Prize question: What is more harmful, the assumption that there is one human nature, or the idea that there are many? History suggests several answers. We can argue that the assumption of human beings as “economic agents” interested only in maximizing their own profit, leads to the current neoliberal system with all its destructive tendencies. …
[series-miru]Miru is about 125 days old, and still the gorgeously cute and quiet baby she has always been. Yesterday, I used her in a little scientific experiment, the ethical justification of which derives from the fact that there was no need for an artificial reward, nor was there the need of inflicting anything remotely uncomfortable …
Because a writer is supposed to desire the award. He would be betraying everything if he plays indifference. The award is the highest attainable goal, the apex of any artist and it’s blasphemy not to want it with all our might. The award is the appraisal of the Big Other, the ultimate crown on our …
For a moment, drifting in that beautiful illusion that we can articulate a world we have in common. For a moment, feeling reality reverberate in our ecstatic minds, feeling the gentle pulses of the blood vessels that support our brains. We experience all the truths we have established, we are sure that our brains are …
Creve Coeur (MI), April 13th, 2011. Biotech giant Monsanto (NYSE: MON) has reported that they have for the first time created an organism capable of growing money. The plant, MON1971$, and the undisclosed technologies involved in creating it, have been patented in the US. Technically, the invention is based on the insertion of a gene …
In a nation far away once lived a sad dictator Called Bush, a brainless man, but a good debater He was surrounded by savage capitalists Who manipulated him cunningly like terrorists They told Bush exactly how he ought to act and soon turned off his tiny intellect Bush was a bit unhappy with this institution …
One assumption most people accept is that competition is always a good thing. When we talk about competition, we assume a scarcity of resources that can’t be shared and are fought over by individuals or groups. In this sense, competition is the natural state of organisms, from which they can only evolve if there is …
We hope to buy our own small piece of land, so we can start permaculture in modest proportions. We want to experiment with herb spirals, greenhouses, keyhole beds, guilds of crops, sheet mulching, low-till, swales, gravity irrigation, drip irrigation, natural pest control, reuse of greywater, rainwater catchment, and so on. I’ve been studying the system …
Working relations are about power. You sell your labor (remuneration is essentially the primary reason for working) or else… Or else you could be reprimanded, suspended, or even – fired. That infernal metaphor is a powerful aid in the manufacturing of the worker’s worry, that are designed to last until all productivity has been sucked …
[series-miru] Still short of the 100-days milestone, a big event here in Korea, we’ve seen Miru developing some skills well before their due date. She can lift up her head entirely, she can put her hands together, she grasps things, she smiles spontaneously – and is fascinated by her own image in the mirror. She …
Below is a draft of the introduction to a collaborative e-book (e.co.book) that I instigated on Facebook. This needs work, but I shared it here for the purpose of inviting constructive criticism. Over the last few years, many of us have been active on the Internet sharing information about the damage that the current system …
[series-miru] I promised to write about the relentless assault on young children by corporations and their henchmen, the marketeers. I am afraid that they will somehow devise a way to creep into Miru’s head before I have detected and neutralized the threat. That they will invade her fragile mind with Trojan horses belching with greasy, …
Much of the Internet, including these words, “runs on” a piece of software called Wordpress. It has become the most popular blogging platform because of smart architecture, passionate contributors, and a healthy bit of good luck. You are likely to know Wordpress, and also its slogan “Code is Poetry” might sound familiar. I write code …
[series-miru] Our daughter is 66 days old now and most of her actions are reflexes of the hunger she feels, the discomfort her skin communicates to her, the sounds she hears and the blotches of color we assume she sees. She smiles a lot, and we’ve been tempted to attribute that to her character, but …
I wrote a theoretical reflection about binary communication with babies a few weeks ago, and I’m going to add something to that. Don’t worry: I won’t advocate ternary or n-ary communication here. Rather, I want to say something about ambiguity and undecidedness. About half an hour ago, Miru was hungry (she eats a lot) and …
“Can I even express the quiet horror that debilitates my mind when I experience the utter vacuity of this work, of these pointless tasks I perform every day? Can I communicate this torment? Why would I? Perhaps because there is a statistical probability that I’m not the only one experiencing this, that there are many …
This is part of a series of blog posts that is inspired by our baby daughter, Miru. Every infant starts out in this world with a one-word vocabulary, the content of which we (from the perspective of our infinitely nuanced expressive apparatus) then interpret as crying. I don’t know how the baby herself experiences the crying, …
This is part of a series of blog posts that is inspired by our baby daughter, Miru. Imitation, it seems, begins as soon as our children open their eyes, just in ways we are unable to recognize due to our preoccupation with highbrow communication techniques like smiling and cooing. What if the baby develops its …
Most people find babies cute, and for good evolutionary reasons. A newborn human is more completely dependent on the care of its parents than any other mammal (there probably is an exception to this rule, but for the purpose of this article, we go with the clich’e). I just want to share an experience with …
Over the course of the last few days, I received dozens of e-mails from organisations I didn’t knew I knew about, and I invariably clicked on their ‘unsubscribe’ link. Political campaigns, real estate listings, environmental actions, job openings, social networks, online marketplaces, and so on. It feels a little bit like the mise-en-scène of an …
