The idea of the Earth’s Carrying Capacity necessarily involving more than just the amount of food we can produce can lead to some pretty depressing thoughts. I shall ramble about them a trifle.I wish people (at least a majority in democratic countries) would gain the sophisticated insight and breadth of consideration to be able to make decisions favoring sustainability. But I also recognize that most people behave in a short-term and selfish manner (and always have – there’s a surprisingly insightful book about the greed of America’s founding “Freedom Just Around the Corner“).

This idea lies at the heart of many of my current notions about government and its appropriate role: I believe a significant majority of people are kind, earnest, generous and hopeful, fully entitled to life, liberty and their pursuit of happiness. I also believe (like Hamilton, for whom I have a profound affection), that human institutions which govern by consistently supporting the free actions of the majority court peril when such majorities are energized by passion, focused only on self-interest, or bereft of wisdom.

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There’s a fun freethinker / humanist blog which collects some nice information about public policy in the U.S. as it relates to rationalism, scientific integrity and humanism.

Although I have some niggling concerns about humanism (almost identical to those expressed here), I find myself agreeing with most humanists most of the time.

In any case… Nanovirus is fun and informative.

The Internet is an impartial tool with which we can support our delusions of reality, or conversely build an objective and valid world-view.  The tendency is toward the former, it takes intention and education to pursue the latter course…

I’ve been reading “The Varieties of Scientific Experience” by the late Carl Sagan. I love Sagan’s publicly available writings, and I agree whole-heartedly with every bit of his thinking I’ve come across regarding skepticism, reason, agnosticism, scientific investigation and his recommendations for social agendas. In fact, I agree so vehemently that I wonder why I should bother reading his book. It is essentially mental masturbation; an opportunity for pounding my fist, clapping my hands and exclaiming “YEAH!!”. From my personal perspective the book is mostly bereft of new material which might persuade or inform me. But I love Carl, and the book contains some interesting anecdotes which were otherwise unknown to me. I find myself feeling guilty about “wasting time” while reading it though, since it does not really move my mind into new territory.

I often attend meetings of the Kendall County Democrats, where I am able to join folks with some similar opinions about politics, policy and candidates. So far, we have never discussed policy, theory, position or strategy. In any case, there has never been any debate which challenges me, or causes me to question my preexisting conclusions. Again, I wonder if the benefit of my attendance is limited due to the homogeneity of the experience.

My favorite websites include those which convey information about current scientific discoveries, pragmatic and rational political theory, scientifically-augmented positions on economic and social policy and environmentally sustainable conservation. I never visit sites with active dialogues about the Christian Rapture, anti-abortion, theories of politics or policy viewed as divinely sanctioned, anti-minority rants, those with unscientifically supportable contentions about global warming or the environment, theories regarding mystical “energy”, homeopathy, pseudoscience, or any of a million other perspective which are anathema to my personal preference for pragmatic, scientific and compassionate philosophies of life. I like learning new things and discovering alternative perspectives, but a vast number of my fundamental views are never likely to change – and I don’t seek to do so.

The Internet is a fantastic tool for finding information. One can find an arbitrarily large amount of argumentation, “data”, pithy quotes, personal claims and opinions and passionately held positions on pretty much anything one wishes to investigate. Certainly a similar statement can be made regarding other media – whether print, television, radio or special-interest clubs; but the Internet brings the largest quantity of information, it brings it for a trivially low price, and it can bring it to you in private.

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