"AI is the elevator, thinking is taking the stairs."   Rhett Allain, Medium Nearly six years ago I posted Pandora Box Complex where I took exception to some modern Luddites. Kurt Vonnegut defines a Luddite as “a person who hates newfangled contraptions.” Vonnegut is...

 With the Fourth of July nearly upon us, it’s time to revisit my favorite American patriot, Tom Paine. Paine is and always has been my favorite American since I first read about him in high school. He was friends with another hero of mine, the English poet William...

 I’m going to propose a theory, without proof, about how the world works. My theory is based on my observations, feelings, and some deep and not so deep thinking. It’s also based on some ideas I’ve borrowed from other people, some whom I know and some whom I don’t.We...

 We must always tell what we see.  Above all, and this is more difficult, we must always see what we see. Charles Peguy Ignorance and apathy feed on each other. “Don’t worry about it, everything will be okay” is what you tell a child to soften the pain of loss. It is...

 The bourgeoisie has subjected the country to the rule of the towns. It has created enormous cities, has greatly increased the urban population as compared with the rural, and has thus rescued a considerable part of the population from the idiocy of rural life. Just...

 ‘What is now proved was once only imagin’d.’   William BlakeMadness is the result not of uncertainty but certainty.  Friedrich NietzscheMan stands face to face with the irrational.  He feels within him his longing for happiness and for reason.  The absurd is born of...

 [Danny Dravot is the central figure in The Man Who Would Be King based on the Rudyard Kipling story. He is initially successful, but his hubris and desire for power eventually lead to his downfall.] This is “probably not” Trump’s Danny Dravot moment. The MAGA...

 Short of genius a rich man cannot imagine poverty.  Charles PeguyMoney is like oxygen. You need it to survive in the modern world but too much or too little will kill you. Too little oxygen (hypoxemia) causes headache, difficulty breathing and rapid heart rate. Isn’t...

 Some sixty years ago I was invited to a competition sponsored by the Bank of America for pending high school graduates. We were directed to read The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster and to prepare for questions and discussions. The Machine Stops was published in 1909...

 Is it too late to stop Donald Trump from destroying America? The litany of executive orders, shut down of departments and agencies, firing of government employees, challenging of judges, elimination of funding for colleges, media, science and the arts is the result...

 I am so far quite unable to justify one of my central convictions: that, even if it were possible to make all men happy by an operation or a drug that would stultify their development, this would somehow be an impious crime. This conviction is ultimately rooted In...