices seemingly more concerned with not upsetting any of dozens of marginalized groups with words, than they are about actual economic or foreign policy actions which cause poverty or injustice.
For every one article I stumble upon about a massacre, a mass lay-off or the mass extinction, I find ten or more complaining about a…
If we remove any subjective morality and ideological leanings from our interpretations of this video, and look at it through an evolutionary lens, it is fascinating to say the least that a group of individuals within any species would consciously take an action that serves to limit the number of potential mates they will attract.
It appears that the internet is supposed to agree without discussion that the reason many women adhere to stereotypes such as applying make up, and taking ten times the time men take to get ready, is owing to the pressure put on them by…
In our imagined ideal worlds, our future is rosy with progress being achieved on all fronts. We expect our standards of living, our tolerance and understanding of others, and the extent of world peace, among many other societal yardsticks, to gradually improve as the years and decades roll by.
So, what is going wrong? While progress has appeared obvious by most markers in post WW2 history, since the middle of this decade, a large percentage of us are moving further away from each other, choosing a path of antagonism rather than compromise, with the overwhelming majority of us blind to…
How low have you ever been? Perhaps you are at your lowest point now, or you have yet to experience a truly low period of your life. It is possible that you don’t even have an accurate barometer upon which to measure your well-being by, thanks to one or both of circumstantial personal tragedy, or a regular intake of alcohol or drugs.
For those of you who are at your lowest point, and for others who have been there and can feel the possibility of being dragged down there again, I would like to share my own experiences with you…
And with the power cut comes an increase in the already prevalent inactivity. Why are some countries so relaxed that they haven’t even got some of their most basic shit together, such as a power grid that doesn’t suffer remarkably frequent outages?
Cultural memes behave similarly to genetics, in that only the strongest; or to put it another way, the most persuasive or appealing; survive. There is some crossover. Cultural habits that affected a group’s ability to survive would die like the group itself.
We can therefore assume, being at an advanced stage in human history, that most habits present…
