In my latest Mercatornet piece I argue that Stephen Hawking’s arguments in his last book, Brief Answers to the Big Questions, are as unconvincing as they are dreary.
“Such reactions [seeing only the enormous good or bad potential of a new technology] are amplified by what might be termed chronocentricity – the egotism that one’s own generation is posed on the very cusp of history. Today, we are repeatedly told that we are in the midst of a communications revolution. But the electric telegraph was, in many ways, far more disconcerting...”
Epilogue in Tom Standage The Victorian Internet
In my latest C2C Journal article I said the people tearing down statues of Sir John A. Macdonald have an even greater need to learn humility from history than the rest of us.
In my latest National Post column I say the Ottawa tornado is a worrying reminder of how fragile our modern high-tech just-in-time way of life really is.
"Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life."
Often attributed to Immanuel Kant but appears to be from Will Durant, part of Durant's effort to explain Kant's thought (whatever the merits of his analysis, Kant's often impenetrable prose style did not lend itself to bon mots)