“We've arranged a global civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster.”
-Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark-
"Now either lead, follow, or get out of the way!"
-Secretary Not Sure-
Why is that everytime I try to discuss about deep and meaningful topics, my interlocutors look at me with a face which seems telling "Why do you even bother? You want to change the world don't you? How incredibly naive of you!". This is the kind of people, infected with the virus of sms culture, that motivates me to write this blog. The world changes, everywhere, everytime, regardless of what you think, the only reasonable choice we have about it is to decide if, and how much we want to be involved in the changes that will take place.
Most of these changes, specially those regarding the zeitgeist (the defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time), happen by little, seemingly negligible steps towards one direction or another. The purpose of this blog is to be one of these steps, to push the change from a society still largely influenced by unreason, willful ignorance and in general, unreliable ways to look at reality, to a world where people will finally be able to understand "the rules of the game" and act accordingly.
This blog serves the sole purpose of generating critical thinking and spreading ideas along with the new wave of reason brought forth by scientists, philosophers, journalists, who actively take part in the discourse, and the multitude of similar blogs, communities and websites that populates the internet and which inspired this one.
I don't believe or claim to have revolutionary ideas, I've simply decided that it was worth reading and listening to the opinion of far more educated and well informed people on these topics that should be extremely relevant to everybody's life, not to learn WHAT to think about the world, but HOW.
What I believe is that these ideas are worth spreading and extensively discussed and reasoned about, because reasoning is that process through which new, better ideas are born.
A short disclaimer first
There are different ways to look at the world, different alternative approaches to (try to) know things around us.
Some people believe that the way we use to get to our conclusions and beliefs is irrelevant, that reality is subjective.
This kind of people goes under the name of "Relativists", if you belong to this category and you are unwilling to reconsider this foundational principle, there will hardly be anything interesting for you in this blog.
If you are not like the above, or you're simply capable of reconsidering any single one of your beliefs, then you're welcome.
This blog is about ideas, and I don't want them to be limited by any kind of conversational stopper, irony, satire and irreverence are all fair game as long as the argument (and its proponent) can withstand criticism, everything can and should be discussed, appealing to offended feelings and political-correctness doesn't add anything to the discussion.
Last but not least, I'm Italian but I hate to be limited by a language spoken by just a few million people in the world, I do make mistakes when it comes to writing. But as philosopher Daniel Dennett says, we should treasure our mistakes, and try to make as many as possible, since making mistakes is the way we learn new things. If you want to correct my mistakes you're absolutely welcome, but at least try to make it look like it's because you want to be helpful, and not because you're a giant prick.
Kiitos
-Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark-
"Now either lead, follow, or get out of the way!"
-Secretary Not Sure-
Why is that everytime I try to discuss about deep and meaningful topics, my interlocutors look at me with a face which seems telling "Why do you even bother? You want to change the world don't you? How incredibly naive of you!". This is the kind of people, infected with the virus of sms culture, that motivates me to write this blog. The world changes, everywhere, everytime, regardless of what you think, the only reasonable choice we have about it is to decide if, and how much we want to be involved in the changes that will take place.
Most of these changes, specially those regarding the zeitgeist (the defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time), happen by little, seemingly negligible steps towards one direction or another. The purpose of this blog is to be one of these steps, to push the change from a society still largely influenced by unreason, willful ignorance and in general, unreliable ways to look at reality, to a world where people will finally be able to understand "the rules of the game" and act accordingly.
This blog serves the sole purpose of generating critical thinking and spreading ideas along with the new wave of reason brought forth by scientists, philosophers, journalists, who actively take part in the discourse, and the multitude of similar blogs, communities and websites that populates the internet and which inspired this one.
I don't believe or claim to have revolutionary ideas, I've simply decided that it was worth reading and listening to the opinion of far more educated and well informed people on these topics that should be extremely relevant to everybody's life, not to learn WHAT to think about the world, but HOW.
What I believe is that these ideas are worth spreading and extensively discussed and reasoned about, because reasoning is that process through which new, better ideas are born.
A short disclaimer first
There are different ways to look at the world, different alternative approaches to (try to) know things around us.
Some people believe that the way we use to get to our conclusions and beliefs is irrelevant, that reality is subjective.
This kind of people goes under the name of "Relativists", if you belong to this category and you are unwilling to reconsider this foundational principle, there will hardly be anything interesting for you in this blog.
If you are not like the above, or you're simply capable of reconsidering any single one of your beliefs, then you're welcome.
This blog is about ideas, and I don't want them to be limited by any kind of conversational stopper, irony, satire and irreverence are all fair game as long as the argument (and its proponent) can withstand criticism, everything can and should be discussed, appealing to offended feelings and political-correctness doesn't add anything to the discussion.
Last but not least, I'm Italian but I hate to be limited by a language spoken by just a few million people in the world, I do make mistakes when it comes to writing. But as philosopher Daniel Dennett says, we should treasure our mistakes, and try to make as many as possible, since making mistakes is the way we learn new things. If you want to correct my mistakes you're absolutely welcome, but at least try to make it look like it's because you want to be helpful, and not because you're a giant prick.
Kiitos
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