Information is being copied at previously unheard of rates. Has the Internet given birth to a new evolutionary process?
Source: The Third Replicator – Opinionator – The New York Times
A philosophical article on the evolution of our world.
Month: August 2010
Reclaiming the Imagination – Opinionator – The New York Times
The human imagination is not just a source of fiction and fancy; it is integral to science, philosophy, and even our survival.
Source: Reclaiming the Imagination – Opinionator – The New York Times
An article on how our imaginations are integral to our existence.
Too many laws, too many prisoners | The Economist
Never in the civilised world have so many been locked up for so little
Source: Too many laws, too many prisoners | The Economist
An article about how incarceration in America has increased 400% since the 1970s, and the problems go far beyond narcotics charges.
Confronting a third crisis in U.S. science education – Science News
the issues around science, technology, engineering and mathematics are not tied to just those fields — that in fact this is the basis for our wealth formation
Source: Confronting a third crisis in U.S. science education – Science News
The Acceleration of Addictiveness
What hard liquor, cigarettes, heroin, and crack have in common is that they’re all more concentrated forms of less addictive predecessors. … the process that created them is accelerating. … When the thing we want is something we want to want, we consider technological progress good. … When progress concentrates something we don’t want to want—when it transforms opium into heroin—it seems bad. … No one doubts this process is accelerating, which means increasing numbers of things we like will be transformed into things we like too much.
Most people can coexist with alcohol; but you have to be careful. More things we like will mean more things we have to be careful about.
Source: The Acceleration of Addictiveness, by Paul Graham