https://www.sott.net/category/20-Science-of-the-Spirit Signs of the Times: The World for People who Think. Featuring independent, unbiased, alternative news and commentary on world events. en-us Original content Copyright 2026 by Signs of the Times/Sott.net. For other content, see our Fair Use Policy at www.sott.net. Thu, 18 Jun 2026 20:37:18 +0000 https://www.sott.net/images/sottlogo_rss.jpg SOTT.net https://www.sott.net https://www.sott.net/article/506953-Top-Down-Solutions-Dont-Work I have written about this many times, but I don't think I have ever written a whole article about it. If I am, indeed, repeating myself, my apologies to my long-time readers. That said, it deserves repeating. Let me first explain what I mean by "top-down and bottom-up." I use this phrase often in my psychotherapy work. I believe most therapy is designed to be top-down. This is where symptoms are treated, but not the cause of the symptoms. The first culprit on this list is typical psychiatry, where a 15-minute assessment determines a diagnosis, and a diagnosis determines medication protocol. If this modality of mental illness treatment worked, it would be an effective means of treatment. But like most things in life, determining the efficacy of this approach is not black and white; it actually does work in certain situations, for various reasons, but doesn't in others. Shrew Views is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free... https://www.sott.net/article/506953-Top-Down-Solutions-Dont-Work Thu, 18 Jun 2026 20:34:38 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506860-Raising-girls-who-wont-be-bullied-off-the-starting-line The parents of California high school track athlete Reese Hogan did something no parent should have to do. They went to the press to ask why Gov. Gavin Newsom is fine letting a biological boy compete against their daughter for a girls' title. Reese put in the hard work required for a girl to take home the title. Reese is the one who deserves the trophy. But in 2026, asking for a fair race makes you the troublemaker. A few hundred miles up the coast, Nicki Minaj said she's done biting her tongue. Her California home keeps getting "swatted," and Newsom's office hasn't lifted a finger. She accuses Jay-Z and Roc Nation of trying to destroy her career. To be clear, Minaj has made choices and taken positions many conservative Christians wouldn't endorse. But that's precisely what makes this so revealing. Even someone who once fit in so comfortably within an elite cultural crowd can be cast out the moment she refuses total ideological conformity. She has become a whistleblower of what... https://www.sott.net/article/506860-Raising-girls-who-wont-be-bullied-off-the-starting-line Fri, 12 Jun 2026 19:36:31 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506828-Consciousness-likely-not-unique-to-earthlings-paper-says Drawing on Copernican tradition, philosophers argue for plausibility of other kinds of sentient life. Does consciousness depend on flesh and blood? The answer is almost certainly no, according to Eric Schwitzgebel, a distinguished professor of philosophy at the University of California, Riverside. In a new working paper, Schwitzgebel and Jeremy Pober, a former UCR graduate student who is now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Lisbon, assert that consciousness is likely possible in life forms made of much different stuff. Think of the five-limbed alien with a rock-like exterior in the recent blockbuster movie "Project Hail Mary." Schwitzgebel and Pober do not attempt to define consciousness; they proceed from the heuristic premise that it's a real and recognizable phenomenon. Instead, they ask a narrower question: Must it be tied to the biology found on Earth? The paper comes at a time when the question of conscious artificial intelligence looms large, fueling dreams and... https://www.sott.net/article/506828-Consciousness-likely-not-unique-to-earthlings-paper-says Thu, 11 Jun 2026 18:02:51 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506728-Sophrosyne-An-ancient-Greek-virtue-that-matters-more-than-ever-in-the-age-of-AI Texting while driving. Bullying people on social media. Buying into the latest conspiracy theory. Passing off AI-generated work as your own. That may seem like a random list of 21st-century vices. But I'd argue they're all examples of the loss of one particular virtue: sophrosyne. An ancient Greek concept, sophrosyne - pronounced "suh-fros-uh-nee" - is what we might call "sound-mindedness" today. It's a constellation of characteristics, including moderation, reflectiveness and self-knowledge. They're found in the kind of person who can respect and trust herself, and be respected and trusted by others. As a philosopher and philosophical counselor, I research the connection between virtue and happiness. In particular, I've noticed a connection between sophrosyne and eudaimonia, the Greek philosophical concept for happiness, or living well. https://www.sott.net/article/506728-Sophrosyne-An-ancient-Greek-virtue-that-matters-more-than-ever-in-the-age-of-AI Sat, 06 Jun 2026 15:30:49 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506694-Discipline Another admirable human trait that has gone the way of the Dodo. It certainly disappeared from my life early on — if it was ever there to begin with. If I had to pick the number one thing that has gotten in the way of my goals, I'd say it's the lack of discipline. For me, it hasn't been a total lack, but it's right up there at the top of the list. So, exactly what is discipline? A simplistic way to define it would be this: practicing discipline means consistently doing something that doesn't bring immediate pleasure, but in the end delivers the goals you actually want. And here comes instant gratification again — that evil little trickster that seems to be Public Enemy Number One these days. I'm sure you're all familiar with the marshmallow experiment. Conducted in the late 1960s and early 1970s by psychologist Walter Mischel at Stanford University, it tested delayed gratification in preschool-aged children. A kid was left alone in a room with one marshmallow (or sometimes a cookie... https://www.sott.net/article/506694-Discipline Thu, 04 Jun 2026 17:33:59 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506649-Are-World-Leaders-Possessed-The-Ancient-Technology-of-Demonic-Transfer The Vatican just declared a global emergency. Tucker Carlson called the President the Antichrist. A historian who infiltrated a UN-connected mystery school explains what you are watching unfold. According to the oldest surviving mythology on earth, kings did not rule alone. Each one had a demon assigned to him. The Sumerians called them Apkallu. They were divine counselors, and they whispered in the ear of the ruler. I am a historian who studied inside a UN-connected mystery school. This is what I have spent a decade learning about what you are watching. The word "museum" comes from the Greek mouseion: a temple where spirits entered the people who came seeking knowledge. Homer did not write the Iliad. He asked a goddess to possess him and use his voice. The opening line is the request: "Sing, O goddess." Everyone is using the word possessed lately. The more popular term, as of late, has been "Demonic Transfer Technology." They say it like a metaphor. What if there is a pragmatic,... https://www.sott.net/article/506649-Are-World-Leaders-Possessed-The-Ancient-Technology-of-Demonic-Transfer Mon, 01 Jun 2026 16:56:32 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506574-The-Demonization-of-Men-and-everyone-else-too Imagine the following message in a public space: Caution: Area of Frequent Attempts at Reputational Destruction by Females I have never seen a sign bearing the above message in any public space, nor do I want to. Similarly, I have never seen a sign near a heavily African American neighborhood that says: "Caution, entering an area in which your chances of being the victim of a violent crime are statistically proven to be much higher than in other places." And again, I do not want to. My reasons for not wanting to ever read these things are, or should be, self-evident to any reasonably thoughtful person: it is never permissible in a society that purports to be democratic to have the state apparatus cast moral aspersions upon an entire subset of the culture on the basis of that subset's immutable characteristics. And yet, in many municipalities in the US and Europe there is a trend toward posting signs in public transport that, in various levels of explicitness, point toward all men... https://www.sott.net/article/506574-The-Demonization-of-Men-and-everyone-else-too Thu, 28 May 2026 18:49:40 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506521-The-importance-of-inexpert-opinion I was out with a friend for lunch the other day (yeah, I still have a few of those left). This friend leans more to the liberal side of things. He certainly doesn't care for Trump, is a vax advocate, etc. A very nice guy, I have to say — a superb artist, an excellent father, and just a good all-around person. I won't go off on a tangent here, but sheep types are typically not bad people. They are just like us, only asleep. Anyway, I digress. Needless to say, our conversation focused on music and other safe subjects and didn't venture into the dark zone of world politics, public health, and the like. But he did say one thing that got me thinking. It's something you hear often, and usually when you hear it, the person saying it is rather livid. They just can't believe it, and they present it as if it is one of the main reasons the world is going to shit. "Why does everyone think they are an expert and run off at the mouth all of the time? Why can't they just shut up and listen to the... https://www.sott.net/article/506521-The-importance-of-inexpert-opinion Mon, 25 May 2026 19:08:37 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506466-France-19-year-old-wakes-up-from-3-week-coma-asks-to-meet-her-babies-who-never-existed In France, when 19-year-old Clélia Verdier woke up from a medically induced coma, her first instinct was to ask for her three daughters. Instead, doctors shattered the reality she had been living in: the children had never existed. Verdier, from Lyon in France, had slipped into a coma in June 2025 after what she described to the Daily Mail as a "serious suicide attempt by taking a large amount of medication". She remained in a medically induced coma for three weeks — but inside her mind, an entirely different life unfolded. Unaware that she was unconscious, Verdier experienced what she described as "extremely intense" dreams and nightmares that became indistinguishable from reality. Among them was a vivid and emotional journey of becoming a mother. https://www.sott.net/article/506466-France-19-year-old-wakes-up-from-3-week-coma-asks-to-meet-her-babies-who-never-existed Fri, 22 May 2026 18:03:56 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506402-The-Noble-Savage Eisenhower warned us: "Beware the military-industrial complex." Those words are widely remembered. Less so the companion warning: "Holding scientific discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific technological elite." That second warning may prove the more prophetic. The convergence of those two forces - the industrial machinery of power and the technological elite capable of shaping reality itself - is where we now find ourselves. The AI singularity is typically described as the point at which artificial intelligence surpasses human intelligence, triggering an uncontrollable "intelligence explosion." At this tipping point, AI becomes capable of recursive self-improvement...designing smarter versions of itself...leading to rapid, unpredictable, and profound and irreversible change in human civilization. We are told this is imminent. https://www.sott.net/article/506402-The-Noble-Savage Tue, 19 May 2026 17:11:53 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506362-We-may-be-entering-a-second-Axial-Age The transition from small hunter-gatherer societies into complex civilizations gave rise to the first Axial Age. Today, the planetary polycrisis of climate chaos, mass migration, increasing warfare and transformative AI represents a rupture of comparable magnitude. I owe the primary inspiration for my life's work to growing up on a family farm. Sixty-eight years ago, my parents transformed their farming methods from conventional to regenerative, prioritizing long-term soil resilience over short-term crop yields. And what I learned from my father is this: The quality of what grows above the ground depends on the quality of the soil beneath it. Today, many decades later and many thousands of miles from the farm, my work focuses on cultivating the social soil: the relationships, awareness and shared sensemaking from which all visible social systems grow. When the social soil is healthy — when trust runs deep, when shared reality holds, when people can communicate and sense together... https://www.sott.net/article/506362-We-may-be-entering-a-second-Axial-Age Sun, 17 May 2026 14:24:11 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506109-Can-we-really-trust-our-feelings Sure, as long as we are conscious of their true origins. And even if not, sometimes we can trust, other times no. Feelings are odd things. They can come out of nowhere, or they can be highly circumstantial — like the rush of extreme fear when a bear jumps aggressively from behind a tree. They can also be mysterious "gut feelings." Usually, we have some awareness of their unconscious underpinnings. We sense whether a feeling is a solid "gut" instinct, something "creepy," or simply "good" — as in, "I just liked that guy; there was something about him that made me feel comfortable and trusting." But . . . and it's a big "but," we know we have to be careful. The guy or gal who sweeps us off our feet on a first date needs further scrutiny. We have all fallen into that pit, haven't we? It is a deep, dark chasm, and usually very difficult to climb out of. Did you ever wonder why, back in the day, marriage engagements often lasted what seemed an eternity? There were many social and... https://www.sott.net/article/506109-Can-we-really-trust-our-feelings Mon, 04 May 2026 18:23:05 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/505955-Euthanasia-is-now-6-of-all-deaths-in-the-Netherlands-experts-urge-caution-against-youths-choosing-to-die Dutch experts have warned that those under the age of 25 in particular do not have the decision-making abilities to properly consider ending their own life. Euthanasia is now responsible for 6 percent of all deaths in the Netherlands, and this figure is increasing every year. According to a report by the regional euthanasia review committee (RTE), cited by the news portal Hirado, 10,341 people died by euthanasia in 2025, and while three-quarters of the applicants were over 70 years old, one case involved someone between the age of 12 and 18. The number of those choosing to die by euthanasia due to mental illnesses decreased by almost a fifth (174 cases), but more than 85 percent suffered from physical diseases such as cancer, nervous system disorders, and lung or cardiovascular diseases. There were 499 cases of euthanasia performed on patients with dementia, and the RTE investigated 11 cases where the patient was no longer competent. In addition, 475 cases involved the co-existence... https://www.sott.net/article/505955-Euthanasia-is-now-6-of-all-deaths-in-the-Netherlands-experts-urge-caution-against-youths-choosing-to-die Sun, 26 Apr 2026 20:13:38 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/505692-Fear-time-preference-and-the-distortion-of-human-action Periods of crisis reveal something unsettling about human behavior. Faced with uncertainty, individuals and institutions alike tend to accept measures that would otherwise be unthinkable. Restrictions on movement, suspension of rights, and centralized decision-making often emerge not gradually, but almost effortlessly, as if they were the natural response to danger. This pattern is frequently interpreted as a political or institutional failure. But such an explanation remains incomplete. Crises do not merely alter policies, they alter the very structure of human action. Fear — when intensified and socially amplified — does not simply influence decisions, it reshapes the way individuals perceive options, evaluate trade-offs, and act over time. At its deepest level, fear is not just an emotion. As Martin Heidegger suggested, it reflects a fundamental condition of human existence, an awareness of vulnerability and finitude. Under ordinary circumstances, this condition remains in the... https://www.sott.net/article/505692-Fear-time-preference-and-the-distortion-of-human-action Sun, 12 Apr 2026 19:50:23 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/505665-Managing-the-hypercurious-mind ADHD isn't merely a dysfunction. It's best understood as an impulsive motivational drive for novel information It's Monday morning at the lab and I have a team presentation due in two hours. I open my laptop intending to tweak a figure, then notice a paper I'd bookmarked. That paper cites another, which leads me to one of the authors' new preprints. Soon I find myself with 27 tabs open, three half-formed ideas scribbled in my notebook, and a new app downloaded to prototype something that has nothing to do with my presentation. I know I should stop and I can feel the time pressure building, but the pull to wander is too strong - almost physical. Just five more minutes, I promise to myself, and I'll return my attention to the 'real' work. Only when my anxiety becomes impossible to ignore do I force myself to come back to the slides. This little dance isn't unusual for me and the millions of other people who can spend hours in deep, almost joyful focus when a question grabs our... https://www.sott.net/article/505665-Managing-the-hypercurious-mind Fri, 10 Apr 2026 20:50:16 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/505398-Should-society-help-you-to-die-The-EU-now-has-a-case-to-answer What the euthanasia of Noelia Castillo reveals about the future of European society. Today in Spain, a 25-year-old woman named Noelia Castillo is scheduled to undergo euthanasia. Born into a dysfunctional family in Barcelona, Noelia spent her childhood in shelters and fell victim to gang rape in 2022. This trauma resulted in severe clinical depression, and she attempted suicide twice. Her second suicide attempt left her paralyzed and confined to a hospital bed. Since 2024, Noelia has been paralyzed. She requested permission for euthanasia, and psychiatrists determined that her case met the necessary criteria for the procedure: the young woman lives in constant pain and has an irreversible medical condition that does not allow her to have a normal life. However, Noelia's father intervened. He vehemently opposed the decision, arguing that his daughter needed assistance, not assisted suicide. Despite their complicated relationship and past parental rights issues, he said that her... https://www.sott.net/article/505398-Should-society-help-you-to-die-The-EU-now-has-a-case-to-answer Sat, 28 Mar 2026 17:36:08 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/505064-Believe-Anything-Believe-Nothing What compels us to believe something is true? In an age where photographs can be fabricated, film can be manipulated, and speeches are crafted to deceive, our traditional markers of truth have lost their footing. So, the question becomes: what do you look to as your measure of what is real? I recently came across a post claiming that the newly released Epstein files prove Donald Trump is a pedophile. It presented what appeared to be a detailed set of documents, emails, perhaps, describing an encounter between Trump and a thirteen-year-old girl allegedly brought to his hotel by Jeffrey Epstein himself. I'll admit I only skimmed it. Reading anything on Facebook demands serious vetting, at least for me. But as I scrolled through, I couldn't help thinking of the Trump haters who would devour it without a second thought, because when it comes to belief, bias often does the heavy lifting. And I'm not exempt from that. I catch myself gravitating toward reports that frame certain Trump... https://www.sott.net/article/505064-Believe-Anything-Believe-Nothing Mon, 09 Mar 2026 16:05:10 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/504795-The-modern-workplace-wasnt-designed-for-humans-and-it-shows Input. Output. Targets met. Value created. Performance delivered. Strip work down to its essentials and for many people, this is what remains: a machine-like focus on producing, performing and optimising. The system keeps moving - often with little concern for the human energy, attention and resilience required to keep it running. Over time, this can lead to stress, ill-health, disengagement and burnout. Almost half of employees worldwide say they're currently burned out and nearly three-quarters of US workers report that workplace stress affects their mental health. But exhaustion isn't a personal failing - it's built into the system. Indeed, this way of organising work is not accidental. It has deep roots in how modern workplaces were designed. https://www.sott.net/article/504795-The-modern-workplace-wasnt-designed-for-humans-and-it-shows Sun, 22 Feb 2026 21:31:12 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/504548-Forewarned-Understanding-the-psychology-of-advertising Great advertisers understand exactly how their audience thinks and what they respond to. Learn how businesses apply psychology to create effective ads. Psychology is not only a tool to better understand those around you — it can also lead to increased influence. And while these persuasion skills are typically put toward research or counseling, they can also be useful in fields outside of the direct psychology world, such as marketing and advertising. Although the methods used in advertising and marketing have changed progressively over the years — from merchants in ancient times screaming in marketplaces to digital marketers buying ads on social media sites — the underlying psychology in marketing and advertising has remained the same. No matter how complex it may seem, psychology truly is an everyday principle. We use it in our relationships, our communication, and we can learn to use it to improve sales in business. https://www.sott.net/article/504548-Forewarned-Understanding-the-psychology-of-advertising Mon, 09 Feb 2026 21:47:52 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/504256-How-your-brain-creates-aha-moments-and-why-they-stick A sudden flash of insight is a product of your brain. Neuroscientists track the neural activity underlying an "aha" and how it might boost memory. Introduction Here are three words: pine, crab, sauce. There's a fourth word that combines with each of the others to create another common word. What is it? When the answer finally comes to you, it'll likely feel instantaneous. You might even say "Aha!" This kind of sudden realization is known as insight, and a research team recently uncovered how the brain produces it, which suggests why insightful ideas tend to stick in our memory. Maxi Becker, a cognitive neuroscientist at Duke University, first got interested in insight after reading the landmark 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions) by the historian and philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn. "He describes how some ideas are so powerful that they can completely shift the way an entire field thinks," she said. "That got me wondering: How does the brain come up with those... https://www.sott.net/article/504256-How-your-brain-creates-aha-moments-and-why-they-stick Sun, 25 Jan 2026 20:52:26 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/503816-Imagine-All-the-People-Food-freedom-and-what-it-means-to-be-human Fifty-four years ago, John Lennon asked us to imagine a world with no borders. But he did not foresee a world where the only thing left to colonise would be our own humanity. Today, the 'dream' has become a civilisation crisis, a cage of standardisation, designed to strip us of our culture and our biological autonomy (the corporate and geopolitical forces behind this are set out in "Corporate Power, Imperial Capitalism and the Struggle for Food Sovereignty"). Most critiques of the global agrifood system, even those that describe themselves as radical, remain confined within the system's own language. They argue over efficiency versus sustainability and yields versus biodiversity. These debates often assume that the underlying framework of industrial development is given and that the task is to optimise outcomes within it. But what if you refuse this paradigm? What if you expose what is usually kept beyond the bounds of policy debate? What if you argue that the crisis of food and... https://www.sott.net/article/503816-Imagine-All-the-People-Food-freedom-and-what-it-means-to-be-human Sat, 03 Jan 2026 20:45:22 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/503756-Your-mind-can-bend-time-Heres-how A minute is always a minute, except when it isn't. This idea was put to the test in a 2023 Harvard study. Researchers induced minor bruising on participants' forearms and then had them sit in rooms where the clocks ran at normal speed, half-speed, or double-speed. Crucially, the actual elapsed time was identical across all conditions — 28 minutes — but the clocks ticked at different rates. The results surprised the researchers. Wounds healed faster when people thought more time had passed, and slower when they thought less time had passed. "Personally, I didn't think it would work," lead author Peter Aungle told The Epoch Times. "And then it did work!" A century ago, Albert Einstein demonstrated that time is relative — not fixed. He explained the idea with a simple, humorous example: "Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity." Now, psychologists and neuroscientists are... https://www.sott.net/article/503756-Your-mind-can-bend-time-Heres-how Wed, 31 Dec 2025 19:28:15 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/503161-The-brilliance-of-boredom A couple weeks ago I wandered into a digression about toxic workplaces. Consider this week's Nightcrawler another small detour into the forgotten value of boredom. Last Saturday, our four-year-old didn't sleep well. So on Sunday morning, I did what many semi-desperate parents have done for generations: I loaded her into her carseat, and set out for a long, pointless drive to get her to fall asleep. Thankfully, the ruse worked. As we wound our way toward the Oregon coast, she nodded off after a promised donut. I reached for my headphones, ready to salvage my odyssey with a podcast or something vaguely productive. And then: disaster. I realized I'd forgotten them. At first, I was bored. My brain, conditioned by a decade of smartphone use, kept reaching for the familiar dopamine drip of constant input. And I know I'm not unique in this. Most of us have become habitual grazers of digital noise... which is the polite way of saying we've become information junkies, always craving our... https://www.sott.net/article/503161-The-brilliance-of-boredom Tue, 25 Nov 2025 19:57:18 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/502987-Discover-your-destiny The only way to know what to do People are talking endlessly not only about morality and moral rules in general, but about what they think you should do specifically. Date? Not date? Get married or not? Have children or not? Hustle hard and get rich — or lay low and get out of the hamster wheel? Do the responsible corporate job or quit and open your weird startup? Escape to the countryside or create a futuristic metropolitan enclave? Everybody seems to have their answers, trying to impose them on the rest of us. We are surrounded by a shrill new Heideggerian "they" that never shuts up, forever tugging us here and there, and once we have regained balance, again comes at us with the worst advice at the worst possible moment. https://www.sott.net/article/502987-Discover-your-destiny Mon, 17 Nov 2025 15:04:20 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/502896-Democracys-fatal-flaw-and-more-on-forgiveness Logocratic principles on display in Tucker Carlson's recent interview with George Santos In our latest ponerology meetup for paid subscribers we discussed Lobaczewski's criticisms of modern democracy in his book Logocracy. There, he lists the main flaws as he sees them, and what they inevitably lead to in practice. This culminates in the following statement: Every candidate for election in a democratic country must reckon with these defects of public opinion and must be able to satisfy them with appropriate promises. It is difficult for persons of high values of mind and character to do this, so they lose to candidates with an inferior sense of responsibility, or they withdraw discouraged by such demands. ... That is why democracy has a constant tendency to elevate to legislative and leadership positions persons who are not well qualified, but who are eloquent and relatable. This is the case in the state as a whole and similarly within individual parties, where their leaders are... https://www.sott.net/article/502896-Democracys-fatal-flaw-and-more-on-forgiveness Tue, 11 Nov 2025 23:21:59 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/502880-How-it-feels-to-live-as-an-academic-in-exile-while-Gaza-burns As a graduate student from Gaza studying in Wyoming, I live in two dimensions: one where life moves peacefully forward, and another where everything I love is collapsing. I live in both worlds at once, holding grief and strength in the same breath. In the fall of 2023, as snow fell softly outside a classroom in Wyoming, I stood at the front of the room preparing to give a presentation about the First Amendment. The course was called Free Speech, and I had been looking forward to this discussion. Moments before I began, a message appeared on my phone: my friend and teacher, Dr. Refaat Alareer, had been killed in Gaza. I froze. My body turned cold, as if the snow had found its way inside me. My classmate Zakaria, from Morocco, sat beside me. When I told him what had happened, he whispered, "You should tell the professor. You can't give the presentation now." But I couldn't stop. I told him, I have to do it. Maybe it was denial, maybe it was duty. I stood in front of my classmates and... https://www.sott.net/article/502880-How-it-feels-to-live-as-an-academic-in-exile-while-Gaza-burns Mon, 10 Nov 2025 20:57:10 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/502597-The-Dunning-Kruger-effect-has-been-cited-for-26-years-but-ironically-most-people-still-misunderstand-it The lesson isn't that dumb people are overconfident, according to its co-creator. It's that you are. Few psychological rules have as high a public profile as the Dunning-Kruger effect. Way back in 1999, David Dunning and Justin Kruger showed that the people who were least competent at a given task were also the most confident in their abilities. Meanwhile, the most skilled are the most unsure. In the 26 years since Dunning and Kruger published their landmark paper, scientists have debated the details of the findings. But the public has run with it. It's not hard to see why. A theory that states the dumbest among are often the loudest and most overconfident seems to explain so much about modern life. Plus, it's a handy grenade to throw in a social-media fight. Search "Dunning-Kruger Effect" online and you'll find huge numbers of people labeling those they disagree as obvious cases of the effect in action. It's a satisfying way to dunk on your opponents. But there's one big problem... https://www.sott.net/article/502597-The-Dunning-Kruger-effect-has-been-cited-for-26-years-but-ironically-most-people-still-misunderstand-it Sun, 26 Oct 2025 21:00:01 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/502594-The-Quest-for-Truth-The-Tangled-Web-of-Epistemology From ancient philosophers to modern crises, how do we know what we know? I'm pretty sure I've mentioned once or twice in my recent posts that I've been planning to write about epistemology. It sure has been on my mind a lot for the past few weeks and the more I look into it and think about it, the more complicated it seems. We recently had guests - a young couple - and, over supper, I was asked what I was working on. I said that I was thinking about - not actually working on - epistemology. The husband and wife looked at each other and exchanged some sort of silent communication which she then explained. Apparently, her father, a professor at a university, has been writing a book about epistemology for the past 40 years. I thought, 'holy frijoles!' I worked on the research for my book on early Christianity - off and on - from about 1982 until it was finally completed in 2020. That's only 38 years and I'm satisfied with the work I did on that. But this poor guy -the father of our... https://www.sott.net/article/502594-The-Quest-for-Truth-The-Tangled-Web-of-Epistemology Sun, 26 Oct 2025 18:33:35 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/502408-What-chickens-can-teach-business-about-the-too-much-talent-personnel-problem We've all internalized destructive logic about team success and pecking orders. In 1983, William Muir took on a challenge that would not only redefine his entire industry but also the way we think about work. But oddly, as an evolutionary biologist at Purdue University, Muir wasn't studying people; he was studying chickens. At the time, the poultry industry had its Ferrari: the Dekalb XL. These birds were bred for one thing and one thing only: raw speed in egg production. They could outlay anything else in the barnyard. But there was a problem. The very trait that made them prolific also made them destructive. They were aggressive, territorial, and prone to pecking one another to death. The industry's fix was crude and cruel: trim their beaks so they couldn't do as much damage. Muir wondered if there was a more humane way. What if, instead of breeding for pure productivity, you bred for teamwork? https://www.sott.net/article/502408-What-chickens-can-teach-business-about-the-too-much-talent-personnel-problem Thu, 16 Oct 2025 17:43:00 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/502386-The-True-Meaning-of-Stoicism Self-discipline isn't supposed to be punishing. Rather, it's friendly and encouraging. The encouraging Master is strict only in holding fast to moderation. Today, "stoicism" means weathering adversity without complaint. There is much more to the philosophy of stoicism than that. In its entirety, stoicism is a philosophy of wisdom much like Buddhism in its emphasis on virtue, self-control, renunciation of excess, self-improvement, detachment, cause and effect (The Four Noble Truths) and the cessation of suffering though understanding. It also shares many similarities with Taoism in its view of living within Nature, accepting the limits of our control, rejecting wealth, status and power, and like Buddhism, finding liberation through practice, insight and understanding. Here are some succinct excerpts on Stoicism from orionphilosophy.com: https://www.sott.net/article/502386-The-True-Meaning-of-Stoicism Wed, 15 Oct 2025 17:22:37 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/502109-Watch-Pastor-Joshua-Mhlakelas-Reaction-To-The-Failed-Rapture-2025-It-Was-Awkward Pop star Chappell Roan also made a reference to the 'Rapture' during her show. On 23 September, 2025, South African pastor Joshua Mhlakela told his followers with full confidence, 'This day we will be raptured. I give you his word and I give you my word.' He promised the faithful that Jesus would return, backed by 'a host of angels,' to take believers to heaven in what TikTok had already dubbed #RaptureTok. The date was tied to Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which is sometimes symbolically connected with the End Times in certain Christian circles. But as the hours passed and nothing happened, Mhlakela's livestream turned awkward. First came reassurances, 'God does not lie,' then nervous adjustments to the timeline, '23rd, 24th, one of these two days.' Finally, after midnight, he signed off by asking followers to 'please keep waiting with us.' The rapture, of course, never came. https://www.sott.net/article/502109-Watch-Pastor-Joshua-Mhlakelas-Reaction-To-The-Failed-Rapture-2025-It-Was-Awkward Wed, 01 Oct 2025 13:32:08 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/502056-When-political-violence-becomes-a-signal The assassination of Charlie Kirk is a tragedy on several levels. It robs his family and friends of the time they would otherwise have had with Charlie, especially his young children and wife. It is a tragedy to Charlie — his life was cut prematurely short. And it is a tragic signal that the wrong words spoken, even in a liberal democracy, can get you killed. As an academic and public intellectual, I find that chilling. It is also, unsettlingly, a case study in how democratic incentives can corrode political life. For all the shock and horror surrounding the killing, its logic is not entirely mysterious. The tools of political economy and philosophy, especially concepts like rational irrationality and theories like costly signaling theory, can aid our understanding why political violence sometimes emerges from within democracy itself. Economists and philosophers have long puzzled over a simple question: Why do citizens participate in politics when their individual actions are... https://www.sott.net/article/502056-When-political-violence-becomes-a-signal Sun, 28 Sep 2025 18:28:21 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/502027-The-marketplace-of-ideas-is-bullsh-t Author's note: Why is it that people live in different thought universes that no rational argument can penetrate? In light of recent debates about cancel culture and free speech, I de-paywalled this piece from May of this year. You'll also get a short introduction to Heidegger along the way. Heidegger has entered the chat There's little doubt we are living in Babel-land. Discourse seems to produce a set of irreconcilable camps more or less shouting at each other, hearing what they want to hear, supporting their teams no matter what, desperately clinging to some hard belief in an attempt to escape madness as history is reaching a breaking point. A look at some of the recent outrage cycles should be enough to make the point: Darryl Cooper questioning aspects of the WWII narrative, Douglas Murray debating Dave Smith over Israel, James Lindsay calling everybody and their grandma "woke right," someone using the n-word and getting cancelled... All of these dramas have led to rivers of... https://www.sott.net/article/502027-The-marketplace-of-ideas-is-bullsh-t Fri, 26 Sep 2025 19:13:45 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/501972-Personal-Note "I've never talked to a Democrat who ever wanted to listen. They start to glitch out if you try." — Sasha Stone This past summer, I tried to open a line of communication with a West Coast relative. We exchanged a few letters. I tactically steered the conversation away from the political. Here was the closer salvo from my relative: Jimmy, on a completely personal level, and in different times, I think we could have been very good friends. At this point in our history, I find what you say in your blogs and Kunstlercast to be outrageous, deceptive, and ugly. I disagree with almost everything you hold dear politically, and even if, for instance, we agree about the horrors of Big Pharma, your worship of Kennedy makes me ill. Your language falls right into all the clichés of the far right ideologies I loathe. Maybe someday things will change. For now, this is the last you'll be hearing from me. Frankly, what stung most keenly was the accusation that my language fell "into all the clichés... https://www.sott.net/article/501972-Personal-Note Tue, 23 Sep 2025 18:10:04 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/501970-How-Democracy-fuels-senseless-violence "...that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." — Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, 1863 Democratic governments are most often promoted as being governed by the people as a whole rather than a monarch, dictator, or tyrant. Instead of being accountable only to God, a representative is said to be exactly that — a representative — acting on behalf of the people. With these representatives come committees, commissions, and departments making their own decisions, recommendations, and other forms of influence. But even among this mass of bureaucracy, it is still "the people" who supposedly wield authority. With authority comes responsibility as well as moral blame. It is straightforward to blame a monarch for poor governance. He is the head of his government in theory and in practice. In Western monarchies, the king was understood to be an authority bound by divine law, and thus assassination (regicide) was generally considered to be... https://www.sott.net/article/501970-How-Democracy-fuels-senseless-violence Tue, 23 Sep 2025 18:09:18 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/501406-What-your-favorite-movie-says-about-your-personality-and-mindset Are you more into horror, comedy, or romance? Movies are one of the most popular forms of entertainment, so it may be no surprise that your favorite genre can reveal something about who you are. While it's certainly not the only thing that determines what movies you watch, your personality and other traits can go a long way toward explaining your preferences. Throughout this article, I've dug into available research on personality and the movies to explore some of the reasoning behind why certain people like comedy, sci-fi, horror, or other genres. This is primarily based on the Big Five Personality Test traits. https://www.sott.net/article/501406-What-your-favorite-movie-says-about-your-personality-and-mindset Sat, 23 Aug 2025 12:21:06 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/501397-Psychopaths-Money-and-Social-Media Psychopathy in the news I am reposting two recent articles on psychopathy with some commentary. The first comes from Finlay Macdonald for The Conversation and was published back in April. The headline: "Why a psychopath wouldn't hesitate to cause another global financial crisis - if there was something in it for them." Would you want a psychopath looking after your pension? Or what about your shares? In a recent talk at the Cambridge Festival of Science, I spoke about the latest research relating to a psychopath's love of money, greed for power, and willingness to harm other people financially for personal gain. It is fashionable in some circles to argue that the psychopath's lack of empathy is an asset in certain professions. For example, they will be cool surgeons under pressure, task-oriented soldiers unhindered by fear or remorse, ruthless businessmen willing to take risks that will benefit shareholders. In reality, they're just as likely to kill you under the knife and not... https://www.sott.net/article/501397-Psychopaths-Money-and-Social-Media Fri, 22 Aug 2025 20:49:23 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/501296-Marwan-Barghouti-Itamar-Ben-Gvir-and-the-Israeli-need-to-humiliate Itamar Ben-Gvir's staged attempt at humiliating Marwan Barghouti exposed the impotence of the Palestinian political order — but it also laid bare the insecurities and anxieties that fuel Israel's need to publicly subjugate Palestinians. Itamar Ben-Gvir staged his attempted humiliation of Marwan Barghouti with the precision of a political set-piece. Entering the prison flanked by cameras, the Israeli National Security Minister confronted the imprisoned Palestinian Fatah leader in his cell, issuing a blunt threat that those who harm Israel will be "wiped out." The scene was later broadcast on Ben-Gvir's social media. Barghouti, gaunt yet composed, appeared as both a captive and a symbol, his mere presence transforming the prison corridor into a stage where national myths and antagonisms could be rehearsed for the audience beyond the walls. The encounter unfolded within a wider theater of humiliation over the past two years: Men stripped and marched toward arrest, starving Gazans... https://www.sott.net/article/501296-Marwan-Barghouti-Itamar-Ben-Gvir-and-the-Israeli-need-to-humiliate Sun, 17 Aug 2025 17:28:30 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/501212-The-Emotional-Code-of-Cinema-What-Your-Genre-Choices-Say-About-You Have you ever wondered why some movies capture your attention while others do not? Your movie choices might reveal more than just your taste. Recent neuroscience research shows that the genres you like are closely linked to how your brain processes emotions. This discovery helps us understand more about media. Moreover, it offers insight into how our brains influence our preferences. Note: This article is intended for general information and educational purposes. It summarizes scientific research in accessible language for a broad audience and is not an official scientific press release. https://www.sott.net/article/501212-The-Emotional-Code-of-Cinema-What-Your-Genre-Choices-Say-About-You Wed, 13 Aug 2025 16:36:47 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/501198-Equality-under-the-Hayekian-Rule-of-Law Friedrich von Hayek considered the rule of law to be essential in minimizing coercion and enhancing individual liberty. In this context, he regarded "equality before the law" (formal equality) as essential to the rule of law. However, he emphasized that formal equality is the only concept of equality that is compatible with the rule of law. He criticized socialist and progressive attempts to theorize further notions of equality, which they package as "social justice," as disguised attacks on liberty. In the Constitution of Liberty, he explains: "Equality of the general rules of law and conduct, however, is the only kind of equality conducive to liberty and the only equality which we can secure without destroying liberty. Not only has liberty nothing to do with any other sort of equality, but it is even bound to produce inequality in many respects. This is the necessary result and part of the justification of individual liberty: if the result of individual liberty did not... https://www.sott.net/article/501198-Equality-under-the-Hayekian-Rule-of-Law Tue, 12 Aug 2025 19:03:32 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/500977-AI-for-dummies-AI-turns-us-into-dummies Given that AI is fundamentally incapable of performing the tasks required for authentic innovation, we're de-learning how to innovate. CHS's note: I just got called out by a programmer who uses AI who was furious and wrote "students cheat, always have, tell us something we don't already know". I responded: "did you read the MIT paper or the other link?" Of course he didn't: TL/DR, which proves my point. Even the programmer admitted he has to check AI's work. The point here is *those who received real educations can use AI because they know enough to double-check it, but the kids using AI as a substitute for real learning will never develop this capacity.* Those who actually have mastery can use AI and not realize the point I'm making isn't that AI is useless, the point is it fatally undermines real learning and thinking. https://www.sott.net/article/500977-AI-for-dummies-AI-turns-us-into-dummies Fri, 01 Aug 2025 19:43:54 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/500767-War-is-the-worst-thing-in-the-world War is the worst thing in the world. It is the single craziest behaviour exhibited by humans. The most destructive. The most traumatising. The least sustainable. The least conducive to human thriving. All the things we fear most become the norm in a land ravaged by war. Death. Pain. Suffering. Rape. Chaos. Uncertainty. Losing loved ones. Losing homes. Losing limbs. Living in terror. Being attacked. Being brain damaged. Being faced with impossible choices. All the things we frighten ourselves with by watching horror movies become a reality from which there is no escape. War creates a waking nightmare which any sensible person would want to avoid except in the direst necessity. And yet, we are ruled by people who actively seek it out. Who will lie and manipulate to make wars happen. Who will smear and slander anyone who resists in the name of peace. Who will actively fight against every healthy impulse in everybody in their society to push their war agenda forward. https://www.sott.net/article/500767-War-is-the-worst-thing-in-the-world Mon, 21 Jul 2025 19:42:55 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/500585-Trust-No-One The title of today's post is not meant to be taken literally. I trust plenty of people. I trust friends who've demonstrated their trustworthiness over the years. I trust my family. Having people in my life I love and trust makes everything far more meaningful and pleasant. I hope people reading this likewise have a circle of trust they've built over the years. On the other hand, you should never trust anyone or anything that hasn't given you good reason to do so, and if someone or something gives you good reason not to trust them, you should never forget that. The more power a person or institution has in society, the less trustworthy they tend to be. I don't say this because it's fun to be cynical, I say this because my life experience has demonstrated its accuracy. In the 21st century alone, I've been given good reason to distrust all sorts of things around me, including the U.S. government (all governments really), intelligence agencies, politicians, mass media, Wall Street and... https://www.sott.net/article/500585-Trust-No-One Fri, 11 Jul 2025 16:44:19 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/500407-Gen-Z-women-are-booking-convents-embracing-vows-of-silence-instead-of-beach-houses-this-summer Move over, shared beach houses and Aperol spritzes. This summer, a growing number of Gen Z women are checking into Catholic convents and monasteries instead — on purpose. In an unexpected pivot from rooftop parties and dating app exhaustion, young women are opting for peace and quiet. Literal quiet. The latest trend, dubbed "vow of silence summer," has people voluntarily giving up speaking for days at a time, communicating only by writing or gestures while living alongside nuns. And demand is high. "I booked a vow of silence at a Catholic monastery late last year, and the booking process is really straightforward — you just email the nuns," said TikToker @mc667868 in a video that's now been viewed over 700,000 times. "When I went to book again for this summer, they were fully booked for the next three months." https://www.sott.net/article/500407-Gen-Z-women-are-booking-convents-embracing-vows-of-silence-instead-of-beach-houses-this-summer Tue, 01 Jul 2025 14:21:54 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/499854-Psywar-AI-bots-manipulate-your-feelings The next chapter in the Social Media battle to splinter reality, the internet, and your own mind Splinternet (as defined per Grok): The splinternet refers to the fragmentation of the internet into separate, often isolated networks due to political, cultural, technological, or commercial reasons. It describes a scenario where the internet is no longer a unified global system but is instead divided into distinct "splinters" or subnetworks. This can happen through government censorship (like China's Great Firewall), regional regulations (such as the EU's GDPR), or tech companies creating walled gardens (e.g., Apple's ecosystem). The term highlights how these divisions limit universal access to information and create digital borders, often reflecting real-world geopolitical tensions or differing values on privacy, security, and free expression. Elon asked a key question. This is not dark humor or sarcasm; this is today's reality: https://www.sott.net/article/499854-Psywar-AI-bots-manipulate-your-feelings Fri, 30 May 2025 22:24:30 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/499704-Mikhail-Bulgakov-How-a-terrible-Russian-tragedy-shaped-this-legendary-writers-fate From saving lives in the trenches to capturing Russia's tragedy in timeless novels - here's how the chaos of revolution and civil war shaped one of Russia's greatest writers On May 15, 2025, we commemorate the 134th anniversary of the birth of Mikhail Bulgakov, one of the most enigmatic and precise chroniclers of the Russian tragedy of the twentieth century. Today, he stands as a literary giant, but in 1919, Bulgakov was merely a young military doctor, wading through blood, mud, and despair. His journey into literature didn't begin quietly in an office, but amid the chaos and flames of Russia's Civil War. In the twilight of a collapsing empire, Bulgakov the writer was forged. https://www.sott.net/article/499704-Mikhail-Bulgakov-How-a-terrible-Russian-tragedy-shaped-this-legendary-writers-fate Thu, 22 May 2025 11:44:41 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/499211-The-unique-parenting-philosophy-of-the-Arctic-Sami-people For centuries, reindeer herders have used a unique parenting philosophy to prepare their children for survival in the Arctic. Here's what we can learn from them. Every year in June or July, under the Arctic midnight sun, Sámi reindeer-herding families in northern Finland, Norway and Sweden come together for one of the biggest social events of the year: "earmarking", which involves marking the new reindeer calves to identify them. On foot, in all-terrain vehicles and even helicopters, they gather the semi-wild reindeer from vast areas stretching out dozens of square kilometres. Even young children are expected to join in. The youngest boys and girls help catch the calves. From the age of about 10, they take their own earmarking knives, grab a calf, and mark both ears with a unique pattern of notches. Children receive their own personal earmark pattern at birth, and use it to mark their herds for the rest of their lives. Among the Sámi, an indigenous people spread across the... https://www.sott.net/article/499211-The-unique-parenting-philosophy-of-the-Arctic-Sami-people Wed, 23 Apr 2025 21:28:20 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/499182-From-red-flag-to-red-line-What-is-the-limit Announcement: On May 3rd, we will have a special guest for our paid-subscriber Zoom meetup: Ilya Khotimsky, translator of Russian economist Mikhail Khazin's Recollections of the Future: Modern Economic Ideas. I wrote about his summary of the book here. If you want to the chance to ask Ilya about the book, and Khazin's economics, you know what to do! I recently watched Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets (1973), in which Robert DeNiro plays a low-life psychopathic mafia parasite, Johnny Boy, who is coddled and protected by his friend Charlie, played by Harvey Keitel, past the point where any sane person would've broken Johnny Boy's legs purely out of principle. For those who haven't seen the film and don't want to, here's the plot summary: low-level mobster doesn't pay his boss, doesn't do anything of substance for the next couple weeks, then gets shot in the neck after telling said boss to his face that he's a sucker who's easy to rip off, and no, he's not going to pay him. Charlie, the... https://www.sott.net/article/499182-From-red-flag-to-red-line-What-is-the-limit Tue, 22 Apr 2025 19:23:01 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/499145-A-psychopath-wouldnt-hesitate-to-cause-another-global-financial-crisis-if-there-was-something-in-it-for-them Would you want a psychopath looking after your pension? Or what about your shares? In a recent talk at the Cambridge Festival of Science, I spoke about the latest research relating to a psychopath's love of money, greed for power, and willingness to harm other people financially for personal gain. Since I began researching corporate psychopaths and the global financial crisis, the idea of the financial psychopath, an employee in the financial sector acting ruthlessly, recklessly, greedily and selfishly with other people's money, has gained traction. The theory won support because psychopaths are more commonly found in financial services than in other sectors. It has even been argued that up to 10% of employees in financial services could be psychopathic. That is to say they have no empathy, care for other people, conscience or regrets for any damage they do. These traits make them ruthless in pursuit of their own agendas and entirely focused on self-promotion and self-advancement. https://www.sott.net/article/499145-A-psychopath-wouldnt-hesitate-to-cause-another-global-financial-crisis-if-there-was-something-in-it-for-them Sun, 20 Apr 2025 19:45:45 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/499142-Handwriting-Lights-Up-Your-Brain-Heres-How Pick up a pen to activate neural pathways that might otherwise remain dormant. Picture two brains: one buzzing with activity, connections firing across regions in a synchronized neural ballet. The other shows only scattered flickers of engagement — isolated islands of electrical activation. Both belong to university students sitting in the same lecture trying to capture the same ideas. The difference between them isn't intelligence, attention span, or interest in the subject — but the tools in their hands. One holds a trusty pen poised over lined paper, while the other's fingers hover over a laptop keyboard. This neural contrast, shown in a study in Frontiers in Psychology, is just one piece of mounting evidence suggesting that our rush toward digital convenience may be coupled with significant cognitive costs. From neuroscience labs to classrooms, research comparing traditional and digital learning tools finds that pens are not quite yet old school. https://www.sott.net/article/499142-Handwriting-Lights-Up-Your-Brain-Heres-How Sun, 20 Apr 2025 13:44:02 +0000