Month: November 2014

The decline of religion in western societies

Huffington Post UK has published the results of a survey showing that half of Britain thinks religion does more harm than good, and that you don't need it to be a good person.  This seems to be a trend in Europe that was started in the Scandinavian countries.  It's in contrast to the United States, … Continue reading The decline of religion in western societies →

E.O. Wilson: Science, not philosophy, will explain the meaning of existence

Well, in remarks that I'm pretty sure are guaranteed to rile up philosophers, E.O. Wilson, who apparently has a new book out on the meaning of human existence, disses both philosophy and religion, saying that scientists will provide the meaning of of existence. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lx26k8LTCdI I can agree with a lot of what Wilson says in … Continue reading E.O. Wilson: Science, not philosophy, will explain the meaning of existence →

The blogging experience at one year

One year ago today, I published my first post on this blog: Patterns who have achieved consciousness.  It wasn't actually the very first post I wrote.  I had just written one on mind uploading, but wanted the blog's first post to reference its title. My immediate motivations for starting this blog was frustration with heavy handed but … Continue reading The blogging experience at one year →

The movie ‘Interstellar’ and wormholes

The other day, I did a post on interstellar exploration which linked to one by Sten Odenwald on the problems with interstellar travel.  Well, he posted some follow-up remarks, expressing some surprise at the response, doubling down on the aspects of the limitations of interstellar travel he identified, and urging people to be optimistically realistic.  (I predict he'll get … Continue reading The movie ‘Interstellar’ and wormholes →

Half the stars in the universe may exist outside of galaxies

Every so often you get a reminder of how little we know about the universe: Rogue stars outside galaxies may be everywhere | Science/AAAS | News. You’ve heard of rogue planets, floating through the universe untethered to any solar system. Now meet rogue stars, which drift through space with no galaxy to call home. A new … Continue reading Half the stars in the universe may exist outside of galaxies →

Is the human species still evolving? Of course.

It looks like Bill Nye, the science guy, is coming out with a new book on evolution, with an excerpt at Popular Science: Is The Human Species Still Evolving? | Popular Science. We cannot step away from evolution. Our genomes are always collecting mutations, and we are always making mate selections. Are humans preferentially mating with … Continue reading Is the human species still evolving? Of course. →

New interpretation of quantum physics: Many Interacting Worlds

There's a new interpretation of quantum mechanics: Scientists propose existence and interaction of parallel worlds: Many Interacting Worlds theory challenges foundations of quantum science -- ScienceDaily. This new interpretation appears to be similar to the MWI (Many Worlds Interpretation) where quantum superpositions don't collapse, but spread, creating what amounts to new universes.  However, in this theory, … Continue reading New interpretation of quantum physics: Many Interacting Worlds →

Why are we still doing daylight savings time?

Here in the United States, daylight savings time ended today.  We got an extra hour of sleep (yay!).  But this is only a temporary reprieve.  It'll be back in the spring, when we'll have to "spring forward" and start waking up an hour earlier again. Multiple people put up articles this weekend pointing out that … Continue reading Why are we still doing daylight savings time? →