The internet today brought me this Youtube clip, which shows old Bertie being interviewed in 1959 (and therefore at the age of 87) on a BBC show called “Face To Face“.
I quite like his advice for people a thousand years hence.
Tag: philosophy
Aside
Now that I have learned of it, I will be desperately searching for appropriate places to work the phrase “if-by-whiskey” or “if-by-whiskey fallacy” into my everyday communications. Also, the canonical example of it is pretty great. (And apparently old men in Mississippi don’t mind having a nip in the morning.)
He should have talked to Kubrick
I have just lost a couple of hours to a suicide note. And I barely dipped my toe in. Here’s the background on the young man who killed himself after spending a huge amount of time preparing a 1900+ page suicide note that works out a philosophical justification for suicide based on a kind of existential nihilism. But if the… Read more →
QOTD: Kubrick does philosophy
Here’s a quote from Stanley Kubrick, in a Playboy interview, that captures a number of ideas I’ve liked for a long time (there’s echoes of Russell, zen, and Lovecraft in there) in a lovely formulation: PLAYBOY: If life is so purposeless, do you feel that it’s worth living? KUBRICK : Yes, for those of us who manage somehow to cope… Read more →
The Artist’s Responsibility?
So, I took a quarter off from blogging. Yeah, that happened. Now back to it. To start back up, let’s look at something in the vein of pop philosophy–that way I can ease myself back into blogging with something that’s squarely in my wheelhouse. So, last night an artist posed this question “If you have the ability to depict humanity… Read more →
Singer / Dawkins
It’s not often a YouTube video grabs my attention for the better part of an hour, but this did. I did want them to be a little less polite at a couple of points, but still utterly compelling for me. Read more →
How Peter Singer destroyed me in a couple of paragraphs
I like to think of myself as a fairly philosophical person, and a fairly rational one–that is to say, I like to think that I examine my life, my motivations, my actions, and my beliefs on a more-or-less continuous basis, and try to integrate them into a framework that makes some kind of objective sense when considered in the light… Read more →
Aside
Aside
“My miracle is that when I feel hungry I eat, and when I feel thirsty I drink.” Yup, that’s a hell of a punchline.
Keeping The Noggin Limber
OpenCulture has some interesting (and free) philosophy stuff to listen to. I love this kind of stuff, and it transforms time in the car alone from a choreIt’s only really a chore if there’s traffic or if you’re driving a route you’ve driven millions of time before–if there’s anything novel about it you can always slip into the blue sky… Read more →
Aside
“Science is the outcome of being prepared to live without certainty and therefore a mark of maturity. It embraces doubt and loose ends.” That’s one of many entertaining quotes from AC Grayling‘s appearance in the Guardian’s “This much I know” series.
Spun Sugar, Time, and Perspective
My pal Gwenda has a discussion going over at her place about future desserts in fiction. I’m actually not that interested in future food, per se, but my interest was caught by a different statement of her about how she hates faux future shower technology. I don’t even disagree with that–I hate stuff that’s thrown in to give a patina… Read more →
Monday Night Miscellany
Like real-time strategy games? Like science fiction? How about a real-time strategy game where you (and your units) can time travel. Imagine sending future units back to fight alongside themselves against an enemy in the past… you thought keeping track of your units and tech tree was a headache, wait for the fourth dimension. Maybe before you get too interested… Read more →
Today’s Brilliant Quote
Spotted on Jonathan Carroll’s blog today: “The secret of life,” said sculptor Henry Moore to poet Donald Hall, “is to have a task, something you devote your entire life to, something you bring everything to, every minute of the day for your whole life. And the most important thing is—it must be something you cannot possibly do.” Yes, I quite… Read more →
Let Us Talk Of Webcomics: Part 1, Dresden Codak.
I read a fair number of comics–you know the old school printed kind that one buys at speciality stores these days (admittedly some of them can be purchased at the larger bookstores as well, particularly the Asian imports, but most of what I read is speciality shop only). The “direct market” has been in some trouble for a while now,… Read more →
