Author: SelfAwarePatterns

A middle aged guy who loves discussing science, philosophy, history, science fiction, and many other nerdy topics.

Steven Weinberg’s new book on the history of science

Jerry Coyne has a post up discussing Steven Weinberg's new book on the history of science, including an exclusive excerpt: Steven Weinberg’s new book on the history of science (with excerpts) « Why Evolution Is True. The portion of the excerpt that spoke most clearly to me was this passage near the end: Science is not now … Continue reading Steven Weinberg’s new book on the history of science →

What do you think about machines that think?

The Edge question for this year was, "What do you think about machines that think?"  There are a lot of good responses, and some predictably inane ones.  Daniel Dennett gives a good write up on why the Singularity is overblown, and points out something that I've said myself, that the real danger isn't artificial intelligence, but … Continue reading What do you think about machines that think? →

Gravitational waves discovery now officially dead

I tweeted this yesterday, but it deserves a blog entry: Gravitational waves discovery now officially dead : Nature News & Comment. A team of astronomers that last year reported evidence for gravitational waves from the early Universe has now withdrawn the claim. A joint analysis of data recorded by the team's BICEP2 telescope at the South … Continue reading Gravitational waves discovery now officially dead →

The rise of the west and civilization collapses

Phil Plait recently announced that he was starting a new series of Crash Course videos on astronomy.  After watching it, I noticed the really cool Youtube channel that it's on.  I suspect that I'm going to end up wasting dedicating a lot of time on this channel. One series that caught my attention, because it's close to … Continue reading The rise of the west and civilization collapses →

Writing Excuses: New season, a writing course by podcast

Many of my readers and fellow bloggers are aspiring (or practicing) writers.  If you haven't caught it before, 'Writing Excuses' is a podcast about writing in the science fiction and fantasy genre.  If you've ever contemplated doing that kind of writing, it's a pretty awesome podcast to follow, and even if sci-fi/fantasy isn't your chosen … Continue reading Writing Excuses: New season, a writing course by podcast →

Confucianism and the definition of religion

I've noted before that defining religion is difficult.  Simple definitions (such as belief in gods) tend to either exclude some religions (such as Buddhism), or include things that most people don't consider to be a religion (such as constitutional law or science).  Definitions that get the scope about right tend to be hopelessly vague or unwieldy. … Continue reading Confucianism and the definition of religion →

Merry Christmas, and a quick blog update

First, I'm still alive.  Blogging has been light lately, mainly because I'm still struggling with a shoulder injury, which got worse with rehab exercises.  However, most of the issues were caused by one particular exercise, which the physical therapist agreed we could swap out for another.  I stopped doing the bad one yesterday and already I'm feeling much better.  So, … Continue reading Merry Christmas, and a quick blog update →