The combination of human mental hardwiring with modern technologies ensures our doom
When biologists want to study the mechanisms of evolution, they necessarily select model species that are short-lived. Only in this way can a sufficient number of generations be born, live, mate, and die within the span of an RO1 grant. …
Why shortages everywhere show how Brexit Britain is on its way to achieving perfection
At the beginning of 2021, after an arduous multi-year process that was sold to simple-minded voters as quick and pain-free, the United Kingdom (hereafter referred to as the UK, pronounced appropriately as “uck”) left the European Union to embark on the serious task of becoming the greatest nation in the…
And if you don’t agree with absolutely every word in this article, you must be a speciesphobic hate-Nazi and you’re going to be canceled
Over the last few years we’ve seen enormous progress being made for equal rights across the LGBT+ spectrum. Today, a forty-seven-year-old male inmate incarcerated for multiple rapes can self-identify as a woman and thereby gain admission to a prison housing hundreds or even thousands of vulnerable people with XX chromosomes…
A few simple things can help avoid bad outcomes
Today, as I was strolling down one of the city’s grand vistas on my way to the local supermarket, I saw a cyclist proceeding at speed along the other side of the road. …
Why the answer is probably yes, but why that also means space-faring alien civilizations are almost certainly absent
As most people seem to form their opinions based on whatever movies and TV shows they’ve seen, let’s begin by stating the obvious: at present, we have precisely no evidence to suggest that extra-terrestrial life exists. Furthermore, if extra-terrestrial life (henceforth ETL for the sake of brevity) does exist, we…
And populism is always wrong
Representative democracy in the West emerged slowly through a series of historical accidents, commencing with the Magna Carta. Until the creation of the US Constitution in 1787, democratic governance structures were the entirely unplanned consequence of occasional compromises and adjustments made without any concept of their implications. The franchise grew…
Why reality is always so much more interesting than fiction
I first encountered science fiction at the age of almost-twelve, after leaving Africa for a damp stay in Britain. At that time the UK was transitioning from monochrome television broadcasts to color and due to a lack of domestic programming was enthusiastically buying the rights to show US TV shows…
Why we seem to be living on the wrong side of Alice’s looking-glass
Around the age of eight, I began to realize that the adults around me actually had no clue what they were doing, nor why they were doing it. The weekend parties they held comprised desperate self-medication with cigarettes and strong alcohol which left them even more drained and despondent than…
Language can serve many purposes, but one is far more important than all the others combined
It’s interesting, in these contentious days of verbal chicanery in which people are supposed to tear themselves apart in a frenzy of political correctness over which words are acceptable and what words are purported to mean, to ask a simple question: what is the primary purpose of language?
Although today’s…
Why populism has erased previous political distinctions
First, some necessary context: the United Kingdom is a nation comprised of four distinct countries: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. …
