storytelling
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A tour of “Newcomb’s Paradox,” in which philosophers who ought to know better argue about the best way to behave in a nonsensical, world-hopping dilemma.
Sometimes, only an irrational choice can help us make the world as good as it could possibly be.
anonymity, anonymous, anonymous action, Blood Test, brains, Charles Baxter, choice, consciousness, Daniel Dennett, emotion, emotions, ensemble behavior of matter, free will, game theory, Hamlet, irrational behavior, irrational choices, irrationality, magical thinking, neural firing, neurons, neuroscience, Newcomb’s Paradox, philosophy, physics, prediction, predictive neuroscience, prisoners’ dilemma, prophecy, quantum computers, quantum mechanics, rational behavior, rational choices, rationality, revenge, Robert Frank, Robert Sapolsky, Roko’s basilisk, Sabine Hossenfelder, science, social opprobrium, storytelling, superposition, The Lion King, The Prisoners’ Dilemma, trust, uncertainty, uncertainty principle
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On emptiness, ruin, and spirits.
We might see empty ruins. Someone else might see a place full of their ancestors’ spirits.
ancestor worship, ancestors, ancient civilizations, ancient cultures, ancient people, archaeology, Cahokia, Calusa, colonialism, high rise, Indigenous civilizations, luxury condos, Miami, oral tradition, prehistoric American civilizations, prehistoric civilizations, prehistoric ruins, prehistory of the Americas, real estate developers, real estate development, Rio Viejo, ruin, ruins, ruins as a home for spirits, spirits, spirituality, storytelling, Tequesta, Ucanal, worship
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On bowerbirds, process, and happiness.
In a world where not everyone wins, we can either prepare to mope or learn to enjoy the process of our lives.
abolition, abolitionism, art, attention economy, Bestiary, birds, Bower, bowerbird, bowerbirds, children, corvids, crow family life, crow intelligence, crow smarts, crows, crows using tools, Donika Kelly, goal-oriented, goals versus process, jail, jail poetry, mass incarceration, mate choice, mate selection, mating, mating behavior, non-coercive mating, parenting, poetry, process-oriented, psychology, self-actualization, self-help, sexual choice, sexual selection, social media pyramid, storytelling, suffering in jail, teaching in jail, teaching poetry, teaching poetry in jail, tool use, tropical birds, War on Drugs, writing
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On telepathy and the battle for narrative control.
After William Burroughs experienced how pitifully he could be held in thrall by a small molecule, he developed a lifelong interest in telepathy and mind control. His own brain had been upended. Suddenly, he found himself devoting the vast majority of his time and money toward a single cause: obtaining a day’s ration of opiate. …
addictive technology, Apple, ayahuasca, battle for stories, behavioral change, behavioral modification, Benway, competing narratives, criminal justice, criminal justice system, Douglas Star, Facebook, false confessions, guilty plea, hooked on technology, how are criminal defendants charged, identity, incarceration, innocent people plead guilty, interrogation, interrogation techniques, jail, language battle, magnetic pulse, mass incarceration, mental conditioning, mind control, Naked Lunch, narrative control, neural polarization, Pavlov, Pavlovian conditioning, personality, personality modification, plea bargain, police, police interrogation, power, prison, prosecution, prosecutors, prosecutors determine charges, psyche, psychedelics, psychic warfare, psychology research, Queer, research into false confessions, Saul Kassin, Silicon Valley, social control, story battle, storytelling, subjugation, tech companies, tech-free kids, technology, technology companies, telepathy, thought control, TMS, transcranial magnetic stimulation, ultimatum game, unethical game design, why do innocent people confess, William Burroughs, Yage
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On storytelling and social justice.
By telling powerful stories with integrity, we might inspire people to help change the world.
activism, addiction, Bloomington, consciousness as storytelling, Dave Eggers, death in jail, emotions, emotions to compel action, framing your own story, Frans de Waal, free will, incarceration, Indiana, jail, jail poetry, Lindsey Badger, mass incarceration, Max Smith, Michelle Brekke, narrative consciousness, neuroscience of consciousness, neuroscience of free will, New Leaf, New Leaf New Life, overcoming trauma, poetry in jail, prison poetry, rationality, restorative justice, storytelling, storytelling and incarceration, teaching kids to be activists, The Bloomingtonian, The Dimension Mill, the neuroscience of storytelling, The Parade, trauma, writing and incarceration, writing and social justice, writing in prison
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On Tara Westover’s “Educated.”
How can you learn to trust in a world where your beloved family member’s visage might conceal a monster?
alternate histories, alternate history, apocalypse prepping, behavioral change, Charles Reznikoff, cocaine, coke, cultural knowledge, drugs, Educated, eels, endangered eels, etymology, gaslighting, government aid, Hillbilly Elegy, history, Holocaust, Hulk smash, J.D. Vance, jail poetry, Jekyll and Hyde, memory, paranoia, perception, poetry class, poverty, preppers, prison poetry, SNAP, storytelling, Tara Westover, teaching poetry, teaching poetry in jail, The Hulk, the mutability of memory, traumatic brain injury
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On ‘The Theft of Fire.’
Stories are powerful things. A world in which workers are brought into a country as farmhands is very different from one in which barbaric kidnappers torture their victims to extract labor. A world in which death panels ration healthcare is different from one in which taxpayers preferentially fund effective medical care. You’ll feel better about…
AI, angry gods, comparative mythology, death panels, description of slavery, discovery of fire, discovery of the atom bomb, essay about fire myths, essay about the origin of fire, evolution of fire use, Fire, fire myths, fire myths in human evolution, gratitude practice, history textbooks, human evolution, ideology, invention of fire, invention of the atom bomb, Jury S. Judge, medical rationing, modern mythology, mythology, mythology of the atom bomb, myths of the atom bomb, Palaver, poem, poetry, Robert Oppenheimer, Rosalind Franklin, stealing fire from the gods, storytelling, the discovery of fire, The Testimony of J. Robert Oppenheimer, The Theft of Fire, thermodynamics, ways we describe the world
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On storytelling.
Our myths engulf each other… but some stray remnants live on.
amoeba, animal life, Avigdor Shinan, Baal, Babylonian myths, Bible, biology, cellular biology, Christianity, dragons in bible, Eden, evolution, From Gods to God, Genesis, great whales, Jesus, King James, Marduk, mitochondria, morality, myth, mythology, narrative, Old Testament, origin of Bible, origin stories, paradise, polemic, Quran, reframing, religion, Religion in Human Evolution, Robert Bellah, science, sea dragons, sea monsters, storytelling, teleological misconception, Tiamat, Tower of Babel, Umberto Cassuto, Valerie Zakovitch, Yahweh, Yair Zakovitch
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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 