The Busyness of Modern Life project
Forgive me if I've referenced this before, but I find this new Wellcome Collection project too interesting: The urge to be busy defines modern life. Rest can seem
Einstein and everyday thinking
There’s a famous quote by Albert Einstein that “The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.” I’d heard it a number of times,
Riki Kuklick, contemplative computing, and the challenge of real life
A few weeks ago I spoke a memorial service for one of my thesis advisors, Riki Kuklick. While I was at Penn I also gave a couple other
“As we go about our lives using our mysterious technologies, what kinds of people are we enabling them to make up?”
Deanna Day, a grad student at my alma mater, wrote a nice little piece on "Harry Potter, Wizards, and How We Let Technology Create Who We Are." It
“What is there in this that is unbearable and beyond endurance?”
Jessica Francis Kane, writing in The Atlantic, talks about a Marcus Aurelius quotation that she took to heart: Book 8, #36 Do not disturb yourself by picturing your
Remembering Riki Kuklick
Yesterday I found out that one of my mentors from college and graduate school, Henrika Kuklick, died. Riki was one of the professors who got me hooked on
On Gingrich’s use of historical analogy: Was his failure to get on the VA ballot Pearl Harbor, Pickett’s Charge, or 9/11?
Conor: Everything must be made into a sweeping analogy. And his instinct for grandiosity is so pronounced that only a small group of recurring subjects are fit for
Has anyone written a history of the idea of “real time”?
Has anyone written an article on the term "real time"-- where it comes from, how it's been used in the last few decades, and what it means today?
Remembering Theodore Roszak
Theodore Roszak, author of Making of a Counter Culture and The Longevity Revolution-- and another two dozen books, more or less-- has died. I interviewed Roszak a few
Another book giveaway
In the course of reorganizing my home office (I'm starting serious work on my next book, on contemplative computing), I've made another cull of my book collection. Like