John

John

  • Commented on Brexit! Means! Brexit!
    [ ASTROTURF DRIVE-BY WITH SUSPICIOUS USER DETAILS DELETED — mods ]...
  • Commented on What are you reading this summer?
    I bumped all my reads for Nightmare Stacks. When that's done, I'll be back to: Blink, Malcolm Gladwell (recommended by my psychiatrist) The Righteous Mind, Jonathan Haidt (interesting pop psych on the phenomenon of political polarization) The Origins of Political...
  • Commented on Defining space opera
    Would it be helpful at all to delineate "sci-fi" from "space opera" when the technological elements become secondary to the narrative, which is generally analogous to a classical romantic adventure? Star Wars, the only space opera with which I'm familiar,...
  • Commented on Upcoming appearances, Amsterdam, Seattle and Spokane
    You may have already answered this, but any chance you're going to make it to the east coast of the US in any of your touring?...
  • Commented on Escape from the planet of the Ice Giants
    Looking forward to LF6! Keep 'em comin'!...
  • Commented on A message from our sponsors
    I can't wait! Love the LF novels! Thought Equoid was one of the best, despite it being am aside to the main storyline...
  • Commented on Wag that puppy
    Great post! Sam Harris wrote a couple of blog articles about self-defense which were also very insightful. http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/the-truth-about-violence http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/the-pleasures-of-drowning...
  • Commented on The cult of justice
    People organize their ideas and values into ideological frameworks, certainly, and work to promulgate them to augment their own affirmation, or in some cases to "defend" them from refutation, to protect themselves from cognitive dissonance. That can be found in...
  • Commented on The cult of justice
    Besides which, the essential element of all religions that sets them apart from other ideologies is the promise of life after death. Without that, it's not a religion....
  • Commented on The cult of justice
    The fact that certain elements of the structure and culture of the legal system bear a superficial resemblance to religious organizations shouldn't be considered evidence that they have the same (or even a similar) metaphysical foundation. It could just as...
  • Commented on The cult of justice
    Primate troupes, etc., establish their coalitional affiliation on kin relations, and are fairly structured dominance hierarchies. Inter-coalitional violence is nearly constant and prosecuted savagely. Internally, they're authoritarian; externally, they're anarchist. I can't claim to be the author of this hypothesis;...
  • Commented on The cult of justice
    The justice system, and the hypothetically disinterested government that manages it, evolved because it facilitates our escape from the security dilemma of anarchism. There's nothing religious about it. It's a self-organizing paradigm which persists because it promotes social propagation. Problems...
  • Commented on Blatant Advertising
    Bought it, reading it, enjoying it. More Laundry!...
  • Commented on Another commercial ...
    Fantastic! I love the Laundry Files novels. If only you could write them faster......
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