DAVID BRIN looks at science and technology

why are we so enigmatic?

Brin's article, "Neoteny and Two-Way Sexual Selection in Human Evolution," (J. Social and Evolutionary Systems 18(3) 1996), speculates why we turned out so strange compared to other species. Other scientific papers that appeared in peer-reviewed scientific journals, on topics ranging from astrophysics to anthropology to psychology, philanthropy and dispute resolution, can be found on David Brin's bio page.

from brain imaging to parasitic infections

How reading makes you smart: The brain, it seems, does not make much of a distinction between reading about an experience and encountering it in real life; in each case, the same neurological regions are stimulated. Reading produces a vivid simulation of reality, one that runs on the minds of readers just as computer simulations run on computers.

Also: How your cat makes you crazy.

so why is there a war on expertise?

The schism over global climate change (GCC) has become an intellectual chasm, across which everyone perceives the other side as Koolaid-drinkers. Right now all the anecdotes and politics-drenched "questions" flying now aren't shedding light. They are, in fact, quite beside the point. That is because science itself is the main issue: its relevance and utility as a decision-making tool.

can we 'lift' earth?

In this video Brin asks: Shall we lift our planet? As the sun grows gradually hotter across the next 100 million years (unrelated to our current climate change problems), Earth will grow uninhabitable. Brin shows why current concepts for how to shift our world to a cooler orbit are "just plain crazy." But there is another way! One that may be just crazy-clever enough that it just might work — if we take a really long view of our responsibility to take care of our nursery world. (If you'd like to read more about it, see this blog post.)

ocean fertilization & other big-problem solutions

After a lifetime studying societies spanning 6000 years and five continents, Arnold Toynbee wrote that the one common thread determining success or failure appeared to be whether both leaders and the people chose stodgy obstinacy or agile flexibility whenever challenges loomed. And especially whether they gave support, invested resources, and enthusiastically backed-up their creative minorities. And hence, this time we'll peruse a potpourri of science marvels showing that agility and scientific creativity have not become endangered species.

is 1984 a cautionary tale?

George Orwell’s 1984 is often cited as a warning against science and technology... a terrible misinterpretation! While Oceania’s tyrants gladly use certain technological tools to reinforce their grip on power, their order stifles every human ingredient needed for science and free enquiry, creating a society that eats its seed corn and beats plowshares into useless statues.

scientists give the best advice!

Nothing could better indicate the turn in our national fortunes than to see science no longer dismissed as a realm of pointy-headed boffins, but viewed as part and parcel of our nation's future. If we want a resilent government and responsive politicians, perhaps it's time we restore independent science advisory agencies.

let's uplift ourselves first!

Will bitter ideological rifts dominate the 21st Century, as they did the 20th? Or might we shrug off some of the obsolete intellectual baggage we've inherited from past thinkers who (in fact) knew much less than we do now? David Brin's questionnaire regarding ideology and human destiny pokes at the deeper assumptions that underlie the many assumptions we take for granted.

a new barnstorming age?

Fortunately, the politicians seem perfectly ready to welcome private space ventures, and we may — at last — be ready to embark on the equivalent of the the great age of barnstorming aircraft development that our grandparents saw in the 1920s, when risk — and even some loss — was considered part and parcel of courage and exploration. When the new frontier was legitimate territory for tinkerers (albeit, today they would be billionaire tinkerers).

is it time to expand into space?

Were the Apollo landings flukes, or fantasies, or evidence that an earlier generation was better, or more daring, than us, as cynics would like us to believe? What's more accurate is to realize that Apollo was way, way premature. Given the technology of the 1960s — your phone has more computational power than all of NASA had, back then — it's amazing they didn't blow themselves up every time. The program was a perfect example of human determination and ingenuity overcoming all obstacles of technology or common sense. But here's the thing about sudden tech spurts and long, frustrating plateaus: We may be deluded by the spurts, but we can also get too accustomed to plateaus! In fact, as models of reality plateaus are just as unrealistic.