literature
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On empathy and the color red.
We can care about others’ lives even if we’re not entirely certain how those lives feel.
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On literature as a weapon for social change.
Reading Sergio De La Pava’s “A Naked Singularity” will make you want to change the world. If enough of us do, maybe we’ll succeed.
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On octopus literature, a reprise: what would books be like if we didn’t love gossip?
Of all intelligent species I know of, only the octopus evolved its mind for purposes other than keeping track of gossip.
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On chess as a window to the soul.
I loved chess growing up, enough that I always felt a shiver of pleasure when games appeared in novels.
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On mental architecture and octopus literature.
I might spend too much time thinking about how brains work. Less than some people, sure — everybody working on digital replication of human thought must devote more energy than I do to the topic, and they’re doing it in a more rigorous way — but for a dude with no professional connection to cognitive…
Frank Brown Cloud 