One HBLer said that to be a fine art something had to meet requirement R. Another HBLer gave a counter-example: architecture doesn’t meet R but is still a fine art. The counter-example approach is not a good one, except in the fields of math and logic because they don’t require weighing competing factors in a
Context-dropping is a major fallacy, perhaps the number one fallacy. Context-dropping is the attempt to have cognition without looking at all the relevant data you have. To know, rather than to merely believe, is to integrate into the full context. (See OPAR, Chapter 4 for why and how knowledge is contextual.) How does one “hold
In a discussion on a medical website of rejuvenation research, I found one pretty good comment amidst the Pharma-haters, so I wrote this (edited here for clarity). Thank you for posting the only rational comment I’ve seen in the sea of anti-science, anti-tech, anti-capitalist, anti-freedom comments preceding yours. To demonize “Big Pharma” is an amazing
The primary volitional choice is to take charge of your mind or not—i.e., to focus or not. “Focusing your mind” is a broad abstraction; what are the basic acts you use when you are in focus? To change the metaphor, the primary choice is to manage the operations of your mind or not. What are
I have been promising a book on Free Will for about a year, maybe more, so I think in good conscience I should give a progress report. I haven’t yet decided whether the book will be on the free will—determinism debate (and thus be largely polemical) or will be a positive book explaining free will
Sadly, I voted for Trump for President. I panicked over the idea of the Dems packing the Supreme Court, which Biden pointedly wouldn’t deny they’d do. But after January 6th, I rescinded my vote. Which of course is impossible. But I did it “in software.” Sometime later, I followed up by changing my voter registration
Lifespan is one of the very, very few books that can be life-changing. It is a report on the exciting developments in eliminating—and reversing—aging. And it’s written by one of the pioneers in the field, David Sinclair of Harvard and MIT. Sinclair’s credentials are staggering. Here’s just part of them, from the book’s end matter: a
A symptom of the almost universal misunderstanding of inflation is the belief that people are unable to pay the inflated prices or at least are unhappy about paying them. They aren’t. (I’m not talking now about that minor part of the price rises that are due to lessened production; that is a completely different matter—and
A member gave voice to the way I used to think of it, until about 15 years ago: In a civilized society, the use of force is banned except in emergency self-defense. In other words, gun ownership requires justification. Actions that do not involve force, such as crossing the border or using drugs, do not
This is a column I wrote for Forbes.com in 2013 In Praise of Gold Keynes sneered at it. Preachers damn it. Bitcoin dreams of transcending it. But free men inevitably choose it. Gold. Whenever men have had a free, uncoerced choice of the medium of exchange, gold has won the competition, along with its sister
