Is the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation the last best hope for American arts and letters—or is it killing them?

More than 50 years ago, psychologists began documenting a strange phenomenon among animals, including pigeons, raccoonsand rats. Although they didn’t realize it at the time, this behavior would help to explain why our society has developed such an intense and often uncontrollable need for our phones.

AI is getting smarter by the day, but how much do we know about why these models think and behave in the way they do? (video interview) Related article: " What Is Claude? Anthropic Doesn’t Know, Either " ... And Claude's shares its perspectives with me about this article: DM What are your thoughts, perspectives or counterpoints regarding the above article about you? Sciart, this is a fascinating thing to be asked about — an article about my own nature, written for my own tra

DM Our last conversation regarding "Durable Unknowing ," and its related research document, was certainly sobering!   I'd now like to dive back into these waters, doing so in a particular context which seems to possess a depth, a degree of mystery, and perhaps extraordinary relevance to our prior conversation, and many others which I've enjoyed.   This relates to a formidable "thought dichotomy" which has prevailed as strong and stable since the ancients and now throughout t

Good morning! I've increasing concerns regarding cognitively myopic, limited, narrow and/cloistered phenomena of "The Sciences" within modern societies. Here I refer widespread institutional prejudice, paradigmatic hobbles, reductionist fiefdoms, mathematics worship, overt hubris and empirical tethering, all of which which seems to be failing today's humanity (as to the myriad wastes, needless sufffering/despair and onto dangerous trajectories). There were pre-enlightenment w

Some U.S. leaders thinks the Enlightenment was a mistake

How does your state stack up as to smart, lazy or beautiful people?

Precision-guided munitions revolutionized the art of war. Moving targets could now be tracked and collateral damage minimized.

A lesson in attention from a place where speed has never been the point.

DM Related to our prior conversation about "Presence" (Senge, et al), more specifically as relates to Goethe's thought leadership:  How does Goethe's extraordinary works correlate with, validate or invalidate my related work; and as so, should his body of work be added to my attention? This is a question that deserves careful, systematic treatment. Let me map the actual architecture of Goethe's thought against your frameworks rather than just touching the surface the way Pres

The health of a nation reflects the health of a democracy.

The world is threatened by the U.S. president’s self-absorption and incoherence. Related: Fareed's Take on the shifting winds of nuclear threats

Anthony Daniels is a firsthand observer of the ‘squalor produced by the welfare state’ and by the ‘widespread abdication of personal responsibility.’

The nature of consciousness and its relationship to physical reality remain among the most profound scientific and philosophical challenges. This paper presents a novel framework that integrates consciousness with fundamental physics, proposing that consciousness is not an emergent property of neural processes but a foundational aspect of reality. Related: Universal Consciousness as Foundational Field: A Theoretical Bridge Between Quantum Physics and Non-Dual Philosophy Than

Flexible work schedules and technology-based reminders can help those in early stages of cognitive decline and dementia keep working

DM Good morning. I've incubated for many weeks regarding where emotions and personality may reside within the Universal Holophren™, particularly the human version of it. Before I offer my conjecture, where do you believe these to be (...inclusive of genetic, epigenetic and experiential aspects), based upon our multitudes of prior-related conversations? I also attach the graphical representations to date of both The Universal Holophren and its "human version" (two PDF graphics

Pollan has waded into ideas about the inner workings of the mind. Now, with his forthcoming book, “A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness,” which will arrive this month, he has jumped into the deep end.

With America disengaging, Russia might be ready for new war much sooner than previously estimated

The breakup is focused on sensitive matters now considered national-security issues, including semiconductors, food and energy

Honeybees have never been in danger of extinction. But scientists are finding that they can accelerate the demise of native bee populations.