MEMBER MONDAY

The aim of this Member Monday experiment is the establishment of an engaging discussion forum. Articles are only catalyst -- the starting point. There is no end point. It's the interaction that counts -- a way for members (and guests) to relate beyond the "good-and-you?" stage.

And such is the ambition behind tomorrow's selection of the somewhat whimsical subject of "Goat Man." 

http://lithub.com/speaking-with-the-legendary-goat-man/

To paraphrase the title of the old Lance Armstrong book, It's Not About the Goat. The discussion will likely weave in and out of what it means to be human and maybe touch on the existential. 

Or maybe not. I look forward to providing some structure as facilitator but that's the nature of an organic discussion. At the very least you will have enjoyed a themed social lunch and learned a bit more about the other participants.

Read More

This Monday's discussion topic will center around the promise and perils surrounding Artificial Intelligence . . . while there is plenty of doom porn out there on any number of subjects this transhumanist Swedish philosopher posits sentient machines will prove to (eventually) represent a greater threat to humanity than climate change . . . . at the very least we will be treated to a fascinating thought experiment . . . be very careful of what we wish for as we assign and augment more and more of our human functions to the non-human sphere…

Read More

Charles Leadbeater | Aeon | 26th March 2015

If your memory fails, are you still the same person? Dementia “raises deeply troubling issues about our obligations to care for people whose identity might have changed in the most disturbing ways”. Everyone touched by the disease “goes through a crash-course in the philosophy of mind”. And morality too. What are your duties to somebody who doesn’t know who you are? “The person I’m dealing with, the person I’m yelling at, is a stranger. He looks like my husband, but Howard’s gone” (2,800 words)

Read More

Jonathan Rauch | Atlantic | 21st June 2016

Imagine the 2020 race after one “wretched” term of President Trump. Kanye West is the Democrats’ best hope, running against Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty for the GOP. “I could continue, but you get the gist”. This absurdist scenario “is a linear extrapolation of trends on vivid display right now.” Political parties are collapsing into chaos. “Trump, however, didn’t cause the chaos. The chaos caused Trump. What we are seeing is not a temporary spasm of chaos but a chaos syndrome” (8,300 words)

Read More

My own introduction to history in the public schools came in the first grade when we were to commemorate Thanksgiving with our own special drawing. I earned a gold star for my crayon depiction of the Pilgrims and Indians as they shared a feast at the community table.

My drawing somehow missed this English account of 1610 Jamestown: “Soldiers were sent out ‘to take revenge.’ They fell upon the Indian settlement, killed fifteen or sixteen Indians, burned the houses, cut down the corn growing around the village, took the queen of the tribe and her children into boats, then ended up throwing the children overboard ‘and shoteing owt their Braynes in the water.’ The queen was later taken off and stabbed to death.”

Read More