Aside from the demise of the careers of so many famous people, and not simply famous, but extremely talented people who might have contributed widely and deeply to our lives and culture, Social Media has been a disaster for truth and fact-checking. Once truth is thrown out you have anarchy. Now its more important to be popular and cool than boringly correct. Well known, rather talented people have torpedoed their careers through making some dumb emotionally driven, ill conceived rant or comment on SM, which is sad because the internet, as they say, is forever, and if you apologize and say you screwed up, well, that just makes you look weak and the trolls smell blood and go in for the kill. Rather unfair. but its good for business.
culture and technology
More Notes on Story
In terms of navigating and understanding the world we live in, few things are more important than the idea of story. Through the mechanism of story we piece together what we perceive as reality in terms of cause and effect. We are therefore part of a bigger story. Story telling thus can give a supremely … Continue reading More Notes on Story
Notes for a 21st Century Artistic Manifesto
The Place of Literature.Art is the imitation of life by means of signs, symbols and plastic objects. Literature is the imitation of life using symbols and signs to tell stories. To understand what life means we use art as a skeleton key into what has always been the greatest of mysteries and challenges. Here in … Continue reading Notes for a 21st Century Artistic Manifesto
12 Rules For Writers
Writing is difficult, but its also something so basic to who we are as intelligent beings, that despite its difficulty, its something literally anyone and everyone can grasp. Art happens when the writer expresses something unique that emerges from the self and says something more than the contents and the tropes and methods learned from … Continue reading 12 Rules For Writers
A Tiny Jot on the Horizon
Aside from being a huge fan of the Alien franchise, over the last months I have started stargazing. Despite the endless rain we have in Kerry in South of Ireland, the night sky down here is mainly free of light pollution, that is when those clouds finally clear. Given a fairly clear night, an … Continue reading A Tiny Jot on the Horizon
Be My Frankenstein
Being a rather impressionable little boy, that is, when I was a little boy, I recall one of the most terrifying creatures of my childhood was Frankenstein, not Victor Frankenstein mind, but the Monster, or The Creature, also known as Adam, something I was reminded of by a friend. For now I am not talking … Continue reading Be My Frankenstein
A Miscavige of Justice
Or What in Heavens Name Happened to Louis Theroux's "My Scientology Movie"? As a decades long fan of just about everything Louis Theroux has ever put out on the BBC, I was completely thrilled to hear he was going to embark upon a documentary about a subject that had long fascinated and intrigued me: Scientology. … Continue reading A Miscavige of Justice
World Vegetarian Day 2015
Its an honour to speak on something this close to my heart. I am looking forward to it and to listen to these other very learned speakers. Its looking rather like an excellent day. Do drop by on Sunday 27th September St Andrews resource Centre 114-116 Pearse St. Dublin 2.
Karl Marx, Stephen Hawking, and the Rise of the Robots
One of the most common themes in Science Fiction movies, from Terminator flicks to the Cylons in Battlestar Galatica to the Matrix franchise, to the more thoughtful poetic philosophical Stanley Kubrickesque 2001, is the notion of the Earth being taken over by robots ( in the movie 2001, for a time the fate of the … Continue reading Karl Marx, Stephen Hawking, and the Rise of the Robots
No Belief Systems Remain Unharmed by These Blogs
I believe in blogging. I am often shocked what other bloggers endure in order to keep on blogging, in a forum wherein one supposedly can engage in some kind of free expression. The most obvious one is that of the Saudi Blogger Raif Badawi who was recently sentenced to 1000 lashes in Saudi Arabia for ‘cybercrime’ … Continue reading No Belief Systems Remain Unharmed by These Blogs
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