It seems that traditional cultures have their "eternal verities" - things that seem to be immutably true about fundamental aspects of the human condition. I put the words "eternal verities" in scare quotes because some of these things may not be verities at all, and certainly not eternal ones. And they won't be ...

(Reposted from Metamagician and the Hellfire Club.)  Now and then - much more often than I'd like - I come across a claim to the effect that science is merely "a way of describing the world, among other ways." This bold claim is usually made by an academic in literary or cultural studies, but sometimes by somebody from ...

A MEDITATION ON THE WILL TO BECOME IMMORTAL... a love letter to science and philosophy that explores the idea of engineered radical life extension and biological immortality... by Jason Silva. www.myspace.com/maxandjason

http://www.abnormalpsy.org Christopher Shaw wizkid007@rogers.com   Dreams as a natural defence / Unconscious wish fulfillment In light of the mental scars that society brings forth, the brain has a natural defence, it try’s to clear out the garbage of every day life to bring things back to an equilibrium state. That is why sleep is ...

Yuletide, Christmas, Hanukkah, Oshogatsu - a world of names for a time of year about something. A time to reflect on our heritage, our faith, our future and our very existence. A time to recognise our roots. With this in mind I have collected together a series of tools for those of us inclined to non-theistic beliefs. Perhaps in reflecting on ...

Far from being extracts from the extreme end of science fiction, the idea that we may one day give sentient machines the kind of rights traditionally reserved for humans is raised in a British government-commissioned report which claims to be an extensive look into the future. Visions of the status of robots around 2056 have emerged from one of ...

The sacred is being invented again... And this time it is Stuart A. Kauffman's article "Beyond Reductionism: Reinventing the Sacred", in Edge web magazine Read it here.  Kauffman, as many prominent scientists and thinkers do lately, voices a need to respond to what seems to be the latest ...