Critics of gentrification give two main reasons for their opposition: (1) wealthy newcomers drive up monthly rents, thereby displacing original residents, and (2) rapid change to neighbourhood culture represents negatively impacts the original residents.
Read moreConsciousness & Corpus Callosotomy (Split Brain) Patients
In February 1962 Joseph Bogen and Philip Vogel performed the first corpus callosotomy on a man named William Jenkins who suffered from uncontrollable seizures. Their efforts were effectively a last resort to quell the communication between the two hemispheres in the brain. The brain harbours about 86 billion neutrons, roughly half of which reside in the left hemisphere and the other half in the right. Connecting these two sides is a tiny cable we call the corpus callosom. In the cable reside 200 million axons which (basically) connect neurons and allow communication. It was hoped that by cutting the communication they could stop the storm of electrical activity from spreading across the entire brain and subsequently moderate the seizure; it worked.
Read moreThe Quantum Suicide Problem
This is a thought experiment conceived independently by Hans Moravec in 1987 and Bruno Marchal in 1988, and it was further developed by Max Tegmark in 1998.
The Everettian understanding of quantum mechanics is known as the “many-worlds theory” and without explaining on detail (you should read Sean Carroll’s book) the basic idea is that when a wave function describing a superposition collapses there is a branching of the possibilities into different worlds.
Read more"The West Should Pay Reparations for Slavery"
Last year I attended an Intelligence Squared debate wherein the motion was the title of this article. I walked into the room Against the motion because I have been persuaded by figures such as Glenn Loury, John McWhorter, Coleman Hughes, and Thomas Sowell that it is a mistaken proposition. Even within this group those John has expressed sympathy for the idea and framed it in such a way that I have seen its' validity. I've been moved to this almost just as much by the proponents of reparations, such as Ta-Nehisi Coates, Cornell West, and Elizabeth Warren. I found their arguments wanting and too easily refuted.
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