The Monty Hall Problem
Region: New York
The Monty Hall Problem illustrates an unusual phenomenon of changing probabilities based upon someone else’s knowledge. On the game-show Let’s Make a Deal the host, Monty Hall, asks the contestant to choose o... more
Views: 2752The False Criticism of Artificial Intelligence
Region: New York
One of the major criticisms leveled against artificial intelligence is that computers will never be intelligent because our intelligence is based upon our physical interactions in and with the world. This means our i... more
Views: 3379Greed Revisited
Region: United States
More and more it appears as if 2008 might become The Year The Truth Began To Be Spoken -- particularly in these United States. That’s sure to be a welcome transformational experience for a culture long steeped in smi... more
Views: 1800The Coming Years
Region: United StatesThings just may begin to appear as if we human beings are bent on a sort of mass suicide. Yet given the chance, there’s another way to voyage through prospective hard times ahead sans the adjective, grim, being highl... more
Views: 1471Monopolyland: the Fragile Virtual World of Big Business
Region: New MexicoIt’s one thing to suggest that Corporate True Believers are disinclined to live in the real world with the rest of us -- but quite another to get such folks to at long last admit that everyone, but everyone, around t... more
Views: 1217Consciousness Dilemma
Region: New YorkThe publishing of Dan Dennett’s Ted Talk “Can We Know Our Own Minds” has reminded me of a problem I had with the study of consciousness: A solution to consciousness cannot be written down or said. ... more
Views: 1537On Absolute Certainty
Region: New YorkIt seems to be the general opinion that absolute certainty is not something that we humans can hope for; that the best we can attain is a highly established near irrefutability. A doubt will always remain. I woul... more
Views: 2099On The Scientific View of the World
Region: New YorkMany people today have a “scientific” view of the world. This means that the world operates according to the laws of science, i.e., there are no mysterious forces that cannot be explained by some combination of... more
Views: 1977The Spitzer Affair: A NY Libertarian Perspective
Region: United States
Yesterday, the NY Times broke the story of New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer's involvement with an expensive prostitution ring. See the article in today's edition. A few days earlier, the NY Times had reported o... more
Views: 3015American Misanthropes
Region: New MexicoWe can now give “campus rampage” killers and their lot a name: American Misanthropes. What’s unexpectedly unsettling about them is coming to realize (a) we created them, out of a toxic pot of existentiali... more
Views: 3221
