July 3, 2008
July 2, 2008
Who You Callin' Undignified?
From "The Stupidity of Dignity" by Steven Pinker:
[Leon] Kass has a problem not just with longevity and health but with the modern conception of freedom. There is a "mortal danger," he writes, in the notion "that a person has a right over his body, a right that allows him to do whatever he wants to do with it." He is troubled by cosmetic surgery, by gender reassignment, and by women who postpone motherhood or choose to remain single in their twenties. Sometimes his fixation on dignity takes him right off the deep end:
"Worst of all from this point of view are those more uncivilized forms of eating, like licking an ice cream cone--a catlike activity that has been made acceptable in informal America but that still offends those who know eating in public is offensive. ... Eating on the street--even when undertaken, say, because one is between appointments and has no other time to eat--displays [a] lack of self-control: It beckons enslavement to the belly. ... Lacking utensils for cutting and lifting to mouth, he will often be seen using his teeth for tearing off chewable portions, just like any animal. ... This doglike feeding, if one must engage in it, ought to be kept from public view, where, even if we feel no shame, others are compelled to witness our shameful behavior."
On you, maybe.
June 10, 2008
June 7, 2008
Alzheimer's Is Scarier than Determinism
That the mind is a product of the brain and a slave to the body is one of the great existential tragedies. I can see why it has driven many to Buddhism, buddha, or both. It is unsettling, to say the least, to confront the reality that our thoughts are inevitably constrained by our genes and experiences.
Ironically, we are wired for dualism -- the grand delusion. The fact is that just as we can only be so tall, we can only be so smart, so funny, so open-minded, so laid back, and so forth. We are only free within the confines of our identities.
This fact alone is perhaps not so tragic -- no more so, at least, than not being able to choose one's parents. Under normal circumstances, it does not assert itself. (Psychological maturation, for instance, occurs under the radar; we don't grow up overnight.) The real tragedy is when it does. Depression strikes. Dementia sets in. We cannot help but rail against what we perceive our bodies to be doing to ourselves. Is there a worse form of torture?
Who we are is what we are, and what we are is biological. We are the meat of our makers, but perhaps one day we will have the technology to live in defiance of this fact. I'd settle for being a brain-in-a-vat, but I'd rather be a mind in a machine.
Ironically, we are wired for dualism -- the grand delusion. The fact is that just as we can only be so tall, we can only be so smart, so funny, so open-minded, so laid back, and so forth. We are only free within the confines of our identities.
This fact alone is perhaps not so tragic -- no more so, at least, than not being able to choose one's parents. Under normal circumstances, it does not assert itself. (Psychological maturation, for instance, occurs under the radar; we don't grow up overnight.) The real tragedy is when it does. Depression strikes. Dementia sets in. We cannot help but rail against what we perceive our bodies to be doing to ourselves. Is there a worse form of torture?
Who we are is what we are, and what we are is biological. We are the meat of our makers, but perhaps one day we will have the technology to live in defiance of this fact. I'd settle for being a brain-in-a-vat, but I'd rather be a mind in a machine.
June 5, 2008
June 1, 2008
May 29, 2008
"We're Not Scaremongering - This Is Really Happening"
I wrote my substantial paper (law school graduation requirement) on why the U.S. government should aggressively support technological advancement to combat climate change. Short answer: market failures; political viability; paving the way for a carbon tax or cap-and-trade policy. Climate change is one of those things (unlike, say, nuclear power) about which the more you know, the more scared you should be. Here are excerpts from the beginning and the end of my paper (footnotes omitted, links added):
Climate change is a monumental and dire challenge, arguably the greatest collective action problem that humanity has ever faced. Although there is no consensus on exactly what we must do to “achieve... stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system,” it is unambiguous that greenhouse gas emissions must be stabilized in the medium term and then eventually eliminated. The consequences of business as usual range from severe to catastrophic. If nothing is done to address climate change, climate models predict a rise in average global temperature by two to three degrees Celsius within the next half-century or so, some of which is already underway due to the climate system’s inherently delayed responsiveness. Such an increase would gravely impact the quality of life across the globe, particularly in low-lying coastal areas that are vulnerable to rising sea levels and poor regions that lack the resources to adequately adapt to climatic threats.
The following are some of the more salient and likely effects of global warming. Sea levels will rise due to the melting of glaciers and the expanding volume of water as it warms. This will increase the risk of flooding and permanently displace millions of people, as well as accelerate the rate of warming due to the substantially lower albedo of water compared to ice. The water cycle will intensify because the air’s capacity to hold water increases exponentially with temperature. This will exacerbate the rainy and dry seasons, resulting in more floods and droughts, wreaking havoc on crop yields and water supplies. The oceans will acidify as a direct result of rising carbon dioxide levels, which will have drastic effects on marine ecosystems such as coral reefs and already imperiled fish populations. Terrestrial ecosystems will be disturbed as well, causing the extinction of some 15 to 40 percent of all species, from polar bears to undiscovered Amazonian insects. Storms will pose a more serious and less predictable threat: sudden shifts in regional weather patterns, such as the monsoons and El Niño, will become more frequent, and the intensity of tropical cyclones will increase. Permafrost will melt, releasing methane into the atmosphere and forcing people to abandon their homes. Warmer temperatures will extend the range of tropical, vector-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue fever. In warm regions, there will be more cases of heat-related illness and death, and the cold will claim more victims in its domain. In addition to these impacts, there are irreversible and catastrophic risks such as the collapse of one or both ice sheets and the disruption of North Atlantic thermohaline circulation. And these are just the physical consequences. The social and political consequences are also staggering. For countries that can afford to, adaptive responses such as the erection of sea walls and the digging of dikes will divert substantial funds from other productive uses. And when adaptation is impossible or fails, the human costs will be immense. Illness, malnutrition, death, and displacement will take their toll on governments and organizations across the world. Refugees and other desperate people will create conflict and threaten governmental and regional stability. Some governments will respond with repressive measures, risking further escalation.
...
Anthropogenic climate change is upon us, proceeding on a geological scale but in the blink of a geological eye. If the world waits until disaster strikes to marshal its ingenuity, more calamity will inexorably follow. As the world’s largest economy and emitter of greenhouse gases, the United States should be at the vanguard of an international effort to forestall a global tragedy of the commons; instead we are doing tragically little. We can begin to take our place by aggressively supporting the development of the technologies that will be necessary for clean development across the globe. This is a politically realistic approach that will prepare our economy and our mentality for the strict decarbonization that must soon commence. Otherwise, Elizabeth Kolbert’s warning will be a prophecy: “It may seem impossible to imagine that a technologically advanced society could choose, in essence, to destroy itself, but that is what we are now in the process of doing.”
Climate change is a monumental and dire challenge, arguably the greatest collective action problem that humanity has ever faced. Although there is no consensus on exactly what we must do to “achieve... stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system,” it is unambiguous that greenhouse gas emissions must be stabilized in the medium term and then eventually eliminated. The consequences of business as usual range from severe to catastrophic. If nothing is done to address climate change, climate models predict a rise in average global temperature by two to three degrees Celsius within the next half-century or so, some of which is already underway due to the climate system’s inherently delayed responsiveness. Such an increase would gravely impact the quality of life across the globe, particularly in low-lying coastal areas that are vulnerable to rising sea levels and poor regions that lack the resources to adequately adapt to climatic threats.
The following are some of the more salient and likely effects of global warming. Sea levels will rise due to the melting of glaciers and the expanding volume of water as it warms. This will increase the risk of flooding and permanently displace millions of people, as well as accelerate the rate of warming due to the substantially lower albedo of water compared to ice. The water cycle will intensify because the air’s capacity to hold water increases exponentially with temperature. This will exacerbate the rainy and dry seasons, resulting in more floods and droughts, wreaking havoc on crop yields and water supplies. The oceans will acidify as a direct result of rising carbon dioxide levels, which will have drastic effects on marine ecosystems such as coral reefs and already imperiled fish populations. Terrestrial ecosystems will be disturbed as well, causing the extinction of some 15 to 40 percent of all species, from polar bears to undiscovered Amazonian insects. Storms will pose a more serious and less predictable threat: sudden shifts in regional weather patterns, such as the monsoons and El Niño, will become more frequent, and the intensity of tropical cyclones will increase. Permafrost will melt, releasing methane into the atmosphere and forcing people to abandon their homes. Warmer temperatures will extend the range of tropical, vector-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue fever. In warm regions, there will be more cases of heat-related illness and death, and the cold will claim more victims in its domain. In addition to these impacts, there are irreversible and catastrophic risks such as the collapse of one or both ice sheets and the disruption of North Atlantic thermohaline circulation. And these are just the physical consequences. The social and political consequences are also staggering. For countries that can afford to, adaptive responses such as the erection of sea walls and the digging of dikes will divert substantial funds from other productive uses. And when adaptation is impossible or fails, the human costs will be immense. Illness, malnutrition, death, and displacement will take their toll on governments and organizations across the world. Refugees and other desperate people will create conflict and threaten governmental and regional stability. Some governments will respond with repressive measures, risking further escalation.
...
Anthropogenic climate change is upon us, proceeding on a geological scale but in the blink of a geological eye. If the world waits until disaster strikes to marshal its ingenuity, more calamity will inexorably follow. As the world’s largest economy and emitter of greenhouse gases, the United States should be at the vanguard of an international effort to forestall a global tragedy of the commons; instead we are doing tragically little. We can begin to take our place by aggressively supporting the development of the technologies that will be necessary for clean development across the globe. This is a politically realistic approach that will prepare our economy and our mentality for the strict decarbonization that must soon commence. Otherwise, Elizabeth Kolbert’s warning will be a prophecy: “It may seem impossible to imagine that a technologically advanced society could choose, in essence, to destroy itself, but that is what we are now in the process of doing.”
May 20, 2008
May 14, 2008
May 10, 2008
Party of Reagan, My Ass
May 9, 2008
"Never Tell Me the Odds!"
Hillary Clinton is pro-war and pro-family!
What can you expect of a campaign that can't tell death throes from saving throws?
What can you expect of a campaign that can't tell death throes from saving throws?
May 8, 2008
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