In his book “I Am a Strange Loop”, Douglas Hofstadter argues that complex feedback loops in the brain are the origin of consciousness and the illusion of self. That illusion is absent or muted in lower life forms. In consequence, it is ethically neutral to swat a mosquito, which is a half step above an […]
Gaia Theory
Leaky Margins
For the last few years I have been following the fascinating discussion around what is socially transmitted and what is not. (Here’s an earlier post on this topic.) While the claim that happiness is contagious (and the subject of the lead article about the work of Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler in the Sunday New […]