Critical Thought

My dialog with ChatGPT-4 demonstrated a capacity for deep and substantive conversation. It’s not “fooling us.”

We’ve all lost people. To death. To addiction. To fascist beliefs. We’ve all lost dreams of one sort or another. No one’s life turns out exactly the way they want it to.

“Keep right except to pass,” is not as simple as it might seem.

Acts of “goodness” provide a reliable return on investment. That’s why we do them.

We are made of stardust, yet we are mortal. How do we reconcile our own mortality with a near-eternal universe?

“Free speech absolutism” is a nightmare authoritarian concept that grants more power to the powerful, while weakening marginalized groups.

Verbal responses to sneezing are near-universal across human cultures. What is the meaning of these sayings? What should you say?

I just watched a really good TED talk from 2017 by Anil Seth about the nature of consciousness. He gets one important thing wrong.

No one knows anything about any god-being. Many pretend to know things they don’t know, and are lying to themselves and their followers.

Drug policy, harm reduction. What does a healthy relationship with drugs and alcohol look like? Problems with 12-step recovery groups like AA.