We Live in Interesting Times
Are we cursed?
It certainly is chaotic.
One day Trump is shot.
Then a software update shuts down millions of secure computers that are used by hospitals and airlines and government.
Then Biden withdraws as nominee for President.
This against a backdrop of many wars around the world
And as global warming hits its long predicted disastrous stride.
Heh about global warming. I have been aware of it for a long time. I once wrote an essay for college about rising sea levels due to global warming in the early 70s. But the dire consequences were far in the future so it was sort of academic. Welcome to the future.
I gave up predicting the news when Trump first got elected. I didn't think there was any way that Americans would elect such a guy. I gripe about how the talking heads all confidently tell us what is going on and are often wrong.
And then with a stern face the same talking heads tell us what has to happen next.
I look at what's happening in Gaza and Ukraine and am horrified - and those are the places that are well reported. There are many other places in the world where similar horrors happen that are not well reported.
I'm a news junkie. I delivered newspapers as a kid to get pocket money so I could by comic books. I wrote letters to the editor that caught the attention of the Mayor. I worked in a TV station newsroom during Canada's October Crisis with the FLQ and hovered over the teletype.
I followed Nixon while I was living the woods. I remember being pleased when my Mom wrote in a letter - you were right about him.
I've been very lucky I must admit. I've been able to read the news in peace about the storm outside from Vancouver.
Luck is a pretty important thing - that is reality isn't like a chess game - it's not if you get all the moves right you always win. Thinking of a hundred qualified people who have done all the moves right applying for one position.
I'm reading Dennett's autobiography"I've been thinking" and he talks about how lucky he has been and how that helped his career. He was lucky enough to be able to present his good ideas to receptive audiences.
And now I don't predict the future - I just sit back and watch
What do you think?
I present regular philosophy discussions in a virtual reality called Second Life.
I set a topic and people come as avatars and sit around a virtual table to discuss it.
Each week I write a short essay to set the topic.
I show a selection of them here.