The Laughter of the Lamas
They say the laughter of the lamas results from relaxing into an acceptance that nothing lasts and that in fact there is nothing but change.
Science & Nature
Maybe Consciousness Is Not That Hard
Remember Abraham Maslow’s pyramid, a hierarchy of human needs that put the basics of survival at the wide bottom, then slanted up to intellectual creativity and spirituality? We wanted to locate consciousness up there at the peak. Antonio Damasio finds it at the foundation.
Artificial Intimacy
“He trusts a bot with no experience of emotions because it doesn’t care,” she notes. “It’s a redefinition of truth, in which it can only come from a lack of human experience."
Even Our Corn Is Sweating
I had never even heard of corn sweat. But God do I feel it.
Once Every Seventeen Years
The game here took place on several dimensions. It was, on one hand, a game with time—in the right place at the right moment—and on the other, with fish and bugs, in that moment. Once every seventeen years, maybe this might happen. But it has also become a game with memory, and with writing—and now, with technology.
Seeds Hear the Rain Sing
How a seedling can hear the rain fall, and how the sound soothes away our stress.
How Vines and Stories Intertwine
Who knew reading and gardening had such overlap?
How AI Manages to Sound So Wise
I ask chatbots for recipes and gardening advice. Bash Ahmed, a brilliant friend who works in IT, has long exploratory discussions about politics, culture, and finance. When he commented—after the president’s message to “Open the fuckin’ strait, you crazy bastards—Praise be to Allah”—that we were living in Dr. Strangelove,…
Thinking Outside the Box
Geometry needs to be part of the zeitgeist.
The Colonoscopy as Tempo of Mortality
Five years. That allotment sounds like a breather, but in fact is not. The plastic jug of GaviLyte is the bell that tolls for me, and also perhaps for thee.