Given the many life and death threats facing our species, an algorithm to help identify which challenges are imminent and which can wait five minutes sounds great. Unfortunately, technology is part of the problem. The more we rely on it, the more we are likely to find ourselves in a d

A reader directed me to an article in the October issue of The Atlantic, John Seabrook’s comments on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and creative writing. Could machines learn to write better than professionals, it asked. I’ll probably go on foraging for ideas from this piece for a w

A while ago, a woman dropped me from her Facebook friends list. I could see it coming. She was an alt-right believer, while I was not. Simply put, our views didn’t mesh. Beliefs, like black holes, seldom emit light. Reason forces us to reevaluate ideas according to new information.

Bill Gates throws up his hands and declares Elizabeth Warren’s proposed wealth tax will break him. Gates, whose financial worth is reported to be $106.8 billion dollars, would pay about 3 billion in wealth taxes under Warren’s plan. But even if his fears were correct and he would

So far the American Bar Association has rated eight of Donald Trump’s nominees for the judicial bench as unqualified. The number isn’t unprecedented for a president, but our dear leader has little tolerance for criticism. We shouldn’t be surprised that he has decided to bar the

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I read an article the other day that praised Donald Trump for his extraordinary leadership. The author congratulated the president for his attempts to revive the coal industry, his rollbacks on climate change regulations, his tax reforms that made the super-rich wealthier and his immi

In 2011, I opined  I envied the lifestyle of the monied class. I even speculated that having a butler, a cook, and a chauffeur would be necessary for my declining years. My 105-year house offered a clue.  It required an army of gardeners, plumbers,  roofers, and house painters to k

Recently, I shared an article that argued if the Warren/Sanders wing of the Democratic party didn’t consolidate, the mathematical certainty was Joe Biden would win the nomination. A Sanders supporter wrote back to say he couldn’t trust Warren. She’d once been a Republican. Havin

While in public life, I worked with a district attorney who was a thoughtful man.  His politics leaned toward conservatism, but that bias seldom interfered with the way he aligned facts.  Objectivity of that degree is rare. For many, emotions rule. Upon occasion, he and I discussed