The internet is a big place. That you have found yourself in this particular corner of it could be a 1-in-1,206,691,969 coincidence of no more significance than the particular microbial population that’s contemplating its collective future among the old-growth forests of your left eyebrow. Or, it might be a turning point in the evolution of the universe. Or it could be both. In any case, you might want to read some of the things below in order to find out. Thanks for stopping by!
Six Tricks to Fix Democracy (And Other Small Problems)
Posted on November 15, 2020Some days ago, as the hang-fire drama of the US election was inflaming the internet and crisis fatigue seemed to be gnawing an ever-widening hole in our collective mental health, I decided it was time to turn away from the news, take several deep breaths, spend a minute communing with any humans, pets, plants, trees,…
Now Is The Time for an Economy of Kindness
Posted on May 30, 2020The world seems to be moving in two opposing directions: in one, there is death, sickness, loneliness, cruelty, and despair at the crevasse of political turmoil and economic hardship we seem to be sinking into. In the other, there is a wave of collective solidarity, kindness, determination, and altruistic ingenuity that may be unique in…
The APIs of God
Posted on March 19, 2018The holy is a serious business. Wars have been fought over the proper way to worship, and the contradictions and absurdities of religion can seem limitless. What if this is because we have the wrong metaphor? What would happen if we didn’t think of religious and spiritual traditions as competing ideas about The Way It…
Ecological Efficiency, Hamburgers, and the Possible Survival of Civilization
Posted on June 8, 2017“Efficiency” usually means the degree to which costly inputs to a process are reduced in relation to the process’s desirable outputs. This linear input-process-output model of efficiency fits well with the linear models of production, consumption, and growth that have been spreading, like cultural parasites, over the globe for the past few hundred years. On…
A Sermon for the Choir
Posted on May 30, 2017Please note, dear reader and esteemed member of the choir: this hortatory fragment was written some time ago. Since then, the climate has changed just slightly. This means it is already out of date. However, it remains less out of date than most hymnals, so the choir may still find it of modest interest. How…
Between Here and There
Posted on February 14, 2017There is a lot of talk in the small, curious world of theoretical physicists, and in the swarm of admiring hand-wavers, paper-skimmers, and buzzword-retailers that surrounds them, myself included, about the arrow of time. This arrow, which is no doubt fletched with the remnants of scores of papers debating its existence, speeds in only one…
Why Not Democracy?
Posted on September 5, 2016Democracy means “rule by the people.” We call our system of government democracy, but we are not ruled by the people. We are ruled by politicians. Every few years there is an election campaign, and we attempt to select the best of a small number of choices, and — if we’re not too jaded to…
On The Saving of Planets
Posted on August 1, 2016Planets, in the basic sense of the word, do not need saving. Their trajectories through the heavens are wholly indifferent to the squabbles and errors of microbial-scale life upon their skins. Even in a more inclusive meaning of “planet,” that of a home for life, a garden of diversity and even, perhaps, a living being,…
Genesis
Posted on July 1, 2016This is it, my friends. After some years of incubation, ideas begat words, which begat documents, which begat schemes, which begat domain names, which begat doubts, which begat delays, which begat panics, which begat more delays, which begat reflection, which begat inspiration, which begat more domain names, which begat a WordPress installation, which begat a…
My Month of Eating From the Island
Posted on May 1, 2016One year ago today I began a dietary experiment: I decided that for the month of May, I would eat only food grown or harvested on or around Cortes Island. This article is a lab report from that experiment. A Hair-brained Scheme When telling people about this experiment, the response was generally: “Cool!…Why?” There were…
Arnica
Posted on September 24, 2013I love flowers. They are the most defiant things in the world. Somehow, in all the utilitarian requirements of survival, in all the necessities of metabolism and photosynthesis and in the harsh contest of evolution, we have flowers: exquisite in symmetry and colour, defying all the ugliness of the world, catching our breath, making us…