Carnival of Loss

Much of the media we consume is self-consciously mythic, which doesn't necessarily mean it has swords and wizards, although obviously some of it does. It means it fills the role of myth. Back before culture was lifted out of space-time, before wrist watches abstracted and idealized time and a money economy abstracted and idealized value, …

(Curiosity) I’m in love with Schrödinger’s cat

While this is taken from the philosophy of G.W. Leibniz, it represents a kind of late-medieval/early-modern periodic table, with the four elements at the cardinal directions, and the four states between, along with their relations. What's interesting is that we still believe in binary relations (attract or repel) and four fundamental states of matter; we …

An Awareness of What is Missing

 The other day I mentioned Isaac Asimov's (and my) agnosticism-qua-atheism and how it's different than a militant atheism (in The Proper Use of the Pitchfork). Whenever it comes up, I invariably get asked to join an atheist group. I never do. Atheists, I've found, are very poorly fraternal (although I'm sure there are exceptions). Like …

The Weight of 10,000 Rainbows: Thoughts on Turning 40

We each know more than we can say. There is a certain elusive "what it's like"-ness to human experience that is nearly impossible to utter. After all, our consciousness, while not ephemeral, isn't exactly tangible either. How would you describe it to an unconscious yet thinking machine? "The inside of my head feels as wide …