Imagine a world of information packets—a world where what we label energy and mass is indeed a composition of information packets. How could we come to understand such a world? Units of Knowledge Think of the universe as intelligence. When we master an observation and express it mathematically and so forth, what we have really done is grasp some part of this intelligence. The intelligence, somewhat analogously to our own, is compiled of information units. We think of these units when it comes to our own thinking as units of ... Read More
Aristotle described the nature of the universe as a series of events that eventually leads back to a mover that is itself not moved, thus the unmoved mover. This unmoved mover is known as the Prime Mover. However, the prime movers that I have in mind are not near so esoteric or metaphysical. No—the primes I have in mind are all of those little triggers that cause us to think or act in certain predictable ways that we are not conscious of. For example, there is a study where students ... Read More
This week I would like to address a notion I think of as just another form of voodoo, and that’s the idea of blank-out. What do I mean by blank-out? No one tells this story better than Ayn Rand. Quoting Atlas Shrugged, “…they believe that reality can be altered by the power of the words they do not utter—and their magic tool is the blank-out, the pretense that nothing can come into existence past the voodoo of their refusal to identify it.” Refusal to Identify We live at a time ... Read More
This week I wish to address the benefits of giving. We have all just been through the Black Friday and Cyber Monday madness—sales everywhere promising price cuts like never before, shouting limited quantities, offering customer testimonials, and using every other motivational and compliance principle—urging us to buy now! Shop early and save; shop early while quantities last; prices slashed on best sellers; and more—those have been the headlines in every sort of media. And if you’re at all like most of us, you were not immune to the pitches. Our ... Read More
This week I wish to draw your attention to something I find very disturbing, and that is the loss of certain Constitutional rights. Now we’re all familiar with the idea that some of our rights were marginalized as a result of the Patriot Act, but I’m not so sure that everyone knows just how far some of this has gone. For example, there is a facility in Chicago known as Homan Square where more than 7,000 people are questionably detained. According to a transparency lawsuit filed by the Guardian, “Police ... Read More
