Inspired by a blog post by Scalzi, here is a Venn diagram I made to speculate on proportions of denialists.


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Edge.org brought my attention to responses in the letters column of the New York Times (quoted below the cut), by the three atheists most prominently cited in the resurgence of outspoken atheism-- Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett. They plead for the simplicity and gentleness of their positions, against the reputations they are ( Read more... )

( Behind the cut there is a video of Richard Dawkins conducting a Q&A, mostly with students and faculty from Jerry Falwell's Liberty University; I have added my own comments. If you would be so kind as to blog about it, I would like to collect comments from anyone on your friends lists. )

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Goatchurch on the MundaneSF blog posted about his skepticism of molecular nanotechnology. He asked why we think a self-propelled miniature machine can exist, when we still don't have a robot that can vacuum the living room. (Given the existence of Roomba, that's another claim which, in itself, I would highly debate.) Here is the response I put ( Read more... )

MIT's Technology Review has a video documentary series titled "The Impact of Emerging Technologies" which is exclusively online. It's really interesting! It covers stem cells; robotic prosthetics with a mind/machine interface; artificial polymer muscle; computer interpretation of body language; nano-scale valves; and more ( Read more... )

I hadn't previously heard of a few of the speakers at Stanford's Singularity Summit, but I know every single one of the following eight names, and it's the most exciting lineup of Guests of Honor ever. It's interesting to finally find out from their photos what some of them look like ( Read more... )

Mere hours after I blogged about neurobiologist Paul Z. Myers yesterday, ConFusion picked up on my suggestion and invited him to be their Science Guest of Honor for 2007, and he accepted!

Krysta asked me to write an announcement for the e-mail list:

Dr. Myers, or PZ as he is known, is author of the popular blog www.Pharyngula.com, where he holds ( Read more... )

I'm almost done reading Calculating God by Robert Sawyer, a novel about alien races who believe in Intelligent Design. It's a frustrating experience, full of vicarious embarassment.( Read more... )

The different social rules that apply to different settings have occupied my thoughts for the past several days. It has been noticed that I tend to be much more gentle and conciliatory face-to-face than in the written word. One has gone to far as to describe my words as "socially feral." That would only be true if I had spoken the words while ( Read more... )