Going deeper... I recently wrote a post concerning polarization: Language gap. I received some great feedback on that from two of my developmental anthropology conversation partners—thanks Barbara, and Jon! As I'm trying to keep to the no-screed blog commitment I've made, my weekly space is limited. In the instance of the 'Language gap' post, the … Continue reading Root of polarization problem? →

  A place for provocation... We've seen previously, Yuval Noah Harari often uses provocation to advance his arguments. The (optional/bonus) video below is excellent! It features a story of another bright soul who, like Harari, uses provocation to stimulate her students. A regular News Hour feature, this episode introduces Flossie Lewis (age 91), provocateur:   … Continue reading Religion’s new accountability? →

Finding shared language... Seeing Yuval Noah Harari's take on history/life as a possible bridge for diverse thinkers/thinking to meet, I regard his invitation—to think of human beings as algorithms—potentially quite helpful. An excerpt from my October 20, 'No free will?' post helps us recall what Harari has written: Algorithms? Well, let’s begin with the opening … Continue reading The Jesus algorithm →

This week... Continuing our [ten week] conversation in relation to the thought of Yuval Noah Harari. Last week, with regard to remarks he'd made concerning universal basic income [UBI], I wrote:  Obviously, Harari’s concern regarding how to define “universal” gets to the heart of the present political turmoil over “open borders” and “nationalism” vs. “globalization.” … Continue reading Has legacy thought played out? →

Diminishing return... Historian Yuval Noah Harari has sounded an alarm regarding the power of some of the new technologies to harmfully disrupt human life as we know it. Key disruptions include serious economic impacts on life as humans steadily lose their utility and instrumental value as a factor in the means of production. Perhaps causing … Continue reading The (human) “useless class” →

      Posing the first problem:     Non-human living entities live in an objective reality (that is, they're consciously at-one with material objects, surfaces, exteriors: a monological reality). Conversely, humans seem to live concurrently—and self-consciously—in both subjective and objective realities (that is, a dual, or dialogical reality). This very basic truth is built into our ['integral'] holism mnemonic: … Continue reading The first problem →

No free will? Last week ("No free will?") we followed historian/author Yuval Noah Harari in raising some crucially significant questions regarding free will and the impact technology may soon have on our human future. I shared a curious Homo Deus quote. Harari writes: If we want to understand our life and our future, we should … Continue reading Free will—or algorithms? →