Category: Smart Things

QOTD: Kubrick does philosophy

Here’s a quote from Stanley Kubrick, in a Playboy interview, that captures a number of ideas I’ve liked for a long time (there’s echoes of Russell, zen, and Lovecraft in there) in a lovely formulation: PLAYBOY: If life is so purposeless, do you feel that it’s worth living? KUBRICK : Yes, for those of us who manage somehow to cope… Read more →

Smart Things: KSR on leaving the Earth

When I consider the solar system as our working neighborhood, I am reminded not of “the final frontier,” but of Antarctica. Our Antarctic stations are a bit like moon bases that we can reach with airplanes. We staff them with rotating crews, and carry out interesting and useful research, but fully inhabiting the ice is not crucial to progress in… Read more →

Today’s Brilliant Quote

Spotted on Jonathan Carroll’s blog today: “The secret of life,” said sculptor Henry Moore to poet Donald Hall, “is to have a task, something you devote your entire life to, something you bring everything to, every minute of the day for your whole life. And the most important thing is—it must be something you cannot possibly do.” Yes, I quite… Read more →

Sf Writers Say Smart Things: Sterling Again

“But, although we’re very good at giving ourselves things to buy, we’re not very good at understanding ourselves. We don’t really know what we want. And that’s really a cultural vaccuum there–it’s kind of a lack. And it’s becoming sinister.” —Bruce Sterling The most stinging part of this observation is that the idea that self-knowledge is a key part of… Read more →

SF Authors Say Smart Things: Speaking Of Wisdom…

You know what I’m tried of? Cynicism that blocks honest attempts to improve the situation. People trying to seem soooo “plugged in” and “been around the block” by acting like shock and anger are inappropriate and even childish reactions to deplorable, illegal, and occasionally reprehenisble behaviour. I could try to make this thought clear, but since immensely talented writer Emma… Read more →

SF Writers Say Smart Things: Scalzi on Context

Whatever » From the “People This Lacking in Self-Awareness Really Shouldn’t Be Allowed to Speak in Public Ever Again” Files But, you know what, there’s “graduate from good schools and work hard in public service” elite, and then there’s “make millions in corporate America and marry into the family that owned the mortgage on Europe” elite. Those are two entirely… Read more →

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada
This work by Chris McLaren is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada.