Sustainable Timescales
Will our intelligence prove to be too much of a “good” thing and turn us into evolution’s deadliest blunder, or will at least some of us learn to tuck back into our family, no longer hubristic enough to play at being gods?
Society
How Long Has Humanity Been at War With Itself?
Is large-scale intra-specific warfare Homo sapiens’ condition or can our species strive to achieve global peace?
Banning What Matters
You might think that an apparently harmless public good like a library would have no enemies. But in the age of Trump and his movement to Make America Grotesque Again, there turn out to be many.
Climate Politics: The View from Washington February 11, 2023
There’s a sign on the door of the Capitol that says Congress Doesn’t Work Here Anymore. I think that’s a bit harsh. A more accurate description might be Congress barely works here anymore. After all, they are managing to keep the government open—at least until March.
Against Fortress Degrowth: The Need for a Border Perspective in the Degrowth Discourse
The fight against borders and for freedom of movement needs to be part of a deeper social-ecological transformation that places global justice at its core.
I hear voices
One of them contends that there is no hope for the survival of civilization, regardless what we do; while the other thinks that humanity can get through this century of crises more or less intact, if it pulls together and behaves itself.
The Future of Beauty
If the grounded sense of beauty Momaday derived from Kiowa cultural expressions is to play a role in shaping our response to social and ecological collapse, it will need a territory that can sustain it.
Putting justice at the heart of Transition
What if… the Transition movement could play a part in putting justice at the heart of the ‘transition’ we’re working towards, in our communities and beyond?
“Warning. Data Inadequate.”
Due to its incorporation of a simple “neural network” loosely analogous to the human brain, the perceptron of 1958 is recognized as a forerunner of today’s most successful “artificial intelligence” projects – from facial recognition systems to text extruders like ChatGPT.
The Laboratory of the Commons
We can only say very generally that something on which we mutually depend for our survival and well-being is a commons, and through our implication into a commons, we are called forth to action, toward the need to collaboratively govern this commons together (be it digital, urban, educational, atmospheric, etc.). But beyond this, their logics are diverse.
Is World Population Peaking Now?
I think population decline will be a relief, like an escape valve in a pressure cooker. As we shrink in numbers we will grow in other areas, like resources per capita and free time.
Mysterious Materialism
I’m glad to have a part, and to participate in this incredible life. It gives me pleasure to be on the side of all life, and to be an agent trying to nudge humanity in an adaptively beneficial direction.
