Last week I listened to an episode of Fresh Air on NPR, where Terry Gross interviewed Eric Berkowitz on his new book, 'The Boundaries of Desire', about sex laws over the last century. But what interested me more in the interview was the brief introductory discussion of sex laws in ancient societies, which led me to read … Continue reading Sex laws over the millenia
Tag: Culture
SMBC: The curse of knowledge
Click through for full sized version. via Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. This strip reminds me of something I heard someone say in a presentation on communication strategies several years ago. It was a concept the speaker referred to as "the curse of knowledge". The curse of knowledge is the idea that when you know something, it is … Continue reading SMBC: The curse of knowledge
How did our legends really begin?
Steve Conner looks at a new book by Peter Witzel that argues that the world's myths have common origins: How did our legends really begin? - Features - Books - The Independent. The similarity of the narratives could be just coincidence. Each culture might just have devised its own folklore independently of the other, coming to surprisingly … Continue reading How did our legends really begin?
Kwame Anthony Appiah: Is religion good or bad? (This is a trick question)
The other day, I did a post asking what religion is. This TED talk by Kwame Anthony Appiah seems to be in much the same theme, pointing out that making accurate generalizations about religion is difficult since there is no one definition of it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2et2KO8gcY I do think that perhaps Appiah may be hiding behind exceptions … Continue reading Kwame Anthony Appiah: Is religion good or bad? (This is a trick question)
The ages of communication
I think I've mentioned before that I only recently came the realization that the scientific revolution was more a matter of increased communication than necessarily a breakthrough in method. Along the lines of this realization, I have a few thoughts about communication and its effects on human history. Humans are social animals. Communication between and among … Continue reading The ages of communication
The psychology of your future self
Somewhat related to Zach Weiner's cartoon on our continuing death, this TED talk looks at how transitory the self actually is. We seem to have no problem recognizing our transitory our self from ten years ago was, but not how much our current self is. This has big implications for how we make, or should … Continue reading The psychology of your future self
