Close Encounters of the Puritan Kind
“Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy” ― H.L. Mencken We know that 17th Century New England …
Category Archives: Technology
John Campbell Besley and the Amazing Amazonian Telegraph
“Is it a fact—or have I dreamt it—that, by means of electricity, the world of matter has become a great …
The Ecstasy of Error: Green Cards in Magonia
“It is then that ceasing to take the natural, the spiritual view of the world and its waywardness, he takes …
Bugging Out During the Second Great Dying
“If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten …
Quantum Entangled Escargot: Sympathy for the Snail Telegraph
“We get wise by asking questions, and even if these are not answered, we get wise, for a well-packed question …
The Specious Present: It’s the Size of the Moment that Matters
“I have realized that the past and future are real illusions, that they exist in the present, which is what …
Our Colonized Consciousness: Defense Against the Doppelgänger
“If you meet your double, you should kill him” – Chris Cabin, Double Take The marketing potential with doppelgängers is …
Doomsday will be Dry: The Water Clock of the Apocalypse
“I never drink water; that is the stuff that rusts pipes” – W. C. Fields The average human is about …
Galaxy Noir: The Case of the Stellar Strangulation
“Nobody owns life, but anyone who can pick up a frying pan owns death” ― William S. Burroughs There was …
Where the Wild Things Are: Anomalies and the Poverty of Critical Thinking
“People tend to say ‘I like independent thinkers but they must think what I want them to think independently’” – …
Charlemagne: Frank Encounters with UFOs
“It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But …
Rooster-Based Planetary Defense Systems at Morial’s Den
“Noise proves nothing. Often a hen who has merely laid an egg cackles as if she laid an asteroid” – …
Wooden Ships, Iron Men, and Occasional Sea Serpents
“Civilization is like a thin layer of ice upon a deep ocean of chaos and darkness” – Werner Herzog A …
Skepticism and the Post-Human Economy
“Do not let yourself be tainted with a barren skepticism” – Louis Pasteur I’ll take a true believer over a …
Our Xenomorph Who Art in Heaven
“I wonder if other dogs think poodles are members of a weird religious cult” – Rita Rudner That darned Enlightenment. …
Philosophical Monsters Ship in Black Boxes
“Not all stories have happy endings; but that doesn’t mean they’re not worth the read” ― Cassia Leo, Black Box …
Dude, Where’s My Spaceship?
“I believe alien life is quite common in the universe, although intelligent life is less so” – Stephen Hawking In …
Primate Estate Planning: Monkeying Around with Extinction
“I am sorry to say that there is too much point to the wisecrack that life is extinct on other …
Gallipoli Dowsing: When Falling from a Great Height, Try Flapping Your Arms
“Thousands have lived without love, not one without water” – W. H. Auden World War I’s Gallipoli campaign pretty much …
Supercivilization and the Shoe Event Horizon
“We are at heart so profoundly anarchistic that the only form of state we can imagine living in is Utopian; …
First You Get the Money, Then You Get the Women, Then you Find Out it’s a Simulation
“Either we’re going to create simulations that are indistinguishable from reality or civilization will cease to exist, those are the …
Civilization is a Dish Best Served Cold: Polar Origin Theory
“Winter is not a season, it’s an occupation” – Sinclair Lewis Paleoanthropologists have long favored the hypothesis that the evolution …
Talking Heads: Automata and Artificial Intelligence
“The human being is a self-propelled automaton entirely under the control of external influences. Willful and predetermined though they appear, …
Gray is the New Black: Zoanthropy and the Apex Predator
“In prehistoric times, Homo sapiens were deeply endangered. Early humans were less fleet of foot, with fewer natural weapons and …
Anomalistics, Pure Philosophic Rule, and the Scientific Administration of Things
“People have moved beyond apathy, beyond skepticism into deep cynicism” – Elliot Richardson There is an unrecognized ontological crisis in …
Time Waits for No Air Marshal: Victor Goddard’s Unthinkable War
“When we see the shadow on our images, are we seeing the time 11 minutes ago on Mars? Or are …
Your Dimension Sucks: Surfing Alternate History
“Insanity is often the logic of an accurate mind overtasked” – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. The Sakarya River is the …
The Other Geneva Convention: Weather Modification as a Weapon of War
“A change in the weather is sufficient to recreate the world and ourselves” – Marcel Proust Humans are forever looking …
The Age of Doubt: Anomalies, Entertainment, and Wonder
“Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic …
Pay No Attention to the Alien behind the Curtain: X-Files and The Colony
“Conspiracy theorists of the world, believers in the hidden hands of the Rothschilds and the Masons and the Illuminati, we …
The Superstitious Pigeon: Magical Thinking, Skepticism, and Anomalistics
“Better to trust the man who is frequently in error than the one who is never in doubt” – Eric …
A Long Time Ago, In a Galaxy Way Too Far Away
“For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong” – H. L. Mencken Douglas Adams …
The Berkeley Mystery Walls: Scaling Impossibility
“Everything is theoretically impossible, until it is done” – Robert A. Heinlein In various abortive attempts at landscaping around the …
Something is Awry in Scythia: Ancient Defensive Earthworks in Kazakhstan
“The basis of optimism is sheer terror” – Oscar Wilde I’m not a “glass is half-empty” kind of guy. It’s …
The Digital Crowd: Making a Modern Monster?
“It is crowds that have furnished the torrents of blood requisite for the triumph of every belief” – Gustave Le …
Arrivederci, Earth: Space Fleets in Cygnus and the Forgotten Virtue of Being Quiet
“Intelligence may indeed be a benign influence creating isolated groups of philosopher-kings far apart in the heavens…On the other hand, …
EsoterX: Video Killed the Radio Fortean
Yesterday, I spent an hour and a half discussing strange phenomena, Forteana, and bizarre history with the esteemed Mr. Roejen …
There’s a Hole in the Bucket, Dear Plato
“But did Atlantis exist? It is humankind’s oldest island story, forever giving voice to an era’s insular ideal: perfect climate; …
Scapeghosting: Don’t Blame the Dead Guy
“The best way to avoid becoming a scapegoat is to find one” ― Warren Eyster It’s traditional, and no doubt …
The Problem with a Rude Singularity
“The problem is not simply that the Singularity represents the passing of humankind from center stage, but that it contradicts …
