The miracle of mundane
I stumbled upon a nice article from a buddhist about how folks who work hard at finding the extraordinary in the exceptional are looking in the wrong place: the...
Category: Philosophy
Finally got around to reading Sterling’s “An Essay on the New Aesthetic”
“That is my thesis; that’s why I think this matters. When I left the room at the SXSW “New Aesthetic” panel, this is what concerned me most. I left with t...
Commentary on Synthetic Biology: Either. Or.
Either "Scientists should NOT be allowed to create artificial life" Or "Scientists SHOULD be allowed to create artificial life" Is this real...
Culture as Augmented Reality?
I was listening to Wade Davis' Long Now talk about the wisdom of ancient cultures. Like all Long Now talks, it got me thinking. One thing that Wade said th...
Increasing tinkerability – explaining DIYbio
I was with my father this Thanksgiving and he asked me about "that Biology thing" I've been getting involved in. He's known for some time th...
Mac, Sophia, and the philosophy of 21st-century Biology
Mac has written two short but deep posts, inspired by a talk by Sophia Roosth. What inspired Mac was Sophia's "anthropological insight" that DIYb...
Is the interent killing storytelling?
I'm always interested in storytelling in its many guises, so the recent article titled "The internet is killing storytelling" was sure to catch m...
The Electric Knife Syndrome
I’m at the Mobile 2.0 conference in Barcelona. I was talking with Mark Kramer, and Bryan and Stepanie Rieger about the things we usually talk about. I had...
Great essay by Kevin Kelly on Human Identity
Kevin Kelly has written a great essay on the current challenges to human identity, challenges from tech, society, and new knowledge. I think this ties a lot int...
Entropy is over-rated. Long live Complexity! (Bonus: The Venter)
Does everything tend towards Entropy? One of the first things we learn in chemistry is that everything tends towards entropy. How can that be? Whereas Steven Jo...