The Passion of the Elites
Among the topics discussed is the nature of symbolic capital; whether self interest and political idealism are necessarily contradictory… … Continue readingThe Passion of the Elites
A Smart, Sinuous Espionage Thriller Brimming With Heat
Kushner’s narrator is an American spy-for-hire. She’s 34, a dropout from a Berkeley Ph.D. program. She’s working under an assumed name. … Continue readingA Smart, Sinuous Espionage Thriller Brimming With Heat
Can a Butterfly’s Wings Trigger a Distant Hurricane?
Chaos and Cause: The answer depends on the perspective you take: physics or human agency… … Continue readingCan a Butterfly’s Wings Trigger a Distant Hurricane?
The Computational Power of Complex Societies: A Quick Q&A With Physicist and Computer Scientist David Wolpert
The formula for humanity’s evolution is one of better energy harvesting + improved information processing = greater complexity. … Continue readingThe Computational Power of Complex Societies: A Quick Q&A With Physicist and Computer Scientist David Wolpert
Buddhist Ethics And The Bodhisattva Path
Jay Garfield at Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews: A final idea that frames Harris’ interpretation of Śāntideva—one that is clearly correct, and unappreciated—is that the universal altruism and the attitudes of
The Double-Agent War Hero Who Helped Japan Attack Pearl Harbor
Rutland was a British naval hero in the First World War, worked for the Japanese Navy in the years between the wars… … Continue readingThe Double-Agent War Hero Who Helped Japan Attack Pearl Harbor
Book Review: The Intricate Connections Between Humans and Nature
In Peter Godfrey-Smith’s “Living on Earth,” humans are in no way separate from the life that surrounds us. … Continue readingBook Review: The Intricate Connections Between Humans and Nature
How the Violence of Partition Forged National Identity in South Asia
Joya Chatterji at Literary Hub: I was seven years old during the 1971 war between India and Pakistan. My first political memory is of this short war, which lasted barely
Continue readingHow the Violence of Partition Forged National Identity in South Asia
Review of “Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI” by Yuval Noah Harari
The author of the bestselling Sapiens offers a penetrating critique of the insidious dangers of machine learning and its capacity to manipulate the truth. … Continue readingReview of “Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI” by Yuval Noah Harari
The War on Genius: Literature and Its Systems
What is a novel, or any work of art, but the product of its time, of commerce? What is it but another colorful consumer unit… … Continue readingThe War on Genius: Literature and Its Systems
Zhou Enlai: Made By the Revolution
Historian Chen Jian has published a monumental biography of Zhou Enlai that makes him the pre-eminent scholar of the contemporary Chinese diaspora. … Continue readingZhou Enlai: Made By the Revolution
The Contours of Trauma
Mary L Trump at The Good In Us: Since Voices Carry, to one degree or another, Aimee’s music has been in my life ever since. When I first listened to