Is it safe to say that conflict is the main source of human misery? It seems to be a major cause. Human relationships are rife with conflict. We disagree about virtually everything. One question over which we often disagree is who gets what. In general, we always disagree over how to best use our finite time and resources. The disciplines of political science, business management, and economics ... [Read More]

It’s all too much. The world. The people. The noise. The chaos. The complexity. Can it be measured? This overwhelming scale? We know many facts, at least approximately: the area of the Earth’s surface; the number of humans; the biomass of wild versus domesticated animals; the energy expenditure of human activity; the dollar value of (legal) global transactions; the logistical quantities (in mass ... [Read More]

It has always been my dream to design a city. Mostly for entertainment. But also an an exercise, and possibly for real. I was first inspired by Dungeons and Dragons. I was twelve, I think. Although the eponymous dungeons of D&D were fascinating, but somehow unsatisfactory. This is true about many “dungeon” environments for games (especially video games). They are all absurd follies. Who would bui... [Read More]

I’ve been creatively stuck for over a year. I had been running on fumes for years before. I have never been diagnosed with clinical depression. But I have regularly suffering long bouts of anxiety and general low mood, which I consider a form of chronic discouragement. All such things exist on a spectrum. Without being able to confidently identify a faulty mechanism in the nervous system, all suc... [Read More]

I have an uncommon perspective on global warming. It is motivated by a consideration of long-term planetary processes—both geological and biological. I hope it is consistent with current scientific understanding. But I have never examined it scientifically. Consider the solar system. A collection of astronomical bodies coalesced from interstellar gas, itself the remains of one or more supernovae ... [Read More]

I’m not talking about a literal game. I’m talking about literal life. It’s absurd to talk about “life”. Or, as Marvin the android said, “Life? Don’t talk to me about life!” But we do. We can try to talk about life, but it’s like talking about anything, except “life” is not just “anything”; it’s virtually “everything”. Whatever you talk about, it’s as much talking about talking and words as it is... [Read More]

More things. More precisely made. Sometimes. From factories, instead of hands. Things from moulds. The more manufactured stuff we buy and own, the more manufactured we are. Am I more than my purchase history? If we didn’t have factories and factory-made products, we would all be living simpler, more precarious lives. We’d all be doing a lot more hard physical labour, without the machines. There’... [Read More]

In a war of all against all, the outcome is effectively random. I’m haunted by Margaret Thatcher’s assertion: “there is no such thing as society.” I believe that she was mistaken. Except that in some ways, she was right. What did she mean by “society”? What does anyone mean? Does it matter? Society is an idea meant to help us understand the world. It is a model: an approximation—a simplificatio... [Read More]

I don’t usually try to make bold, blunt, philosophical assertions. But I thought that today I would stick my neck out, and accept whatever shame and embarrassment it earns me. I am an empiricist. I privilege observations of physical phenomena over all other means of knowing. I am a mathematical empiricist. I believe—supported by ubiquitous observational evidence—that the universe follows mathemat... [Read More]

Desire breeds conflict. Desire creates scarcity. Scarcity creates conflict. Conflict creates misery. Freedom from misery implies freedom from desire. To eliminate desire, we would have to eliminate organic life. Life is desire. Or at least consciousness: the awareness of pain. We don’t want to eradicate life. And most of us cannot imagine a life free of desire. So we must endure suffering. In ... [Read More]