Thoughts and Thinkers
a history of western esoteric thought
This is the type of book I wish I had stumbled across many years ago. A guidebook to the history of the ideas of spirituality.
As a student of esoteric thought and spiritual development, I’m interested in the members of our species that have achieved a particular state of enlightened knowledge, a direct contact with wisdom. [...]
a serious look at the US $ being replaced as the global reserve currency
An interesting paper from and NBER Conference back in 2005,
Might the dollar eventually follow the precedent of the pound and cede its status as leading international reserve currency? Unlike the last time this question was prominently discussed, ten years ago, there now exists a credible competitor: the euro. This paper econometrically estimates determinants of the [...]
but I thought I was an exception…
When Dr. Laurence Peter was born in Vancouver, Canada during the year of 1919, the world was not prepared for his revolutionary doctrine. Today we suffer the consequences because few have heeded his warning, we all think we are the exception to his principle. I’m not talking about a prophet or spiritualist, I’m talking about [...]
machine motivations: elite college edition
The typical college student focuses on one of many set career paths instead of understanding that our human existence is a beautiful gift we can give to the world. As we’ve become disconnected from this understanding, university graduates have focused ever more on exterior metrics of success. Removing the internal motivation that results in byproducts [...]
hope for the future of the emotional psyche
Recently I am challenged to distill the most important aspects of my mind and persona, to detail what my assets are as a human being. At this turning point in my life and career I must ask what I can give to the world, for on this I can base a long successful career not [...]
the most important philosopher you’ve never read
Perhaps I was simply messed up as an early adolescent. While others around me sought speaker system upgrades for their cars or moments of numb bliss through substances, I was slowly building a small library of P.D. Ouspensky, G.I. Gurdjieff and Jiddu Krishnamurti. The rationale escapes me for why I decided to pull the trigger [...]
can information tell us what is real?
A new physical principle: Information Causality. In recent years physicists have discovered an entire class of theories that do the same kind of thing. The question is which one do we choose?
A few can be ruled out because they simplify various computational tasks in implausible ways. But the rest have seemed more or less equivalent. [...]
more evidence for the failure of civilization
From the American Association of Physical Anthropologists,
Civilization’s Cost: The Decline and Fall of Human Health
Ann Gibbons
Agriculture and cities made human life better, right? Wrong, say archaeologists who presented stunning new evidence at the American Association of Physical Anthropologists meeting.
Kuntsler tells it like it is
Jim Kunstler, author of a ton of great books on New Urbanism and weekly guest on the Kunstlercast, posted a writeup on his blog today that ended with a fantastic summary about how things have to change to stave off utter societal collapse. Read the whole post! But to summarize, I wanted to post his [...]
plant chemistries are chemical messages, man-made drugs are noise
It all began with a dream that Stephen Buhner had many years ago. As he was studying the the Usnea lichen for its healing properties for the lungs of humans, the lichen came to him in a dream and said that while it was good for healing the lungs of humanity it was primarily a [...]
