Null Imposter

There is a major misdirection that is overlooked in the idea of artificial intelligence, something that is closely linked with the the idea of free will (the term "artificial free will" would be suitable for comparison). For those of us who understand free will as a fallacy, there can therefore be no basis for something so closely connected to it. To assume that something that does not exist can be faked is absurd.

Freedom Placebo

The political and religious rhetoric by those who claim to support "freedom" seems to be effective in the same manner as a placebo effect; the power is in the belief of the claim, not in its truth.

Separate Illusions

While recognizing selected elements of any grouping or system are helpful, they often mask the aggregated reality from where they were plucked, damaging an appropriate and unharmed binding view of existence.

Misplaced Power of Names

When contemplating things like souls, mermaids and phlogiston, it's always important to remember that naming a mirage doesn't make it real.

Complementary Dependence

Added insight into the placebo effect might come from seeing it as just a single example of the improvement one experiences when given any kind of positive attention by others, including things like respect, encouragement, compassion, love, gifts--and anything else perceived as a positive gesture from another.

Incidental Weather

It's interesting how inclement is used almost exclusively to describe weather and clement is never used at all--in any context.

Pretend Timelessness

When it comes to creations as diverse as dictionaries, religions, philosophies, and rules of law, we too often fail to remember that legitimacy dissolves if they are not regularly updated. We create these things to meet temporary perceived needs and, therefore, they must be updated regularly as conditions change and information improves. We should never see ourselves as beholden to anything we create.

Dirty Money

It is a tidy truism that no one deserves to be dirt poor or filthy rich.

Erroneous Equine Ingenuity

Some people use their impression of "horse sense" to measure veracity, vastly embellishing their ingenuity.

"The mind of a horse is a very limited concern relying almost entirely upon memory. He rivals our politicians in that he has little real intellect." -Apsley Cherry-Garrard

Peace Out of Water

How we approach things like money, education, business, legal processes, religion, literature, science, and more have at their cores the idea that conflict is to be celebrated as the crowning achievement of human behavior. It is a bitter paradox that so many also claim peace can be produced by these adversarial systems driven by dispute.

Clearly Wrong

Astrology: Taking as valid the conclusions reached when using a clear night sky as a Rorschach test.

The Genius of Insanity

Genius is sometimes described as the ability to make connections where others can't, but so is insanity.

Physical Exemption

To assert free will as valid, there must also be a companion claim asserted as true that molecules and atoms become exempt from the laws of physics when they come together to form a human.