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Conceptions de la physique contemporaine (Conceptions of Contemporary Physics). Paris: Hermann, 1965. While serving as assistant professor at the University of Paris-Orsay, I spent half of my working time at CERN in Geneva. It was during the pleasant and fruitful collaboration with brilliant fellow researchers at both places on theoretical questions then considered significant that…
Minds notice differences. When things stay the same, minds tune out by a process psychologists call habituation. Physical pain is the exception. In most cases we don’t get used to chronic pain. Physical pain has to be inescapably vivid in order to convince us to do what’s necessary to alleviate it. Sometimes there is nothing…
After running continuously for more than two years, this will be the last installment of Polydoxy. Look for V.V. Raman’s new column launching March 27 in The Global Spiral. Each of us has a worldview which determines our attitudes and actions in important contexts in life. Our worldview has many components, which take shape and…
At the turn of the new millennium I joined the online dialogue and debate on “The Future of the European Union.” It was inaugurated by Tony Blair and the then President of the EU Council Romano Prodi. They invited all Europhiles to participate with their own contributions and ideas and thus further the democratic spirit…
Artist’s Statement My imaging philosophy is very simple. I strive to record the subtle, interconnected web of energy that makes up what we call the world. For me, beauty, which permeates everything around us, appears in its most sublime state when form, color, pattern and texture are all in harmony. In the same way as…
Continued from Christianity and Europe: Tony Blair’s View at Yale University – Part II The 25 students who took the course co-taught by Blair (chosen from 270 who applied; a microcosm of globalization from various cultures and faiths) describe his teaching method as Socratic; one of probing questions and tentative answers. He has discarded the…
1. A friend of mine once sought a teaching position at a somewhat New Age spiritual college. He‘s a Buddhist and also a scholar with high standards. In a job interview with the dean he asked, “What’s your attitude about rigor?” “You mean rigor mortis?” the dean asked, conveying an assumption that rigor killed the…
One day when I was young and working as head of public affairs for a big, publicly traded, environmentally conscious retailer, I suddenly felt morally compromised by the company’s flagship campaign, which it had me running. I wrote an angry letter to the CEO and board complaining about the campaign, exposing it as disingenuous and…
A number of philosophers of science have reacted to postmodernism in forceful ways. Most of these are people who have spent some time doing serious science. Just as the religious practitioner reacts with some anger when people who have had no religious experience whatever speak and write about religion as if it is some sort…
Transhumanism does not say we will create posthumans, rather, it makes a moral claim: We ought to create posthumans. Creating posthumans is our best bet for avoiding harm.