PinnedHEXITA year down the line, it was obvious to Vance that the negotiations were going nowhere. It had been a mildly reassuring discovery that when frustrated, the outworld delegation took refuge in alcohol as easily as humans did. At the bar nearest to the conference centre, he and ǂXʘn, his…Brexit9 min readBrexit9 min read
Jan 28, 2021Bread, Cheese & The Hard Problem of ConsciousnessPhilosophers are sometimes seen as superior minds with deep insights that transcend those of ordinary mortals like you and me. Chalmers’ “Hard Problem” of consciousness highlights how silly this idea is. I here show how the so-called hard problem is based on a simple misapprehension. To understand feelings of ‘self’…Consciousness19 min readConsciousness19 min read
Jan 8, 2021Ethical ethicalsHave you come across the word ‘ethicals’ before? In some dictionaries, it’s merely listed as the plural of the word ‘ethical’, but the word has long been used to signify “prescription-only medicines”. I was once struck by the term “ethical ethicals”, which has a certain ring to it. I used…Ethics8 min readEthics8 min read
Dec 19, 2020Zombies of the Fourth CircleIt’s a little-known fact that those trapped in the Sixth Circle of Hell — heretics like Epicurus and me, who assert that the soul dies with the body— can take short holidays to the Fourth Circle, to make our subsequent confinement on Level 6 even more terrible, and allow the…Linux11 min readLinux11 min read
Dec 12, 2020COVID-19 Vaccines : Back to normal?Where we are with current vaccines? How do they work, and what do we know about their strengths and weaknesses? Who cares? Aren’t we saturated with news about bloody COVID-19? Why should we care? I care. Getting the vaccines right is important. Yet in among all of the data about…Coronavirus11 min readCoronavirus11 min read
Dec 6, 2020The finer points of chicken-bitingCan you recall the smell and feel and dimensions of news from yesteryear? News written on paper. Actual newspapers? Can you recall how thin the December papers were, especially just after Christmas? Alas, no more. Modern news is different. There is an inexhaustible supply. Or so it seems. Have you…Cats6 min readCats6 min read
