For a long time, I’ve wondered about the Great Filter in civilizations. Why do initial successful civilizations eventually fail? It also relates to the Fermi paradox: if there is any extraterrestrial civilization, why haven't they contacted us by now? All civilizations seem doomed to fail after their initial success; often for unknown reasons (eg, Cahokia, USA)....
It occurred to me that (blind) ideology might be responsible for human stupidity. According to a 2018 paper in the Journal of Degenerative Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities, author James F Welles claims it is indeed: The Ideological Basis of Stupidity. Since 1990, he wrote at least 3 books on stupidity. The diagram in my recent blog on Needs, Wants,...
Last Friday, I had an epiphany following my Dutch language blog of that day. I suddenly felt that there is a hidden trend in the development from tools to mechanization to automation to AI & robotics. It took me a while to digest that thought. Please find the resulting diagram below. The meta dimensions of How-What-When-Where-Who-Why are used to verify if my...
In 1993, Vernor Vinge, an American professor in mathematics and computer science, published his essay The Coming Technological Singularity, "in which he wrote that it would signal the end of the human era, as the new superintelligence would continue to upgrade itself and would advance technologically at an incomprehensible rate. He wrote that he would be surprised...
Recently, a Dutch-Flemish boy of eleven years graduated cum laude in Physics at Antwerp University. He started studying at Eindhoven University of Technology at the age of nine (Brussels Times). What does this event imply for topics like our biological clock, consciousness, epigenetics, learning vs teaching, nature vs nurture, talents, and/or the age when our brain...
In 1980, I saw something new and spectacular: a guy walking in Amsterdam, carrying a portable heavy battery over his shoulder with a 2 meter antenna, talking loudly through a phone. With hindsight, I saw "my" first mobile phone. I remember thinking that would never be popular. I was dead wrong. We love complex technology...
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