immortality
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In dispraise of efficiency.
Contemporary economic interests seek greater & greater efficiency, but the most meaningful moments in our lives are the inefficient tasks to which we devote our time.
assembly line, beautiful ones, behavioral sink, biology, Capital, capital gains, capitalism, cell biology, cell division, chores, communication, comparative advantage, economics, efficiency, factory model, function of earth, function of life, health, Henry Ford, immortality, in the belly of my brother, John Calhoun, last universal common ancestor, Mary Oliver, metabolism, mitochondria, mouse dystopia, mouse utopia, opportunity cost, philosophy, photon scattering, quotidian time, Robin Wall Kimmerer, science, slow fire, specialization, store my food in the belly of my brother, The Serviceberry, wild and precious life
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On explaining religion to my child, part one.
Humans have told so many stories about sky ghosts, but don’t worry, kiddoe … ghosts are pretend!
Abrahamic faiths, atheism, atheist, Buddha, Buddhism, children, Christ, Christmas, cobra, death, deities, Eden, Enkidu, explaining Christmas to atheist children, explaining Christmas to atheist kids, explaining Christmas to kids, explaining god to kids, explaining holidays to children, explaining religion to kids, expulsion from Eden, fatherhood, forgiving god, Genesis, ghost stories, ghosts, ghosts are pretend, Gilgamesh, good without god, holidays, immortality, In a Dark Dark Room, jealous gods, Jesus, John-Michael Bloomquist, Loki, Magic Penny, Malvina Reynolds, Midgard Serpent, misogyny in world religions, Moana, Mucalinda, mythology, naga, nap, naptime, Old Testament, parenting, penance, Quran, Ragnarok, religion, religions, sacrifice, secular children, secular kids, secular parenting, sharing, Siddhartha, sky ghosts, snake, snake myths, snake stories, snakes in mythology, snakes in religion, spirituality, stories about death, stories about god, stories about snakes, teaching children about religion, teaching kids about religion, telling children about god, telling kids about god, The Prodigal’s Lament, Thor, to live forever, toddlers, trickster gods, world mythology, Yahweh
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On naked mole-rats.
Naked mole-rats shrug off pain, & cancer, & even time itself… but can they withstand the curiosity of Homo sapiens?
age-related diseases, age-related mortality, aging, animal cognition, animal research, animal welfare, anoxia, anoxia resistance, apoxia resistance, breeding, caloric restriction, cancer, cancer immunity, cancer resistance, cancer susceptibility, carbon dioxide poisoning, chemotherapy, Christopher Byrd, civil war, compassion, cooperation, cooperative childcare, Creep, cruelty, David Stipp, death curve, Eliot Weinberger, environmentalism, eusocial, eusocial mammals, eusociality, evolution, evolution of eusociality, food insecurity, fructose, Fructose-driven glycolysis, glucose, good stewardship, high-molecular-mass hyaluronan, hit single, hyaluronan, hypoxia, immortality, jail poetry, Jennifer Jarvis, Karmic Traces, lab mice, Laboratory Animal Welfare Act, laboratory animals, laboratory research, lifespan, lifespan elongation, limited senescence, longevity, mating habits, metabolism, mutation, Naked Mole-Rats, naked molerats, New Yorker, Norman Dubie, observation, opiates, Orange and Peanuts for Sale, Oranges and Peanuts for Sale, oxidation, oxidative stress, oxygen deprivation, pain, painkillers, Park et al., poetry, prison poetry, Radiohead, recycling, research animals, Richard Alexander, Selective Inflammatory Pain Insensitivity, Stalin, starvation, stroke, The Biology of Naked Mole-Rats, The Ghosts of Birds, The Marshall Cloud, Thomas Park, Tian et al., tumor, tumor resistance, tumorogenesis, What Happened Here, Xiao Tian
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On Don Delillo’s ‘Zero K’ and the dream of eternal life.
Would it be easier to use artificial intelligence to resurrect the more self-absorbed and robotic among us?
aging, artificial intelligence, biology of aging, caloric restriction, cellular biology, don delillo, freeze my brain, heat death of the universe, immortality, lifespan, limited senescence, lobsters, mechanical mind, meditation, memory, Mr. Darcy is a weird dude, neurology, pride and prejudice, psychology studies, simulating a human brain, social psychology, synaptic connectome, telomere elongation, the inevitability of death, Turing test, White Noise, why do we die?, zero k
Frank Brown Cloud 