More than any other species, human beings are gifted with the power to manipulate their environment and the ability to accumulate and transmit knowledge across generations. The first of these gifts we call technology; the other we call culture. They are central to our humanity. Accumulating over thousands of years, culture and technology have brought […]
The Ascent of Humanity Read More »
Photo by Martin Adams If I say, “The reason the hawk circled over me nine times and headed East was to tell me to begin my return journey,” does that sound scientific to you? Or am I projecting meaning onto a world that is essentially random? Do the events of our lives have any meaning, or
The Stars are Shining for Her Read More »
Photo by Colton Sturgeon Once upon our time, our distant ancestors were animists who believed in the innate divinity of all things. Spirit was a property of matter, and all things possessed it: not just plants and animals but also rocks, clouds, lakes, wind, places, and every natural thing and process. I said all things possessed spirit,
By Jim Rutt Continue reading on Medium »
Making Liquid Democracy Work — Pay The Delegates Read More »
A new paper by archaeologists Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo addresses one of the longstanding mysteries of the monuments of Easter Island: their location. Four hundred of the statues, known as muai, are located miles away from where they were originally quarried, and sit on megalithic platforms, or ahu. An analysis of the locations of
Photo by Drew Hays This article has been translated into Portuguese. Originally published Friday, December 9th, 2005. Did you know that right now, we are in the midst of a disease epidemic that is already at least 100 times more prevalent than the feared polio epidemic of the 1950s? Most people don’t know it. Their ignorance testifies to
Photo by Shaun Salmon It all started when I was living in Taiwan, 21 years old, having just graduated from Yale with a degree in mathematics and philosophy. Of course I did what most people do with such a degree — I got a job in a bar. One day on my way to work I attempted to
From Opinion to Belief to Knowing Read More »
By Jim Rutt Mini-Bio The politics of Team Red (Republicans) versus Team Blue (Democrats) have failed the American people. It is now time for an alternative. A few weeks ago, I published “An Introduction to Liquid Democracy,” which gave a generic description of an improved form of democracy. This essay gets more specific about why we
Reclaiming American Democracy — Starting Right NOW! Read More »
Why I Went Back to a Flip Phone, and How You Can Too By Jim Rutt Mini Bio Recently, after more than 10 years as a smartphone user, I ditched my fancy iPhone X for a flip phone. Yep, a flip phone: Verizon’s bottom-of-the-line Kyocera Cadence LTE. It doesn’t get much more basic. As a result, I’ve begun
Reclaiming Our Cognitive Sovereignty Read More »
Photo by Martin Permantier A main theme of The Ascent of Humanity is an Age of Reunion that is to follow the Age of Separation whose end we are witnessing today. In this transition, the converging crises of the planet are the birth pangs. Like a newborn coming to the breast, our species will experience
