Category Archives: The Human Condition
Atheism in America, a view from 2001
I’ve been reading Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion, and in that book, he mentions an article by Natalie Angier, published in the New York Times in 2001. I’m not really going to comment on it much, but I do think it’s a valuable read. I’ll post a few choice quotes here.
Posted in The Human Condition Tagged atheism, Natalie Angiers, religion, Richard Dawkins Comments closed
Facebook will melt your brain
A British neuroscientist, whose work I’ve written about before, was the subject of an article in the Guardian yesterday. In it, Lady Susan Greenfield, a professor of synaptic pharmacology a Lincoln college, Oxford, tells us that the fast-paced, instant gratification world of social networking is probably changing the way a generation of networked children’s minds work.
If [...]
Also posted in Social Networking Tagged brain, empathy, Facebook, Guardian, Social Networking, Susan Greenfield Comments closed
An impatient world
The New York Times gives us this morsel today, from writers Matt Richtel and Ashlee Vance:
There is nothing new about frustration with start-up times, which can be many minutes. But the agitation seems more intense than in the pre-Internet days. Back then, people felt less urgency to log on to their solitary, unconnected machines. Now [...]
Obama will appoint tech officer to cabinet if elected
Business Week reported on Oct. 19 that, if elected, Barack Obama will likely appoint the first Cabinet-level chief technology officer because he feels the country “is not doing nearly enough to create jobs through technology.” The CTO’s job would be to expand broadband service to even more parts of the U.S., especially rural areas into [...]
Also posted in Internet News Tagged cabinet, election, government, Obama, technology Comments closed
Michael Becker has been blogging about academia, digital culture and journalism since 2005. He is the Web editor of the
“Fail” gets the NYT treatment