Total Eclipse

In response to a post on Coilhouse concerning the passing of Proposition 8 in California to end gay marriages in the state, I wrote this response, which I thought was too long for anyone to read as a comment, but still worth sharing with the world, somewhere. There truly is a sour taste coming from [...]

Reading Thomas Nagel’s seminal “What is it like to be a bat?” There is a mantra I find myself repeating: THE MAP IS NOT THE TERRITORY. Some food for thought, emphasis mine. [There's a paper here, waiting to be written, about the relation of a presupposed subjective character of experience, the myth of the given, [...]

The paradigmatic example of a sentence a physicalist holds true is “Pain is the firing of C Fibers.” This is an identity claim; It’s not that an action potential in C-Fibers causes pain, but rather that if we come to know the true nature of pain, it simply is firing of C-Fibers. Even most Functionalist [...]

The following is a translation of a paper I wrote for my Techno-Utopia & Cyberculture course from 2 semesters ago. Enjoy: The issue of Personal Identity is a complex subject, which raises many difficult questions. What is a Person? That which thinks the thoughts I have? Is it identical to my body? Is it my [...]

Tom n’ Jerry cartoons get a makeover. It seems the latest program in revisionist Orwellian historiography is to edit out scenes in vintage cartoons in which the main characters smoke, in a manner which is not depicted as a blatant mistake or wrongdoing. Villians in the show will still be allowed to keep their fags. [...]

Last night a street rave was “blown” (as the expression in Hebrew goes) by the police. The rave was organized by some anarcho-communist punks, with all sorts of live performances, art installations and whatnot. You’d even get a discount if you brought food and supplies for the needie. Though witness reports seem a bit confusing, [...]

Cory Doctorow has recently posted a couple of interesting posts having to deal with ‘fanfiction’ on the best blog on all of the internets, BoingBoing. There is a notion of “original” work compared with “derivative” work, and the legal differences between these supposed separate states of affair. Creators hold intellectual property rights to their works [...]

This is a paper I wrote for my course in Order, Chaos and Complexity (given by the wonderfully -talented but stingy on the grade Dr. Yoav Ben-Dov, who I wholeheartedly recommend studying with if you ever have the chance). I figured since it was in English, I may as well post it here for posterity. [...]

Yesterday I attended a symposium by the Porter Institute for Poetics and Semiotics on the subject of Synaesthesia; Seeing the Voices: A multi-disciplinary view of Synaesthesia and Cross-modal Transfers. Speakers included Roland Posner (TU – Berlin), Daniel Algom (My psychophysics and cogpsy prof.), Gerald C Cupchik (University of Toronto), and others. It was particularly interesting [...]