^CategoryEthics

Nairobi, Kenya : Ranger feeding orphaned baby elephant in David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust conservation center

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Author
Denyse O'Leary

Date
May 8, 2021

Categorized
Ethics, Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
How to Be Animal (book), Human exceptionalism, Lord of the Flies (book), Melanie Challenger, Moral choice, reason, William Golding}

There Is No Escape From Human Exceptionalism

_{Author Melanie Challenger thinks we should embrace our true animal nature. But that’s impossible} _{Denyse O'Leary

May 8, 2021

Ethics, Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind}

Melanie Challenger, author of How to Be Animal (2021) thinks we would be less messed up if we could just accept our animal nature. She writes at Aeon, “Human exceptionalism is dead: for the sake of our own happiness and the planet we should embrace our true animal nature.” Further, Today, our thinking has shifted along with scientific evidence, incorporating the genetic insights of the past century. We now know we’re animals, related to all other life on our planet. We’ve also learned much about cognition, including the uneasy separation between instinct and intention, and the investment of the whole body in thought and action. As such, we might expect attitudes to have changed. But that isn’t the case. We…

boy standing and looking at broken golden gear wheels, digital art style, illustration painting

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Author
Michael Egnor

Date
May 2, 2021

Categorized
Ethics, Philosophy of Mind, Science

Tagged
__featured, Bell's theorem, Benjamin Libet, Determinism, Free will (as real), Jerry Coyne, Logic (and free will), Oliver Burkeman, Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Physics}

Trying To Disprove Free Will Shows That Materialism Doesn’t Work

_{If you have a metaphysical theory and it contradicts science, logic, and everyday experience, then your metaphysics should be abandoned} _{Michael Egnor

May 2, 2021

Ethics, Philosophy of Mind, Science}

Biologist Jerry Coyne, who is also an atheist activist, offers another post denying free will. Journalist Oliver Burkeman published an essay at the The Guardian last week, asking, “The clockwork universe: is free will an illusion?”, quoting Coyne among others. Coyne, who believes that free will is indeed an illusion, offers support at his blog. Read at your leisure but note: He ignores critical science issues around free will, including the following: 1. Nature is not deterministic. The fact that nature is not predetermined in detail has been shown quite convincingly by the experimental confirmation of Bell’s theorem in quantum mechanics. Succinctly, over the past 50 years, at least 17 teams of researchers have asked and answered the question: does…

Futuristic and sci-fi human android portrait with pcb metallic skin and binary code green background. AI, IT, technology, robotics, science, transhumanism 3D rendering illustration concepts.

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Author
News

Date
May 1, 2021

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Ethics, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Androids (science fiction), Azhur Saleem, Mirror test, Muse (short film), Paul Ready, Science fiction, Self-awareness, Self-recognition, Taj Atwal}

Sci-fi Saturday: The Artist’s Android Has a Surprise for Him…

_{He makes the fateful decision to allow her to depart from her programming during a crisis} _{News

May 1, 2021

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Ethics, Philosophy of Mind}

“Muse” (2020) by Azhur Saleem and (April 13, 2021 at DUST, 12:33 min) “An artist turns to his android muse for help when trying to sell his newest paintings, but events take a dark and disturbing turn when the android learns what has inspired the work.” An artist welcomes in an art gallery owner to view his latest offerings, his in-house android at his beck and call. When the meeting turns sour and the guest tries to leave, Alderman calls on Kay and… So begins the next day. When police officers come knocking regarding an altercation outside, it transpires that Alderman has amended Kay’s CPU to respond to un-programmed demands – including murder to which she complies and the police…

Collage of portraits of young emotional people on multicolored background in neon. Concept of human emotions, facial expression, sales. Listening to music, delighted, winner, shocked. Flyer for ad

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Author
News

Date
April 26, 2021

Categorized
Business and Finance, Education, Ethics, Science, Surveillance, Work

Tagged
Atlas of AI (book), COVID-19 (and AI), Emotional recognition technology (ERT), Emotional recognition technology (regulation), emotions, Human emotions, Kate Crawford, Paul Ekman, Universal human emotions (Ekman)}

AI Prof Sounds Alarm: AI “Emotion Detectors” Are Faulty Science

_{An industry worth over $30 billion uses emotion recognition technology (ERT) on school children and potential hires} _{News

April 26, 2021

Business and Finance, Education, Ethics, Science, Surveillance, Work}

Kate Crawford, a principal researcher at Microsoft, and author of Atlas of AI (2021), is warning at Nature that the COVID-19 pandemic “is being used as a pretext to push unproven artificial-intelligence tools into workplaces and schools.” The software is touted as able to read the “six basic emotions” via analysis of facial expressions: During the pandemic, technology companies have been pitching their emotion-recognition software for monitoring workers and even children remotely. Take, for example, a system named 4 Little Trees. Developed in Hong Kong, the program claims to assess children’s emotions while they do classwork. It maps facial features to assign each pupil’s emotional state into a category such as happiness, sadness, anger, disgust, surprise and fear. It also…

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Author
Michael Egnor

Date
April 25, 2021

Categorized
Ethics, Philosophy

Tagged
__featured, Astrology, Beatrice (Divine Comedy), Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy, free will, Materialism, Materialism (as modern astrology), Purgatorio (Divine Comedy), Thomas Aquinas, Virgil (Divine Comedy)}

One of the Greatest Poets Asks, Can We Be Good Without Free Will?

_{As a centuries old poem shows, materialism is a logical mistake and not really a coherent system of belief} _{Michael Egnor

April 25, 2021

Ethics, Philosophy}

Medieval Italian poet Dante Alighieri, exiled for life from his native Florence, took the opportunity to write a magnificent trilogy — the Divine Comedy — in which he tours Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. The Comedy is more than a poetic masterpiece. It is a profound philosophical and theological reflection on this life and on eternity. Remarkably, although Dante’s immediate guides through the unseen worlds are, famously, the Roman poet Virgil (70 BC–19 BC) and later, a childhood sweetheart Beatrice (who died young), his philosophical guide is the philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas. The metaphysics, the ethics, and the theology of the Divine Comedy deeply reflect Thomas’s influence. That is remarkable, considering that Dante (1265–1321 AD), who was only a child…

Spiral aloe vera with water drops, closeup

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Author
Eric Holloway

Date
April 25, 2021

Categorized
Ethics, Philosophy of Mind, Religion, Surveillance

Tagged
Alger Hiss (book), Communism, design in nature, God (Whittaker Chambers's account), Terror, Whittaker Chambers, Witness (book)}

How Did One Man Gain the Strength to Turn Away From Nihilism?

_{Chambers was quite willing to accept that he had joined, essentially, a terrorist organization, so long as he could see it as for the greater good} _{Eric Holloway

April 25, 2021

Ethics, Philosophy of Mind, Religion, Surveillance}

American writer Whittaker Chambers (1901–1961) sparked McCarthyism (a witch hunt against suspected Communists at high levels in the U.S. government in the early 1950s), during the trial of State Department official Alger Hiss. Senator Joseph McCarthy began his eponymous crusade against communists largely because Chambers had exposed Hiss as a Communist spy. Chambers, a senior editor at Time Magazine, knew that Hiss was a spy because Chambers himself was a spy who worked closely with Hiss and was in fact a very close friend. Which begs the question, why would a spy turn in his closest friend, as well as imperil himself? To understand the question and provide an answer, Chambers wrote an account of his conversion experience, and the…

Bündel roher Baumwolle (Gossypium arboreum), Südindien

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Author
Heather Zeiger

Date
April 12, 2021

Categorized
Business and Finance, Censorship, Ethics

Tagged
Better Cotton Initiative, China, Chinese Youth League, Cotton, Ethical Trading Initiative, Forced labor, Garment industry, H&M, Uyghurs, Xinjiang}

Clothing Retailer H&M Canceled for Revealing China’s Forced Labor

_{About a fifth of the world’s cotton is grown in Xinjiang, for which Uyghur labor is conscripted, partly through the detention camps complex} _{Heather Zeiger

April 12, 2021

Business and Finance, Censorship, Ethics}

Recently, I wrote about the fact that many fashionable products consumed in the West are produced by forced Uyghur labor. Those who speak out pay a steep price, as Swedish clothing retailer H&M can attest. Two weeks ago, H&M was Canceled in China after the Communist Youth League decried the company’s comments on forced labor in Xinjiang on Weibo, China’s biggest social media platform. The comments themselves dated from last year (March 2020). The online vitriol is likely in response to sanctions recently imposed by the European Union, the U.S., the U.K., and Canada on Chinese officials for human rights abuses. Earlier in March (2021), Newslines Institute for Strategy and Policy, an international independent organization, published a report showing that…

Arrested man handcuffed hands at the back

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Author
Heather Zeiger

Date
April 2, 2021

Categorized
Business and Finance, Ethics, Global Technology, Law, Programming

Tagged
Canada, China, Hacking (Nortel), Hostage diplomacy, Huawei, Huawei (industrial espionage), Industrial espionage (Nortel), Kevin and Julia Garratt, Meng Wanzhou, Michael Kovrig, Michael Spavor}

How China’s “Hostage Diplomacy” Traps Unsuspecting Visitors

_{Canada’s “Two Michaels” await their fate in prison in China, hostages to the growing tensions in a high-tech war} _{Heather Zeiger

April 2, 2021

Business and Finance, Ethics, Global Technology, Law, Programming}

Canadian entrepreneur Michael Spavor (pictured) and former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig were arrested in China in 2018 on charges of espionage and sharing state secrets, and held in prison since then. Spavor’s trial was on March 19, 2021, in Dandong near China’s border with North Korea. Kovrig’s trial was on March 22 in Beijing. As of this writing, no verdict has been announced. Their trials coincided with the U.S-China Summit in Anchorage, Alaska, on March 18 and 19, 2020, which involved a tense back-and-forth between the two countries. Court proceedings were closed-door and Spavor’s and Kovrig’s lawyers were not allowed to be present. That, according to Canada’s deputy chief of mission in China, violates the Canada-China consular agreement. Prime Minister…

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Author
News

Date
March 26, 2021

Categorized
Data Privacy, Ethics, Surveillance, Technocracy

Tagged
Big Tech, Cell phones, Elizabeth Kolbert, Karl D. Stephan, Liquid modernity, Zygmunt Bauman}

Getting Used to Liquid Modernity

_{The only constant of liquid modernity is change, chiefly of the self, but also of the self's surroundings} _{News

March 26, 2021

Data Privacy, Ethics, Surveillance, Technocracy}

(Reprinted with permission from the Engineering Ethics Blog of Karl Stephan (pictured) of the Ingram School of Engineering at Texas State University) I do not own a conventional smart phone. Instead, I intentionally use a style of flip phone whose rugged case and physical numeric keypad buttons won’t be injured by a drop of three or four feet to a concrete surface. It can receive some texts on its small screen, and I can even send texts after a fashion with the twelve numeric keys, tapping them rapidly one to four times to select the correct letter or punctuation mark. It won’t do capitals, but you can read texts from me without capitals and still get the message. It took me a while to…

Afro-american boy hiding in ruined building, escaped from dysfunctional family

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Author
Michael Egnor

Date
March 23, 2021

Categorized
Ethics, Medicine and Health

Tagged
__featured, Abortion (racial disparity), Crime, Critical Race Theory, Drug abuse, Gangs, Health Care (in poverty zones), Medical care (unequal access), poverty, Racism, Unemployment, Welfare dependency}

Woke Medicine Is Very Bad for Everyone’s Health

_{The issues raised by Critical Race Theory are real but I believe that the diagnosis is deeply flawed} _{Michael Egnor

March 23, 2021

Ethics, Medicine and Health}

Critical Race Theory and claims about structural racism in American society are infiltrating medical care and education. There is a major effort in medical education today to indoctrinate students and resident physicians into Critical Theory. This is, in my view, a deeply misguided approach.The issues raised by Critical Race Theory are real but I believe that the diagnosis is deeply flawed. The question we face is: how can we protect medical education and practice from this latest iteration of Marxism, and at the same time work to improve deficiencies in education and medical care that Critical Race Theorists correctly point out? It is undeniable that there are structural problems in medicine. Many of these problems impede good medical care, especially…

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Author
Heather Zeiger

Date
March 11, 2021

Categorized
Business and Finance, Economics, Ethics, Global Technology

Tagged
__featured, Alison Killin, Amelia Pang, bitcoin, China, Cotton, cryptocurrencies, Falun Gong, Falun Gong (persecution), Fashion industry, Forced labor, Forced labor (opposition), Made in China (book), Megha Rajagopalan, Newlines Institute, Norwegian Wealth Fund, Olivia Enos, Solar panels industry, UN Genocide Convention (1948), Uyghurs, Xinjiang}

In China, Forced Uyghur Labor Produces Many Fashionable Products

_{Industries such as fashion and solar panels rely heavily on supplies from detention centers and concentration camps in China} _{Heather Zeiger

March 11, 2021

Business and Finance, Economics, Ethics, Global Technology}

China has been called the “world’s factory.” American companies like Apple, may assemble their tech in the U.S., but the parts are made elsewhere, including Xinjiang, China (Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region). Industries such as fashion and solar panels also rely heavily on Xinjiang for their supply lines. Reports from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) and the Center for Strategic and International Studies in the U.S., as well as testimonials from Uyghurs, show that many such factories in Xinjiang involve the forced labor of Uyghurs in what are called “vocational training schools.” These vocational training schools are more appropriately described as detention centers. In many cases, they are essentially concentration camps. Many Uyghurs are also sent from Xinjiang to other…

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Author
Gary Smith

Date
March 8, 2021

Categorized
Ethics, Natural Intelligence, Sports

Tagged
cake cuts, coin toss, draft picks, fair play, NBA, NFL, queues, snake drafts, spot and choose}

Spot and Choose: Fair Play is Uniquely Human

_{How snake drafts, cake cuts, and queues exemplify human uniqueness} _{Gary Smith

March 8, 2021

Ethics, Natural Intelligence, Sports}

In the National Basketball Association All-Star exhibition game that was played yesterday, Team LeBron defeated Team Durant by a score of 170-150. The captains (LeBron James and Kevin Durant, both pictured) had taken turns choosing players for their teams. LeBron got the first pick (Giannis Antetokounmpo), Durant the second (Steph Curry), LeBron the third (Luka Doncic), and so on. The talent is so uniform among the top two dozen NBA players that there is no real advantage to choosing first or second: any given player is arguably as good or better than the player chosen before him. In addition, the game is just an exhibition intended to entertain the fans with spectacular offensive plays, while the defense mainly tries to…

Bangkok, Thailand 25 AUG 2020. Men hand using digital tablet for search information on Google. Wireless Smartphone technology with intelligence search engine.

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Author
News

Date
February 25, 2021

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Ethics

Tagged
Alex Hanna, bias, Diversity in hiring, FAccT, Google, Margaret Mitchell, Marian Croak, Search engines and bias, Timnit Gebru, Tom Simonite, William Isaac}

Another AI Ethics Head at Google Gets Fired Over Diversity Issues

_{The AI ethics team and Google management may have very different ideas about what “ethics” means} _{News

February 25, 2021

Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Ethics}

On February 19, Google fired Margaret Mitchell, the AI ethics co-lead at Google Brain. Mitchell’s co-leading colleague, Timnit Gebru, had been fired in December, amid controversy. Both women were critical of Google’s diversity hiring record during the two years they worked together. The flashpoint in Mitchell’s case, for which she had been temporarily suspended earlier, hinged on claims of unauthorized use of files: In a statement, a Google spokesperson said Mitchell had shared “confidential business-sensitive documents and private data of other employees” outside the company. After Mitchell’s suspension last month, Google said activity in her account had triggered a security system. A source familiar with Mitchell’s suspension said she had been using a script to search her email for material…

Closeup of ill blond senior woman sitting at home and taking oxygen from respirator while nurse with protective mask on sitting next to her and holding her hand during corona virus.

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Author
Michael Egnor

Date
February 14, 2021

Categorized
Ethics, Medicine and Health

Tagged
__featured, American Crisis (book), Andrew Cuomo, COVID-19 fatalities, Elise Stefanik, Epidemiology, Howard Zucker, Melissa DeRosa, Nursing homes (New York), Sally Dresslin, Triage}

Explosive New Information About New York’s Mass COVID Deaths

_{In a video conference, perhaps accidentally, a health official blurted out the deadly policy and the reasoning behind it} _{Michael Egnor

February 14, 2021

Ethics, Medicine and Health}

In November, I wrote about the horrendous consequences of the official directive issued March 25, 2020 by senior New York State officials that required nursing homes to admit residents regardless of their COVID-19 status. In fact, the directive prohibited testing residents prior to admission: No resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to the NH solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19. NHs are prohibited from requiring a hospitalized resident who is determined medically stable to be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or readmission. [underline in original]. The officials responsible are Governor Andrew Cuomo (pictured), Department of Health (DOH) Commissioner Howard Zucker, and Deputy Commissioner Sally Dreslin. Despite public outrage and strong media criticism, their order…

Newborn premature baby in the NICU intensive care

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Author
News

Date
February 12, 2021

Categorized
Ethics, Medicine and Health

Tagged
__featured, Abortion, Cortex, Fetal pain, Fetus, Infant, Jonathan Wells, Michael Egnor, Pain, Premature infants, Thalamus, Ultrasound}

Do Babies Really Feel Pain Before They Are Self-Aware?

_{Michael Egnor discusses the fact that the thalamus, deep in the brain, creates pain. The cortex moderates it. Thus, juveniles may suffer more} _{News

February 12, 2021

Ethics, Medicine and Health}

In last week’s podcast, “Jonathan Wells on Why a Baby Should Live,” neurosurgeon Michael Egnor interviewed molecular and cell biologist Jonathan Wells on that topic, which he discussed in articles at Evolution News and Science Today: (here and here). It’s becoming a hot topic now that a bill to protect babies born alive from abortions from being killed or left to die was recently defeated in the Senate. At the heart of the issue is the conflict between those who believe that all human beings have a right to life and those who believe that children do not have a right to live before they are self-aware. In this segment, Egnor and Wells ask another question: whether a child can…

Cute Baby Lying On Tummy In Parent's Bed

^{Type
post

Author
News

Date
February 11, 2021

Categorized
Ethics, Medicine and Health

Tagged
__featured, Abortion, Arthur Goldberg, Black Americans, Demography, Jonathan Wells, Michael Egnor, Planned Parenthood}

Is There Bias in Terms of Which Babies Are Aborted?

_{Abortion is made easy for Black American women, with abortion clinics strategically located within easy walking distance} _{News

February 11, 2021

Ethics, Medicine and Health}

In vitro image of a human fetus in the womb

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Author
News

Date
February 10, 2021

Categorized
Ethics, Medicine and Health

Tagged
__featured, Embryo, Fetus, Human embryo, Jonathan Wells, legal personhood, Michael Egnor, personhood, Prenatal human development, Zygote}

When Does “Human-ness” Really Begin?

_{Jonathan Wells notes that issues around “personhood” are now purely semantic, especially when the case is being made that many animals are persons too} _{News

February 10, 2021

Ethics, Medicine and Health}

In last week’s podcast, “Jonathan Wells on Why a Baby Should Live,” neurosurgeon Michael Egnor interviewed molecular and cell biologist Jonathan Wells on that topic, which he has discussed in articles at Evolution News and Science Today: (here and here). It’s becoming a hot topic now that a bill to protect babies born alive from abortions from being killed or left to die was recently defeated in the Senate. At the heart of the issue is the conflict between those who believe that all human beings have a right to life and those who believe that children do not have a right to live before they are self-aware. In unpacking the issues, Egnor and Wells turned to the question of…

Newborn Alert Baby Boy on Mint Green Blanket

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Author
News

Date
February 8, 2021

Categorized
Ethics, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Abortion, Abortion survivors (babies), Alberto Giubilini, Child euthanasia, Disability, Fetus, Francesca Minerva, Infant euthanasia, Jonathan Wells, Michael Egnor, Peter Singer}

Do Infants Really Have a Right to Live?

_{Some argue that children who are not yet self-aware do not have a right to live} _{News

February 8, 2021

Ethics, Philosophy of Mind}

In last week’s podcast, “Jonathan Wells on Why a Baby Should Live,” neurosurgeon Michael Egnor interviewed molecular and cell biologist Jonathan Wells on that topic, which he discussed in articles at Evolution News and Science Today: (here and here). It’s becoming a hot topic now that a bill to protect babies born alive from abortions from being killed or left to die was recently defeated in the Senate. There is an academic debate about whether babies, post-birth, have a right to live. Meanwhile, a number of countries are also moving toward child euthanasia, with or without parental consent as well. https://episodes.castos.com/mindmatters/Mind-Matters-120-Jonathan-Wells.mp3 A partial transcript follows. This portion begins at 01:13. Show notes and links follow. Michael Egnor: Where did that…

Propaganda and brainwashing of the influential mass media concept. Vintage TV set with hypnotic spiral on the screen.

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Author
Michael Egnor

Date
February 3, 2021

Categorized
Education, Ethics, Philosophy

Tagged
__featured, Critical theory, Hannah Arendt, Intersectionality, Propaganda in education, Tom Knighton, Totalitarian education, totalitarianism, Women's sports}

Contradictory Beliefs Are a Feature, Not Bug, of Critical Theory

_{As a historian of totalitarianism has pointed out, “The aim of totalitarian education has never been to instill convictions but to destroy the capacity to form any.”} _{Michael Egnor

February 3, 2021

Education, Ethics, Philosophy}

“Intersectionality” is the claim by critical theorists that various kinds of oppression against victim groups intersect, in the sense that all oppression ultimately has the same source — you. In an essay at Substack titled “Intersectionality Has Hit the Stop Sign,” Tom Knighton argues, too optimistically in my view, that intersectionality is falling victim to its own contradictions. I believe he misunderstands the nature of the problem. Let me explain why. He cites the example of women’s rights vs. trans rights. A major victory for women’s rights is all-female sports, which allow women to compete without having to overcome the natural physical advantages of men. A major victory for trans rights is to allow men who identify as women to…

^{Type
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Author
Michael Egnor

Date
January 25, 2021

Categorized
Ethics, Global Technology, Technocracy

Tagged
Antonio Gramsci, Charles Darwin, Critical theory, Leninism, Marxism, Saul Alinsky}

Why “Critical Theory” Might Shape Your Life Going Forward

_{Critical Theory has begun to rule the public square and we need to understand it} _{Michael Egnor

January 25, 2021

Ethics, Global Technology, Technocracy}

2020 was the year that Critical Theory came to dominate culture in America. It ruled academia for a half century but only in the past year has it begun to rule the American public square as well. Perhaps you’re not interested in Critical Theory but Critical Theory is interested in you. It behooves us to understand it better, because it will be a central theme in American culture for the foreseeable future. For readers who are not familiar with it, I provide here a synopsis. There is a connection to Darwinism at the heart of Critical Theory, as we will see. Critical theory is, at its root, cultural Marxism. It emerged from the failure of Leninism to capture the hearts…