Chapter: The Coming of the Wise
Information relevant to the 10th chapter of The Mirror Breaks
In Tehran
The first thing to say is that I missed the terrible earthquake at Van. Lucky for me, and for the others on the train, not so lucky for those poor Turks. From previously knowing none, I have recently met quite a few, and have spent hours talking with some – so that now they seem to me less remote; I have had direct experience that they are, essentially, indistinguishable from anyone else I know. Seems …
beauty is in the eye of the beholder
I have an ongoing preoccupation with vision – not only ours, but that of other creatures. For us vision is such a dominant and personal way through which we experience the world, that it can be surprising to learn how limited it is in comparison to that of other creatures. We have more limited perception of colour – for example – than not just birds, but also lizards, amphibians and even many fish. The retinas …
lançamento do Terceiro Deus
o lançamento do Terceiro Deus 4 de Maio, e a Feira do Livro em Lisboa / the launch of The Third God in Portugal and my attendance at the Lisbon Book Fair…
TV live interview/ entrevista viva…
a live interview I did for Portuguese television…
fórum fantástico
I have been invited to attend Fórum Fantástico 2010 in Lisbon in November…
the intelligence trap
Many believe that human intelligence has escaped the gravity well of ‘animal stupidity’, and that now we roam an unlimited space of thought where everything must eventually come within our understanding. Beneath this belief lies another: that humans are set apart from other animals – an idea that may be an expression of species neuroticism, and that finds its clearest expression in many religions. This special pleading has been eroded by the discoveries of science, …
do we need a Butlerian Jihad?
Increasingly I have begun to appreciate the wisdom that there may be in Frank Herbert’s Butlerian Jihad. What is the point of allowing – or, more accurately working to bring about – a way of being that is going to be disastrous for us?
Chapter: Ykoriana
Information relevant to the 13th chapter of The Chosen
the digital revolution
This article Jason Pinter (though, previously this was attributed to Jessie Kunhardt) has a point, but he’s not really saying anything that we didn’t know. What he doesn’t address is the ways in which ebooks ‘could’ expand the reading market. Not only in the obvious ways – providing easy access (distributively) to texts, portability, searchability, the ability to attach notes – but also in less-obvious ways such as the ability when reading non-fiction to access …