Image from “I, Robot”, 2004, 20th Century Fox “I’m a robot, and you’re a robot, but that doesn’t make us any less dignified or wonderful or lovable or responsible for our actions. Why does our dignity depend on our being scientifically inexplicable?”  – Daniel Dennett Why is it that people continually point at the inexplicable, the undefinable and the unprovable when talking about the incredible uniqueness...

  It would seem that those among us human beings who are lucky enough to travel to space, and are able to view the earth from high above the atmosphere, return to us with a profoundly different and new perspective of their home, and the implications of this new view of the world are far from trivial. From that distance, and floating peacefully around the planet, the mind wanders into an almost meditative state, one where the human...

  On Saturday just gone, I had the pleasure of being invited once again onto Jake Farr-Wharton’s podcast, The Imaginary Friends Show Podcast. We were joined by regular guest Pete Darwin, and over the hour we discussed topics including claims that Big-Bang cosmology is consistent with biblical scriptures, miniature aliens, a boycott of Israel by Stephen Hawking, and that crazy country known as Bangladesh, among other things. So grab a...

  We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality. ~ Seneca I have been known in my time to seek out activities that scare me. From high-wall rock climbing to skydiving, the fear that I have felt in these situations is apparent and real, and the threat of death hangs over one’s shoulder like a constant reminder of mortality when taking part in these activities. It is real, it is...

  Historically, humanity has had a very slim understanding of its position in the universe. Ideas and thoughts were limited mostly to the immediately observable, and the ways we used to explain things was confined to this observable universe. A consequence of this limited understanding was a propensity to explain away things and situations in the most convenient way available, and often by the use of “agency”, or...