About
These are essays and articles that have largely shaped my thinking. They're mostly about science and philosophy. I love essays because they can be bite-sized, succinct, and parsimonious bits of enlightenment.
Most of the essays are hosted by me, and as such they have a unifying look. If the original source is online, that is also linked to. Some of the essays are from OCR scans, and I've tried to correct the errors in these as best I can. I have also changed the punctuation style to the one I use myself. If there are some I've missed, feel free to tell me.
The list
- Transgressing the Boundaries external by Alan Sokal (1996)
- A hoax paper by a real physicist, "Transgressing the Boundaries" is peppered with nonsense, as an experiment to see if it would be accepted by a journal in postmodern social studies, Social Text (it was). Sokal explains why he did it.
- Computing Machinery and Intelligence external by Alan Turing (1950)
- The paper in which what is now called the Turing Test is laid out. The first part is about the test proper, and the second about possible objections to the proposition "Can machines think?"
- 1967 on-site by Bertrand Russell (1967) (Source)
- Russell's last essay, which deals in what I like to call militant pacifism.
- Why I Am Not a Christian on-site by Bertrand Russell (1926) (Source)
- An excellent essay which touches on all the good reasons for not being a Christian (like the doctrine of hell and the dubious teachings of Christ).
- Why the Future Doesn't Need Us on-site by Bill Joy (2000) (Source)
- Bill Joy advocates caution and prudence with the development of potentially devastating technologies.
- Can We Know the Universe? on-site by Carl Sagan (1979) (Source)
- Can we ultimately understand the Universe? The answer depends on whether you use brute force or clever shortcuts.
- Mr. X on-site by Carl Sagan (1969) (Source)
- Carl Sagan originally wrote this essay under the psuedonym Mr. X (which is also the title), in which he describes his experiences with smoking cannabis.
- The Burden of Skepticism on-site by Carl Sagan (1987) (Source)
- This essay advocates skepticism and argues that everyone has it. It's also a wonderful defence and explanation of skepticism.
- The Dragon In My Garage on-site by Carl Sagan (1997) (Source)
- What's the difference between an invisible, incorporeal, floating dragon who spits heatless fire and no dragon at all?
- The Fine Art of Baloney Detection on-site by Carl Sagan (1996) (Source)
- An essay on the essential tools of skepticism (like Occam's Razor) and logical fallacies (like a false dichotomy).
- Metacrap on-site by Cory Doctorow (2001) (Source)
- Explains why perfect metadata will never be. (Alas.)
- Where Am I? on-site by Daniel C. Dennett (1978) (Source)
- What if your brain were kept in a vat but connected to the nerve stumps in your skull? Where would you be?
- A Coffeehouse Conversation on the Turing Test external by Douglas R. Hofstadter (1981)
- Three people (a physics student, a biology student, and a philosophy student) having a conversation about the Turing Test, with a postscript by Hofstadter about an experience he had with a clever program over teletype.
- Twelve Virtues of Rationality on-site by Eliezer Yudkowsky (2006) (Source)
- Describes virtues of rationality. It's a fine, poetic expression of scientific methods.
- SF Words and Prototype Worlds on-site by Eric S. Raymond (2002) (Source)
- Explains why science fiction is unlike other branches of literature and how reading SF is an acquired skill.
- From Man in the Universe on-site by Fred Hoyle (1966)
- A short excerpt about the computer in our heads (the brain).
- Politics and the English Language on-site by George Orwell (1945)
- This essay presents five specimens of bad English (from politics and science) and explains what is wrong with them (vagueness and total disregard for the meanings of words).
- From Dangerous Visions: Foreword 2—Harlan and I on-site by Isaac Asimov (1967)
- A funny story of how one science fiction author met another.
- The Modern Demonology on-site by Isaac Asimov (1962)
- The demon of chemistry gives birth to the demon of biology.
- The New Teachers on-site by Isaac Asimov (1976)
- Speculation on teaching machines. This essay is pretty prescient for its age.
- The Relativity of Wrong on-site by Isaac Asimov (1988)
- Explains why there is a continuum from right to wrong. (Note: All the online versions of this essay that I could find had a huge chunk of the text missing, so this one links to one I made myself, directly from the essay collection.)
- What Is the Universe? on-site by Isaac Asimov (1987)
- Asimov elegantly explains the basic structure of the universe.
- Whatever You Wish on-site by Isaac Asimov (1977)
- In an age of total automation, every profession will be an elective.
- On Being the Right Size on-site by J. B. S. Haldane (1928) (Source)
- Explores what it means for animals to be of differing sizes. For instance, insects are very much aware of the thin cohesive film on top of water which enables them to walk on it, but are hardly aware of the force of gravity. Humans, on the other hand, are oblivious to surface tension but very well aware of falling.
- A Modest Proposal on-site by Jonathan Swift (1729) (Source)
- A satirical pamphlet advocating the sale of Irish infants for food to Englishmen.
- Seven Wonders on-site by Lewis Thomas (1983) (Source)
- An attempt at coming up with seven modern wonders of the world.
- The Awful German Language external by Mark Twain (1880)
- A satire on the various absurdities of the German language.
- Thoughts of God on-site by Mark Twain (1900) (Source)
- The argument from the problem of evil encapsulated in a story about the creation of the fly.
- A Skeptical Look at Karl Popper on-site by Martin Gardner (2001) (Source)
- "If Popper bet on a certain horse to win a race, and the horse won, you would not expect him to shout, 'Great! My horse failed to lose!'"
- Philosophy of Science 101 on-site by Massimo Pigliucci (2004) (Source)
- A pretty short introduction of the big ideas in the philosophy of science.
- Is Google Making Us Stupid? on-site by Nicholas Carr (2008) (Source)
- Argues that with the advent of fast retrieval of information (Google), knowledge is becoming more and more superficial.
- One Self on-site by Nicholas Humphrey (1997) (Source)
- Using the metaphor of an orchestra and a dancer to illustrate the initial fragmentation and later unity of consciousness.
- Awesome Versus Adipose on-site by Peter Atkins (1998) (Source)
- An essay about the incompatibility between science and religion.
- From The Periodic Table on-site by Primo Levi (1975)
- Follows a carbon atom as it moves about the world, giving an exciting narrative to an otherwise common-place event.
- A Godless Ramble Against the Ditherings of Theologians on-site by PZ Myers (2006) (Source)
- A down-to-Earth reply to theological sophistry.
- Elephants' Wings on-site by PZ Myers (2009) (Source)
- A story about four blind people bumping into an elephant in their path. Three are scientists, one is a philosopher.
- Planet of the Hats on-site by PZ Myers (2006) (Source)
- Why the hatless are upset that the hat-clad are hot-headed about hats.
- The Courtier's Reply on-site by PZ Myers (2006) (Source)
- Criticism of something doesn't require the full immersion in the subject being criticized.
- Why We Need Academic Freedom to Question Newtonism on-site by PZ Myers (2008) (Source)
- A satirical critique of the current Newtonian orthodoxy in American universities and its staunch refusal to teach the controversy.
- An eclipse? It's my kind of magic on-site by Richard Dawkins (1999) (Source)
- Explains eclipses and extols the precision with which they can be predicted.
- From The Ancestor's Tale: Deep Green on-site by Richard Dawkins (2004)
- A short explanation of a computer program on the internet for viewing the Tree of Life.
- Gaps in the Mind on-site by Richard Dawkins (1993) (Source)
- Deals with the artificial wall of separation between humans as humans and every other creature as animal. The discontinuous mind is everywhere.
- Postmodernism Disrobed on-site by Richard Dawkins (1998) (Source)
- A review of Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont's Intellectual Impostures and general fun-poking at postmodernism.
- Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder on-site by Richard Dawkins (2006) (Source)
- Science is cumulative, and it's more than able to fill your appetite for wonder.
- The Real Romance in the Stars on-site by Richard Dawkins (1995) (Source)
- A scathing denunciation of astrology. Delicious!
- There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom on-site by Richard P. Feynman (1960) (Source)
- A classic essay (actually a lecture) on nanotechnology.
- Individuality on-site by Robert Green Ingersoll (1873) (Source)
- Paints a picture of life as a huge plain upon which rests several road-signs (with people tending them) and extols individuality and free thought.
- Evolution as Fact and Theory on-site by Stephen Jay Gould (1981) (Source)
- Explains why evolution is both a fact and a theory.
- September 11, 1901 on-site by Stephen Jay Gould (2001) (Source)
- A solid avowal that the decency of many will prevail over the evil of few.
- Size and Shape on-site by Stephen Jay Gould (1974) (Source)
- When an object is enlarged, its volume increases faster than does its surface, and the same is true of animals. Gould compares insects (which don't have, or need, lungs) to large animals (which do).
- The Median Isn't The Message on-site by Stephen Jay Gould (1982) (Source)
- Gould explains the mean, the median, and the skewing of distributions on a Bell curve. The title is a play on the famous phrase "The medium is the message" coined by Marshall McLuhan.
- The Neverhood Chronicles on-site by The Neverhood, Inc. (1996)
- The creation myth of the Neverhood universe.
- Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution on-site by Theodosius Dobzhansky (1973) (Source)
- An essay about the explanatory power of evolution.
There are 53 essays in the catalog.