All Entries in the "Columnists" Category
It Takes a Village Idiot: Romney’s Artful Distortion of Obama’s ‘You Didn’t Build That’ Quote
“If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that [...]
Putin’s Pussy Problem: From America with Love
On Friday, August 17, three female members of the band, Pussy Riot, were sentenced to two years in prison for staging a piece of political theater. In February, 2012, The Pussy Rioteers had–if you will pardon the expression–the balls to perform a song containing an anti-Vladimir Putin message (see the entire lyric below) at the [...]
The Innocence of Muslims: Sam “The Imbecile” Bacile, Religious Freedom and Free Speech
Let’s begin by making it clear that Sam Bacile’s “film,” The Innocence of Muslims, is a piece of crap. The film is embarrassingly terrible. Imagine the worst Saturday Night Live sketch that you have ever seen and then multiply it by 100. Everything about the film is distressingly awful: the script, the make-up, costumes, editing, [...]
Artificial Intelligence: Is Watson the Real Thing?
Artificial intelligence represents a threshold in computing that will transform machines into human-like intellectual entities. In a world grown used to rapid technological progress, it hardly stretches the imagination to contemplate next-generation computers that are substantially smaller and more powerful than their predecessors. However, the goal of transforming computers into sentient beings is an entirely different matter.
Time Surfers: Problem-Solving as the Path to a Better, Brighter, but Unpredictable Future
What does the future hold? Though many have argued that humans are inevitably going to destroy themselves, McGettigan argues that this is no such thing as Fate. The future, McGettigan argues, is not pre-determined, and the crises that threaten to destroy humanity (overpopulation, pollution, global warming, pandemic, nuclear armageddon, etc.) should instead be perceived as opportunities. Humans will continue to thrive so long as they approach crises as invaluable opportunities to elevate their thinking.
Teenage suicide, Amanda Todd, and new communication technology
A brave new world has emerged for our children. Whereas once bullying was confined to the school yard, or the back hall, now bullying penetrates into every aspect of their life space. At night, alone, in their bedroom, surrounded by family, our children have become targets, and victims. What are we going to do and who are we going to turn to? As Nat King Cole once sang, “Straighten out and fly right…”
Ward Churchill, the AAUP, and Academic Freedom
There is no doubt that being a university professor is a privilege, and certainly protected speech is one of them. Not always, but sometimes, university researchers say things that other people don’t like. Tobacco is addictive, cell phones might cause brain cancer, and class warfare wages on. Some people might not like us to say these things, like the Tobacco lobby for example, or the uber rich people who control the world, but society and democracy benefits from open intellectual criticism and debate. It is why the right to free speech was enshrined in the first place. We need to stand up for our right to speak without censure, without reprisal, and without fear. In the age of an open Internet society, anything else seems medieval, backwards, and just plain wrong.
Emotional Abuse
Here is a letter from a concerned worker in the Florida school system. Schools are supposed to be safe havens for our children, but the reality is they are not. Filled with violence and abuse, our schools beat us up and put us down. We often know it is going on, and we are often willing to change, but The System is designed to punish the willing and suppress change. Times are a changing though and what is now only a subterranean tremble of minor revision will shortly become a global and revolutionary earthquake of change.
The Future is a Fantasy: A 100YSS Presentation*
Abstract Humans are unique as a species because, with the help of well-defined problematics, humans alone are capable of redefining reality. A problematic can be understood as an exceptionally-challenging intellectual objective (e.g., heavier-than-air flight, building the first atomic bomb, curing disease, landing humans on the moon, developing artificially-intelligent computers, constructing faster-than-light speed spacecraft, etc.) that [...]
Get Your Geek On! The 100 Year Starship Symposium
“The 100 Year Starship Mission will transform 20th century Star Trek science fiction into 21st century fact!” Nichelle Nichols Star Trek’s Lt. Uhura I have been to a lot of conferences in my day, but I have never been to any meeting that is quite like the 100 Year Starship Symposium. 100yss is currently taking [...]
What to know about the nature of money, the value of money, and money's role in our modern economies of exchange, then download The Rocket Scientists' Guide to Money and the Economy and let the truth set you free. [
Want to really understand the world that you live in? Then take 