Artificial Intelligence (AI) learns by using algorithms.  Human brains learn by…?   Well, that’s the problem, We don’t know.  Using AI models to study how the brain functions is a problem, as a result.  Both systems may arrive at the same answer to a question, but did they

The article I was reading posed the question, “Can we prove the world isn’t a simulation?”  (by David J. Chalmers, Nautilus, Issue 42, pgs. 47.)  It’s a tech version of a long-established philosophical conundrum, “Can you prove you’re not asleep?” After finishing the a

Unfortunately, the threat of nuclear war looms as possible today as it did when I was a child. I no longer practice hiding under my desk whenever a siren goes off, but I shudder to read Vladimir Putin’s cavalier talk about using nuclear weapons against Ukraine in his stalemated war.

The other day, I walked into an ice cream parlor for a cone.  When I learned I had to pay with a credit card, I walked out.  I’ve seen many people pay for coffee with a card. I admire their savvy. But I manage my finances best when I watch the money flow from my wallet rather than

Words matter, and the right words matter most of all, according to writer John Birmingham.  History bears this out. During World War II, Winston Churchill’s speeches galvanized Londoners with hope despite the German Blitzkrieg. Let us, therefore, brace ourselves to our duties, and

Even in a time of war, there can be moments of laughter. Late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert had a field day with a report about a Ukrainian grandmother who knocked down a Russian drone from her apartment balcony with a jar of tomatoes.  Equally low tech but less funny was a re

As I relate in my upcoming memoir, Getting Lost to Find Home, during the rainy season in Sub-Saharan Africa deluges force creatures to rise from their holes in the earth to escape being drowned.  A person out of doors at such times is likely to encounter black mambas, scorpions, flyi

Someone on Facebook wrote to ask why I didn’t believe in God.  I replied belief is the wrong standard to apply to determine truth. If God exists, that existence should be provable. This blog isn’t an atheist’s rant, by the way.  I use the man’s question as an example to

“I still don’t have what I want,” says Rita Moreno, star of stage, screen, and television and also a winner of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, an Oscar, and a Kennedy Center Honor recipient. (“The Queen,” by Erik Maza, Town&Country, March 2022, pg. 84.) I understood w

The Flynn effect is over. That’s the trend whereby human intelligence increases by about 3 points a decade. Recent research reveals the trend is in reverse. Humans are getting dumber.  Scientists speculate the reasons are varied:  changes in our education systems, nutrition, the c