When we (inevitably) discover intelligent life elsewhere in the galaxy, I predict that they will have teapots. My line of reasoning is that just as the evolution of body plans inevitably stumbles across useful things like mouths and body armour, so too the evolution of tools will inevitably stumble across useful forms like teapots. This … Read more
There is plenty of promise held in the future’s tightly clenched fist, and I look forward to prising those surprises from its grasp as the years unfold glorious and slow. I want to explain a concept i have had lately. I would like to introduce a thing I call a “belief sphere”, which occupies the … Read more
.back at ANU studying latin, greek, and rocks. I nearly bought somerset maugham and graham greene from a bookstore trestle table but found myself in electric shaddows bookshop buying frank moorehouse and geoff page instead, modern boys. I discover and like that greeks wrote mainly in lowercase. also like that meteorites are in the news … Read more
Mars is so kinky. I like mars. We all need to move there right away! Mars is a cool neighbour to have in this dusty dry old galaxy. I had a dream that I was on mars the other morning.. I think it was partly from all the lovely drugs I have been taking since … Read more
I often find myself speaking enthusiastically about Open Democracy to someone online or in person, only to discover that their attention seems to be focused on a little fleck of foam on my lip. At least, it seems as if that is the case. So I am faced with an uphill battle to first prove … Read more
I was talking the other day to old Roger, at a Canberra Speleological Society trip to Wee Jasper, who was telling me about his first job in Australia working at the Orroral tracking station. I have long thought it is a tragedy that Orroral and Honeysuckle creek tracking stations, which were such an interesting piece … Read more
Reading an article in the Economist, about more work done on the fermi paradox (that the galaxy should be teeming with civilisations so why isn’t it), and i got musing again about interstellar travel. If we view the galaxy as being innately fertile, as i do, then the flowering of intelligence would be as necessary … Read more
it’s taken me a few days to get to the point where i feel i can get all this down. you know i used to often think ‘nobody knows what’s going on’. it’s a conceited idea, i admit, but i do still believe it, in a way. i suppose what has changed since then is … Read more