The problem with freedom of belief is that scientists now think they have the answer. Theories are now given the status of truth. So subjugation by the church has been replaced by subjugation by science and ideology.  

One superstition is replaced by another. As a result, the battle to promote beliefs in education is intense.

But the flag I want to wave is emblazoned with freedom. So let's see where that takes us in regard to education.

My starting point is that the emerging 21st Century enlightenment must help us all move away from superstitious dependence on ideologies and theories. (Of course, they must not be rejected because of their misuse by many, anymore than the Church should be rejected because of its misuse by many.)

I look to an era of freedom of thought and, at a personal level, I suspect that this cannot be separated from freedom of belief. We think and think and think, and then we come to believe. Strangely, More...

Perhaps creativity and intelligence exist in different universes. Although I have had kind words to say about AGI (Artificial General Intelligence), I sometimes despair.  A new free online service, LifeNaut, allows you to build "mindfiles" to preserve your essential unique qualities.  By this, they mean your videos, photos, documents, maps of your trips.  Can anyone really think that this is their "mind"?  Your exact physical location when reading this blog is unique, totally and absolutely—but does it capture your uniqueness?  This outfit has created a robot that acquires new experiences and knowledge by interacting with videocams and voice-recognition software. Frankly, I feel embarrassed on behalf of humanity.

The crucial issue for these AGI researchers and their brilliant leader, Ray Kurzweil, seems to lie in their perception of More...

Most of my life I've been trying to create a better world.  Ever since I was a deluded young idealist.

All my friends grew up into intelligent successful adults.  But somewhere along the road my brain missed the turn-off to maturity.  So I'm sort of stuck.  Still trying to make the world better.  I should have joined Idealists Anonymous long ago.

To my credit, I do believe I've helped a few people along the way.  And I do know that More...

Long, long ago in a universe far, far away, I was inserting electrodes into the brains of live cats to look at single neurons in the thalamus responding to visual stimuli.  I wondered about 'seeing' in the way this cat was doing, and 'seeing' in the sense of appreciating a situation or issue.  The cat was anesthetized and paralyzed, so not doing too much of the latter.

Fast forward decades and this difference, so typical of being human, was eventually published on the website as the two realities we live in: psychosocial reality and empirical reality.  One is about the sun rising in the east and setting in the west, and has nothing to do with what we want or choose.  And then there is another «Reality» which is constructed out of our choices. 

How exactly do these utterly different human realities More...

When the mood of society is bleak, as it is now, Hollywood produces films mirroring that mood.  Hence the seemingly endless flow of black films: zombie and vampire films, horror films, films ending on a note of bleakness, and TV series characterized by fear, distrust, suffering, betrayal and the abuse of power.

There must be something wrong with me because when things are bleak, I prefer to be cheered up. I like to watch films in which good triumphs over evil.  What benefit do I get from a diet of films proving the futility of rationality and common human decency? 

So I've turned in recent months to Jacques Offenbach and been indulging in his operas: taking More...