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Science

The Long View: Is Mathematics Constitutional?

A recent popular [well, as popular as a massive book full of equations can be] exposition of mathematical Platonism is Roger Penrose's The Road to Reality. It even has practice problems in it with devoted communities of amateurs trading tips on how to solve them. Mathematical Platonism, or

The Long View 2005-03-18: Extinctions: Periodic & Deserved

As far as I know, nothing serious ever came out of Rohde and Muller's 2005 on cyclical extinctions, but I linked the image above to a copy of the original paper. I think is usually a mistake to look for alternative explanations for the Cretaceous extinction. Extinctions: Periodic

Linkfest 2017-06-09

* How the gearheads at Pixar made Cars 3 more realistic than you might think I love the movie Cars, and I am very excited about Cars 3, which looks less like a cashing-in on the initial success of the first movie sequel [you gotta pay for studios somehow] and more

The Long View: The Obvious Proof

I think there are better arguments for classical theism than the Argument from Design, but as eminent a philosopher as Antony Flew was eventually convinced by it. Philosophical atheism is a respectable position, but many of atheism's most vocal defenders are not actually espousing that position, but rather

The Long View: The Lucifer Principle

This is a rare book I read before John recommended it. I think this is a worthy summary. The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of History by Howard Bloom The Atlantic Monthly Press, 1995 466 pp., $24.00 ISBN 0-87113-532-9 If, like the present reviewer, you are

The Long View: Richard Feynman and Isaac Asimov on Spelling Reform

It is not just myself, John Reilly, and Emil Kirkegaard who talk about this. I will note that I'm a little dubious of the idea that orthographic reform will boost English reading ability dramatically. Richard Feynman and Isaac Asimov on Spelling Reform by John J. Reilly Note: This

The Long View: Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and Its Quarrels with Science

The kind of thing that John Reilly laments in this book review is alive and well. If you want a taste of it, check out New Real Peer Review on Twitter, which simply reprints abstracts of actual, peer-reviewed articles. A favorite genre is the autoethnography. Go look for yourself, no