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A journey from neurons to guilt, from prediction to philosophy, from perception to selfhood. 1. The Humble Neuron This is a neuron: For simplicity sake I'll just draw it like this:  >----< It’s a special type of cell — a nerve cell — responsible for processing and transmitting information in the brain and throughout the body. There are about 86 billion neurons in the human brain alone. On its own, it doesn’t do much.  - It doesn’t think, feel, or decide. - It holds no memory, no guilt, no remorse. But when a strong enough signal reaches it — through the receiving branches called dendrites — the neuron fires: sending an electrical impulse down its long arm, the axon, toward other neurons. At the end of the axon, the signal must cross a tiny gap — a synapse — where it becomes chemical and activates the next neuron: Once again for simplicity stake I'll draw it like this:  >---<○>---< And here's where it gets interesting: - The more often two neurons fire to...

1. On 'Stupid' Technically, stupid means: “Having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense.” To me, Stupid ≠ low cognitive processing power, Stupid = a refusal to use the processing power available. Perhaps a better definition is: Stupid = the willful avoidance of moral or cognitive recursion. - Have access to better cognition, but choose not to use it - Ignore contradiction even when it’s pointed out - Lack curiosity, nuance, or recursive thought - Default to tribalism, slogans, and binary thinking - Repeat harmful behaviors while refusing reflection Meaning: Trait Description Anti-recursive Refuses to loop on their own thoughts or beliefs Qualia-flattened Can’t hold emotional complexity, reacts with instinct only Meme-locked Lives inside inherited engrams, never questions them Context-impervious Doesn’t adjust based on nuance or situation Ethically inert Doesn’t feel the weight of their choices unless personally affected And what I'm m...

I didn’t expect to find genocide in the Bible. As part of some research I was doing while writing a novel, I had to go back and re-read Ezra and Nehemiah. I knew they existed in the Bible, but never gave much thought to it. The endless list of names that returned from Babylon to Israel is quite mind numbing, like reading the endless rules in Leviticus or Numbers. And it wasn't like Ezra or Nehemiah play a critical role in Christian theology so I've always skimmed it. But this time, because I was forced to, I read the stories for the first time, or should I say I noticed the stories for the first time. And it shocked me to my core. For it was a story of a form of genocide; cultural genocide to be more exact. The Israelites (or more accurately the Judahites) return after 70 years of exile in Babylon. They find the Temple ruined but surprisingly a lot of people. These people welcome the exiles and offer to help with the rebuilding of the Temple and the walls around Jerusalem. It t...

We stand at the edge of multiple crises. Ecological disaster looms as we deplete the world’s resources and poison the land we live on. Global temperatures rise, and adverse weather conditions grow more extreme. At some point soon, we may pass a threshold from which we can no longer prevent the collapse of our environment. At the same time, technology accelerates at an unprecedented pace. Paired with globalization and the relentless machinery of late-stage capitalism, millions are losing their livelihoods to AI and automation. Disconnected from work, from meaning, and from one another, many find themselves alienated in a world no longer built for them. More deeply, we are experiencing a crisis of meaning itself; many of us feel the world and our place in it no longer feel solid . The structures that once held us — religion, philosophy, community — have fractured. Philosophy questioned religion, then turned its skeptical gaze upon itself, leaving us with fractured ideologies and compet...

Decent People I’ve done nothing wrong. I was raised on soil, on names, on truths that built this place. And now you tell me to bow, to doubt, to unlearn. I will not. I owe no apology for the blood in my veins, the stories I keep, the pride I carry. You call it hate — I call it home. You call it fear — I call it knowing where I belong. I am not lost. I see clearly. It is you who drift, who tear down what you could never build. I stand on ground my fathers worked, under a flag they bled to raise. I will not kneel. I will not forget. My beliefs are not wrong. My voice will not fade. And when the time comes, I will rise with all those you tried to silence. But wait — Are we not the decent ones? Those of us who defend the old ways, who honor what came before, who stand for what is right? Then why do I feel this knot in my chest, this whisper in my mind? Why does it sting when I see others called to stand alongside us, and yet we mock them, shame them for speaking truth? Maybe it’s not us wh...