Science of the Inconceivable
Imagine yourself on the south rim of the Grand Canyon and feel the natural power, pulsing through everything. The pulse is out there in the wind currents. The pulse is out there in the vast... Read More
The Human Future: Upgrade or Replacement?
A computer can be upgraded by adding memory, or a whizzier operating system—but eventually it’s time to just get a new computer. Is humanity’s fate similar? Ray Kurzweil (futurist author and Google’s director of engineering)... Read More
On Eating Animals
Some years ago in a Montana slaughterhouse, a Black Angus cow awaiting execution suddenly went berserk, jumped a five-foot fence, and escaped. She ran through the streets for hours, dodging cops, animal control officers, cars,... Read More
Not a Gentleman but a Scholar: Unsexing the Hallowed Halls of Academia
In “Love on Campus,” William Deresiewicz’s 2007 American Scholar piece, he made a fleeting yet apposite comment: in the popular media, professors—however moral or corrupt, sexually predatory or endearingly oversexed—are invariably male. He pointed to... Read More
Cheating Students: How Our Schools Fail the Humanistic Vision of Education
Students cheat in high school. In fact, a lot of high school students cheat routinely. A 2010 study conducted by the Josephson Institute of Ethics found that at least 59 percent of high school students... Read More
Rethinking Drug Policy Assumptions
The so-called war on drugs has lasted more than four decades and increasing numbers of people are convinced that it is not only unwinnable but also misguided. From foreign policy to domestic policy to drug... Read More
Prohibition & Humanism
"Pot’s Legal!" declared the Seattle Times in large print on November 7, 2012, while that same day the Denver Post ran the headline: “FIRED UP.” As two states have legalized the recreational use of marijuana,... Read More