Monthly Archives: November 2023

Transported

This is #24 in a series of month-end reflections on the state of the world, and other things that come to mind, as I walk, hike, and explore in my local community.  fall colours in Coquitlam; all the (mostly awful) photos in … Continue reading

Posted in Creative Works, Month-End Reflections | 2 Comments

Hard to Be Compassionate Sometimes

a mosaic watercolour portrait of David Foster Wallace, by Midjourney AI; not my prompt I‘ve argued endlessly that we are simply the products of our biological and cultural conditioning, given the circumstances of the moment, and that hence we’re all … Continue reading

Posted in How the World Really Works, Our Culture / Ourselves | 12 Comments

Why Humans Are Probably Uniquely Afflicted With ‘Selves’

more ruminations trying to make sense of what cannot make sense four worldviews of the nature of reality: (I) conventional wisdom, (II) emerging scientific consensus, (III) the entanglement hypothesis — limbo, (IV) radical non-duality In a recent comment, Vera asked … Continue reading

Posted in Illusion of the Separate Self and Free Will | 15 Comments

Links of the Month: November 2023

Fridge magnet by cedarmountainstudios.com, from Salt Spring Island BC Why do we build the wall, my children, my children? Why do we build the wall? We build the wall to keep us free. That’s why we build the wall. We … Continue reading

Posted in Collapse Watch, How the World Really Works, Our Culture / Ourselves | 5 Comments

The Entanglement Hypothesis Revisited

image adapted from Pixabay, CC0 “I think human consciousness is a tragic misstep in evolution. We became too self-aware, nature created an aspect of nature separate from itself, we are creatures that should not exist by natural law. We are … Continue reading

Posted in How the World Really Works, Illusion of the Separate Self and Free Will, Our Culture / Ourselves | 4 Comments

Sarapocial Relationships

Cartoon from the New Yorker by the late, great Lee Lorenz A parasocial relationship is that between an individual and some fictional character or some real or idealized group — an entity you can never really know. So I might … Continue reading

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Third Try at Guessing How the 2024 US Election Will Unfold

the Tweedles, reimagined as famous comic characters, by Midjourney AI — “‘I know what you’re thinking about,’ said Tweedledum; ‘but it isn’t so, nohow. ‘ ‘Contrariwise,’ continued Tweedledee, ‘if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, … Continue reading

Posted in How the World Really Works, Our Culture / Ourselves | 7 Comments

Halfway Between No-Free-Will and No-One-to-Have-It

A brief review of Robert Sapolsky’s new book Determined, plus some other thoughts on the subject of free will. The free will “belief spectrum” (my own construction, and subject to revision) In recent years, scientists and philosophers, often on opposite … Continue reading

Posted in Illusion of the Separate Self and Free Will | 9 Comments

The Sad State of “The Media”

from the memebrary, original source unknown The term media originally referred to communication and information organizations that collected and conveyed and “stood between” the sources and the users of that information.  It actually began as an advertising term (“mass-media”) to gauge … Continue reading

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The Arrogance of Thinking We Can Make the World “Better”

Another brilliant cartoon by Michael Leunig. This is what comes to mind when I hear terms like “making good ruins” or “hospicing modernity”. There’s been a subtle shift in the tone of some prominent “collapsniks” over the last couple of … Continue reading

Posted in Collapse Watch, How the World Really Works, Illusion of the Separate Self and Free Will, Our Culture / Ourselves | 8 Comments