
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 26 Feb 20
Tickets to the Moon. Teleporting inanimate objects. A woman on the roster of an NFL, NBA, NHL, or MLS team. These are the Long Bets and Predictions made about the year 02020.The year 02020, like 02000 before it and 02050 after it, has long captivated the popular imagination as a kind of shorthand for “the future.” Some predictions about life in 02020 are remarkably prescient: In 02004, the National Intelligence Council predicted that an “America first” movement would rise in the United States; In Ray Bradbury’s 01953 dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451, he predicts that people would listen to “little seashells” filling
Tickets to the Moon. Teleporting inanimate objects. A woman on the roster of an NFL, NBA, NHL, or MLS team. These are the Long Bets and Predictions made about the year 02020.The year 02020, like 02000 before it and 02050 after it, has long captivated the popular imagination as a kind of shorthand for “the future.” Some predictions about life in

By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 26 Dec 19
We can no longer see ourselves as separate from the natural world or our technology, but as a part of them, integrated, codependent, and entangled.Quantum entanglement. (Courtesy: iStock/Traffic-Analyzer)By Danny HillisWe humans are changing. We have become so intertwined with what we have created that we are no longer separate from it. We have outgrown the distinction between the natural and the artificial. We are what we make. We are our thoughts, whether they are created by our neurons, by our electronically augmented minds, by our technologically mediated social interactions, or by our machines themselves. We are our bodies, whether they are
We can no longer see ourselves as separate from the natural world or our technology, but as a part of them, integrated, codependent, and entangled.Quantum entanglement. (Courtesy: iStock/Traffic-Analyzer)By Danny HillisWe humans are changing. We have become so intertwined with what we have created that we are no longer separate from it. We have outgrown the distinction between the natural and the

By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 16 May 19
A New Type of Conversation, The Rebel Wisdom SummitIn these polarised, fractured times, what does a real conversation look like? One where people feel free to speak their minds, change their minds, and to create the possibility of something genuinely new emerging. How do we discuss ideas and disagree with one another in a way that leads somewhere new, rather than forcing us deeper into tribalism?These are questions we’ve been wrestling with since we started Rebel Wisdom. Our sense is that at least part of the answer is for us all to start having conversations that go beyond the purely intellectual,
A New Type of Conversation, The Rebel Wisdom SummitIn these polarised, fractured times, what does a real conversation look like? One where people feel free to speak their minds, change their minds, and to create the possibility of something genuinely new emerging. How do we discuss ideas and disagree with one another in a way that leads somewhere new, rather than

By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 16 May 19
A New Type of Conversation, The Rebel Wisdom SummitIn these polarised, fractured times, what does a real conversation look like? One where people feel free to speak their minds, change their minds, and to create the possibility of something genuinely new emerging. How do we discuss ideas and disagree with one another in a way that leads somewhere new, rather than forcing us deeper into tribalism?These are questions we’ve been wrestling with since we started Rebel Wisdom. Our sense is that at least part of the answer is for us all to start having conversations that go beyond the purely intellectual,
A New Type of Conversation, The Rebel Wisdom SummitIn these polarised, fractured times, what does a real conversation look like? One where people feel free to speak their minds, change their minds, and to create the possibility of something genuinely new emerging. How do we discuss ideas and disagree with one another in a way that leads somewhere new, rather than

By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 15 Feb 19
Photo by Martin AdamsIf 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 do they just happen to us? Do we create the reality we experience, or is reality something already out there, that we move through? Which answer seems more “scientific”? The difference between these two belief systems is more than a mere matter of philosophical opinion. Each actually
Photo by Martin AdamsIf 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 do they just happen to us? Do

By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 5 Feb 19
Glass vials containing dried B. subtilis spores (R. Möller and C. S. Cockell)Last week, The Atlantic‘s Sarah Zhang profiled a University of Edinburgh science experiment that began in 02014 and — if everything goes according to plan — will conclude in 02514.The experiment is studying the longevity of bacteria, which can remain viable well past the lifespan of humans.Physically, the 500-year experiment consists of 800 simple glass vials containing either Chroococcidiopsis or another bacterium, Bacillus subtilis. The glass vials have been hermetically sealed with a flame. Half are shielded with lead, to protect them from the radiation of radon or cosmic rays, which can cause DNA damage.
Glass vials containing dried B. subtilis spores (R. Möller and C. S. Cockell)Last week, The Atlantic‘s Sarah Zhang profiled a University of Edinburgh science experiment that began in 02014 and — if everything goes according to plan — will conclude in 02514.The experiment is studying the longevity of bacteria, which can remain viable well past the lifespan of humans.Physically, the 500-year experiment consists of 800 simple glass
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 2 Sep 18
By Robert DarbyContinue reading on Areo Magazine »
By Robert DarbyContinue reading on Areo Magazine »

By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 26 May 18
It seems that an old conversation has begun again. After several decades of relative silence and in the context of the rising popularity of Jordan Peterson and the broader “Intellectual Dark Web,” the debate between Science and Religion has seen a glimmer of a return.I have long contemplated this question and, in collaboration with Deep Code, have perhaps achieved some insights that are worth sharing. Interestingly, as I have endeavored to put these ideas down ‘on paper’, I have noticed that they seem rather simple. Perhaps this is precisely as it should be.To begin, I would like to bring to mind the
It seems that an old conversation has begun again. After several decades of relative silence and in the context of the rising popularity of Jordan Peterson and the broader “Intellectual Dark Web,” the debate between Science and Religion has seen a glimmer of a return.I have long contemplated this question and, in collaboration with Deep Code, have perhaps achieved some insights

By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 5 Nov 17
photo by Evan SpilerThanks to the growing human domination of natural systems on Earth, people say we are entering an Anthropocene Epoch, Grinspoon began, but what if the term “epoch” understates the consequence of what is going on? (The Holocene Epoch is only 11,700 years old.) Astrobiologists recently learned that planet formation is the norm in the universe, and now they’re trying to find out if life formation is also the norm. They won’t look for signs of mere geological epochs on other planets; they’re looking for eon-scale transitions like the three that Earth has gone through in its 4.8 billion
photo by Evan SpilerThanks to the growing human domination of natural systems on Earth, people say we are entering an Anthropocene Epoch, Grinspoon began, but what if the term “epoch” understates the consequence of what is going on? (The Holocene Epoch is only 11,700 years old.) Astrobiologists recently learned that planet formation is the norm in the universe, and now they’re

By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 7 Sep 17
photo by Evan SpilerIF WE FIND, anywhere in the universe, one more instance of life besides what evolved on Earth, then we are bound to conclude that life is common throughout the vastness of this galaxy and the 200 billion other galaxies. The discovery would change how we think about everything.Most of the search for life beyond Earth, Porco explained, is the search for habitats. They don’t have to look comfy, since we know that our own extremophile organisms can survive temperatures up to 250°F, total desiccation, and fiercely high radiation, high pressure, high acidity, high alkalinity, and high salinity.In our
photo by Evan SpilerIF WE FIND, anywhere in the universe, one more instance of life besides what evolved on Earth, then we are bound to conclude that life is common throughout the vastness of this galaxy and the 200 billion other galaxies. The discovery would change how we think about everything.Most of the search for life beyond Earth, Porco explained, is