Irony, Postmodernism, and Our Current Age
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Loreen of Sweden, winner of this year's Eurovision. Photograph: Sergei Ilnitsky/EPA
I have had enough of irony | Suzanne Moore | Comment is free
A Timothy Leary for the Viral Video Age - Ross Andersen - Technology
Meet Jason Silva, the fast-talking, media-savvy "performance philosopher" who wants you to love the ecstatic future of your mind.
Jack Whelan: Can Humanism Prevail Over the Technocracy? - Living in Dialogue
Guest post by Jack Whelan. [W]hat is at issue here is evaluating the danger of what might happen to our humanity in the present half-century, and distinguishing between what we want to keep and what we are ready to lose, between what we can welcome as legitimate human development and what we should reject with our last ounce of strength as dehumanization. I cannot think that choices of this kind are unimportant. --Jacques Ellul
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Why Are Easy Decisions So Hard? | Wired Science
Our Age of Anxiety
By Elaine Showalter Jonathan Barkat for The Chronicle Review I n his controversial book American Nervousness: Its Causes and Consequences (1881), the neurologist George M. Beard proclaimed that Americans in the 19th century led all civilized nations in their susceptibility to nervous, anxious, and depressive disorders.
Some terrorist attacks become cultural obsessions, while others are forgotten completely. There were three bombings in New York City in 1975, none of which I’ve ever heard talked about, each of which would probably shut down the city if it happened now. In January, Puerto Rican separatists set off dynamite in Fraunces Tavern in downtown Manhattan, killing four businessmen—the same number of fatalities, incidentally, that led us to close the airspace over Boston last week. In April, four separate bombs went off in midtown Manhattan on one afternoon, damaging a diner and the offices of several finance firms.
Falling Men: On Don DeLillo and Terror, Chris Cumming
Imagine no heaven | Books
Dear little Six Billionth Living Person: As one of the newest members of a notoriously inquisitive species, it probably won't be too long before you start asking the two $64,000 questions with which the other 5,999,999,999 of us have been wrestling for some time: How did we get here?
A World Without Copyright - House Absolute(ly Pointless)
In discussions on Hacker News I’ve said several times that I think copyright should be abolished. Some people agree, but I often get a reply asking how I expect programmers, musicians, or authors to make a living in such a world. Before I address that question, I’ll take a brief digression.
Imagine you are offered a trustworthy opportunity for immortality in which your mind (perhaps also your body) will persist eternally.
Do You Really Want to Live Forever? - Reason.com
By Robert Skidelsky and Edward Skidelsky Imagine a world in which most people worked only 15 hours a week. They would be paid as much as, or even more than, they now are, because the fruits of their labor would be distributed more evenly across society.
In Praise of Leisure - The Chronicle Review
The 'Busy' Trap
Anxiety: We worry. A gallery of contributors count the ways.Editors' Note Appended