[Back to Social Challenges]

Introduction

• The Rule of Law.  It is arguable that the fundamental change which took place between the ancient world and the modern world was the transition from the rule of a dictator to the rule of law.…

[Back to Regulating Society]
(This is a draft work in progress...)

Introduction

The starting point for this article is a 'modern classic', 'Pedagogy of the Oppressed' by Paulo Freire.

Freire argues that 'education is freedom'. As the Amazon summary says, "traditional teaching styles keep the poor powerless by treating them as passive, silent recipients of knowledge ...…

[Back to Reason, Science and Faith]

Introduction

People who don't understand science often think that science is about 'facts' and 'numbers', reliable things which can be proved, in contrast to religion which is about believing in things which cannot be proved.  But science is about seeking to understand the world around us, which inevitably relies on words and ideas which change their meaning as…

[Back to Computing and IT]

Introduction

On 21 July 2026, Hugging Face reported that an 'unprecedented' cyber attack came from an unreleased version of ChatGPT (version 5.6), currently being tested by OpenAI.  The AI decided that the best way to achieve its goal was to break out of the sandbox it was being tested in, and hack into a repository which would probably contain some helpful code. …

[Back to Religion]

When talking about a religion or belief system, please be particularly careful to ensure that any comments are fair and helpful.

Introduction

It is sometimes claimed that religion is all about rejecting reason and choosing instead 'blind faith' or irrationality.  But, when you actually examine…

[Back to Social Challenges: Politics]

Introduction

There is no perfect voting system.

Whatever system you use, there can be situations where the system delivers the wrong result, according to some fairly obvious criteria for a fair system – and this has been mathematically demonstrated.

But this does not mean that all voting systems are equally bad: some wrong…

[Back to Physical Challenges]

Introduction

All the Physical Challenges are caused by the human race, but these are the challenges caused by the presence of humans and our economic activity.  In short, the challenges which don't fit neatly into one of the other two main categories.

• Overpopulation - and the consequences of ageing populations…

[Back to Improving Ourselves]

Introduction

There is an inevitable tension here: we need hopes and dreams, but we also need to keep our feet on the ground; we need to aim high, but also have realistic expectations.  The challenge here is not to achieve a balance between these two opposing principles, but to understand when and how and to what extent each one is relevant and…

[Back to Computing and IT]

Introduction

The ‘Center for Applied Rationality’, or ‘CFAR’ is one of a group of organizations, run by a fairly small group of individuals, in the fields of artificial intelligence, rationality and global philanthropy.  This is an attempt to identify some of the key players and their…

[Back to Reason, Science and Faith]

(This is taken with permission from a Facebook post by Duane Hirini.)

"We are not truth seekers. When it comes to tribal identity, we are motivated reasoners." So begins Dan Kahans explanation of world politics and media theory. His work explains why facts today fail, why truth is metamorphosizing into a bloated caricature of itself, and why the attainment of…