Man does not live by bread alone. He also lives with social anxiety and is a bit of a control freak. These neuroses fuel him too. Oh, and lies. This is also critical. Lies must be told. How else can you get people to do shit you don’t want to? Read more…
Take yer stinkin’ proteins off me you damn, dirty microbe! This time Harland asks the question: Is there any way for us provincial primates—with all our adaptations for dealing with smaller scales—to address planetary-sized problems? We discuss from there topics ranging along the lines of logistics, motivational strategies, and hopelessness Read more…
Times change and the recent past can sometimes become obsolete as the gaze of the mainstream world focuses on its new moment. But it wasn’t long ago when Richard Dawkins was calling for “militant atheism” and Dubya Bush stood on an aircraft carrier in front of a banner that read Read more…
How much do you really want something? Is it worth the price? Who decides you want it anyway? In this Dawdlers Short, we explore our thoughts on scarcity. And to commemorate this topic, it will only be available for 100,000 days so get it while it lasts!!
Are there inherent limits to the behavioral capacities of artifacts? How would that differ from human bodies? Are not both arrangements of universe, of “stuff”? Why would one substrate permit abilities inaccessible to others? In this week’s Short the Dawdlers muse about Artificial Intelligence: what are its limits, if any– Read more…
Ever try and prank someone but it back fires and they just go about their business as if they were not even remotely aware of what just didn’t happen? Yeah, that’s this episode.
“I suppose most scientists—most authors—have one piece of work of which they would say: It doesn’t matter if you never read anything else of mine, please at least read this.” Richard Dawkins wrote that in a note to a 1989 paperback edition of his book The Extended Phenotype. Ryan appeals Read more…