I see no reason to segregate scientific and technical posts from humanistic ones. In my life, scientific concerns mix with ethical ones, and they shade into a philosophical interest in the nature of cognition and the nature of people. Doing science is as creative as writing fiction, and I get inspiration for both from the same gods.
You will find little here on current politics. I'm activist, but in causes not symptoms. Experience in martial arts shows me that the sure way to lose is reactivity; but if you stay cool and remember your training and what you're there for then you achieve goals and, when conflict is unavoidable, you fight and win. The idea of the liberal arts I was brought up in is that broad understanding of cultures and ideas gives you deeper, better goals -- making success more likely and more satisfying. Negatively, the hysteria since 9/11 shows how a country frightened and reactive can destroy itself more than an enemy can. I'm trying to contribute by changing the terms of discourse. See 
One fact shouldn't require special mention; but -- given the nature of the society in which I've grown up and lived -- it often does: namely that I'm gay. You'll see it in some posts and in some links below. I'm proud of being gay and do not hide; more about this on the 
Note: this was posted in 1997 to an early internet experiment.
For more, please see my page The Hyperforum on Sustainability.
Beautifully put!
I think of these insatiable capitalists in the same way I do about the slugs that infest my garden. I will put out a bean seedling, with just its two starter leaves. The slugs will come and eat the two leaves, killing the plant.
What I would like to say to them, if they were rational, is “Look, if you just let the plant grow it would soon have lots of regular leaves, much bigger. Further, I’m not actually interested in the leaves, but in the beans: the leaves are only a means to an end for me. If you would just come back in a month or two, I could give you perhaps 5 large leaves per day, with little detriment to my bean production.”
Unfortunately, they’re not rational.
The usual solution for the slugs is to put out traps that are essentially little bowls of beer and let them drown themselves ignominiously in their own greed.
You suggest that the solution for the capitalists is mental health. Surely, yes. I am wondering what you’re going to tell Allen and Bruce under this heading next week when they move us into “Actions.” I’m also wondering about Plan B.
But, yes.
Thu, 27 Feb 1997 17:59:46 GMT
For more, please see The Hyperforum on Sustainability.
Tags: business style, Economics, information technology, markets, sanity, satiability, Sustainability
