Eind 2024 publiceerde theoretisch natuurkundige Avi Loeb een interessant artikel dat mij al jarenlang bezighoudt: Is de mensheid het hoogtepunt? Een kosmisch perspectief op intelligentie en overleven. De voortgang in mijn denken wordt gevisualiseerd door onderstaande diagrammen uit 2018 en 2022: Bron: mijn 2018 blog Bron: mijn 2022 blog De collectieve ontwikkeling...
Recently, I had a conversation about the abundance of opinions. In our past, you had to send your handwritten or typed opinion in a sufficiently stamped envelope to a newspaper that might not even publish it. Since about 20 years, everyone can publish an opinion (eg, Facebook-2004, Twitter-2006). Hence, my question: Is it a pity that we have so many opinions?? The...
Recently, I noticed this strange question above in an Aeon-Psyche article: Do we have good reasons to believe in beliefs? A radical philosophy of mind says no. Last Saturday, a new friend said the following: "Believing is in the nature of mankind; it's a clear feeling. You're almost born with it." I couldn't agree more with what he said. It was in a slightly...
"History suggests that once a country crosses the threshold of negative population growth, there is little that its government can do to reverse it." This line is an excerpt from a 2023 NYT article: Can China Reverse Its Population Decline? Just Ask Sweden. Another 2023 quote: "The negative population growth trend cannot be reversed, but behavior and expectations...
Recently, I was reminded of the above saying as I had a choice in my response: angry, cynical, or playing dumb. That choice also relates to my blog Choose your battles wisely. Moreover, a 2013 article in Foreign Policy argued that "There are many more ways to be a fool than there are to be a genius". Perhaps, I would have used vinegar if there had been a time...
The Universe is expanding. Each year, the (accelerating) distance to our Moon is "increasing at the rate of about 3.8 centimeters (1.5 inches) per year" (source). In the absence of (imaginary) faster than light space travel technology, planets that we can still see now, will then be too far away to visit. Notwithstanding the above, we are still planning new visits...
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