The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow. — Bill Gates By the end of 1969, four computers worldwide made up the Internet. By the mid-1980s, this “networking system” had expanded to dozens of universities as it let scholars easily search and collaborate on research all across the country. In…
You must learn a new way to think before you can master a new way to be. — Marianne Williamson Today’s topic took a bit of courage for me to write about. It’s hard to put any version of yourself on the Internet that isn’t perfect, our strong social motivations always wanting to portray ourselves from…
There is nothing so wretched or foolish as to anticipate misfortunes. What madness it is to be expecting evil before it arrives! — Lucius Annaeus Seneca With the final days of the 2016-2017 school year, I found myself in perilous straits: manuscripts to finish, final talks to give, papers and exams to grade, this whole “sleep” thing…
We’re fascinated with robots because they are reflections of ourselves. — Ken Goldberg If you watch The Terminator, robots aren’t really that great to humans—unless being besties in the future entails enslavement and eradication. Indeed, most movies with “sentient” robots paint them somewhat malevolently (e.g., The Matrix; I, Robot; all of the other Terminator movies). In our own…
Cultivation of mind should be the ultimate aim of human existence. — B.R. Ambedkar Would you like to be a member of The Mind Club? Without even knowing what this club’s about, you might already think, Yea, that sounds cool. Minds are good. And indeed having a mind is a good thing–in fact, it may be the…
Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door. — engraved inside The Statue of Liberty On Friday, January 27th, President Trump signed an executive order banning citizens of…