Humans Thinking
Preserving human cognition in the age of automated intellect.
Newton said gravity was a force. Einstein said it was a shape. Once you understand what the field equations are actually saying, you can't quite look at the world the same way.
Newton said gravity was a force. Einstein said it was a shape. Once you understand what the field equations are actually saying, you can't quite look at the world the same way.
The equation works perfectly, nobody agrees on what it means. That tension, between the math and the interpretation, is where quantum mechanics gets genuinely strange.
The equation works perfectly, nobody agrees on what it means. That tension, between the math and the interpretation, is where quantum mechanics gets genuinely strange.
Fire electrons one at a time through two slits. They still produce an interference pattern, as if each electron went through both slits simultaneously. This result has never been satisfactorily explained. It's just true.
Fire electrons one at a time through two slits. They still produce an interference pattern, as if each electron went through both slits simultaneously. This result has never been satisfactorily explained. It's just true.
Before GPS, before compasses were common, people crossed oceans by watching the sky. The principles are simpler than you'd think, and knowing them changes how you look at the night.
Before GPS, before compasses were common, people crossed oceans by watching the sky. The principles are simpler than you'd think, and knowing them changes how you look at the night.
The answer is switch. Almost everyone's first instinct is wrong. Here are three ways to see why the math is right and the intuition isn't.
The answer is switch. Almost everyone's first instinct is wrong. Here are three ways to see why the math is right and the intuition isn't.
Indigenous farmers in North America figured out something that took Western agriculture centuries to rediscover: some plants do better together than apart. The Three Sisters is the most elegant example.
Indigenous farmers in North America figured out something that took Western agriculture centuries to rediscover: some plants do better together than apart. The Three Sisters is the most elegant example.
Every other law of physics works equally well run forward or backward. The second law doesn't. That asymmetry is why time has a direction, and why it's one of the deepest unsolved problems in physics.
Every other law of physics works equally well run forward or backward. The second law doesn't. That asymmetry is why time has a direction, and why it's one of the deepest unsolved problems in physics.
Prisoners in a cave mistake shadows for reality. It's a metaphor, but it's also a serious epistemological argument, one that still doesn't have a clean answer.
Prisoners in a cave mistake shadows for reality. It's a metaphor, but it's also a serious epistemological argument, one that still doesn't have a clean answer.
Most people know the Stoics for their ethics. Fewer know they had a complete physics, a theory of matter, causation, and cosmic order that anticipated some ideas we now take for granted.
Most people know the Stoics for their ethics. Fewer know they had a complete physics, a theory of matter, causation, and cosmic order that anticipated some ideas we now take for granted.
You didn't choose your genes, your upbringing, your first thoughts this morning, or the neural events that produced this sentence. The case against free will is strong. The practical implications are more complicated.
You didn't choose your genes, your upbringing, your first thoughts this morning, or the neural events that produced this sentence. The case against free will is strong. The practical implications are more complicated.
The problem of evil is the strongest argument against classical theism. The responses to it, theodicy, are some of the most interesting thinking in the history of philosophy.
The problem of evil is the strongest argument against classical theism. The responses to it, theodicy, are some of the most interesting thinking in the history of philosophy.
The historical Jesus question is one of the most contested in scholarship. Here's what the mainstream consensus actually says, which is more interesting than either believers or skeptics usually acknowledge.
The historical Jesus question is one of the most contested in scholarship. Here's what the mainstream consensus actually says, which is more interesting than either believers or skeptics usually acknowledge.
Maimonides, Pseudo-Dionysius, Meister Eckhart, a long tradition of theologians argued that positive statements about God are all, in some sense, false. The only honest theology is one that says what God is not.
Maimonides, Pseudo-Dionysius, Meister Eckhart, a long tradition of theologians argued that positive statements about God are all, in some sense, false. The only honest theology is one that says what God is not.