Spiritual Threads
« Previous EntriesOne Universe
Monday, August 16th, 2010As an astronomer, I sometimes think in expansive terms. So the title of this article could have just as easily been “One World” or something like that. For it is about the limits of where we live.
But in a real sense while we live in just one universe, in a galaxy like this [...]
The Big Picture
Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010One of my favorite books is an autobiography of Thomas Edison published around 1934 very near the end of his life. In it, the author relates the observation that the phonograph was perhaps Edison’s most radical invention. You see, at the time, no one even thought it was possible to record people’s voices. The idea [...]
Life and Thought
Monday, May 10th, 2010Time for a thinking piece. If you don’t like mushy stuff, skip this one.
Several people I know well have passed on in the last few months. And times like that make you reflect on their lives and your own.
I also urge you to reflect on how each of us must work to live [...]
Internet Truth
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009One of the most difficult things for people generally to understand is that the Internet is not the same as newspapers, radio, television or any other form of professionally managed news source.
The Internet is un-edited. The internet is unfiltered opinion and as such it may or may not be true.
Now all of us have received [...]
Women and the World’s Future
Tuesday, June 9th, 2009I have 2 daughters – Rose and Alana – and both of them are now out and working after having complete college and masters degrees. Both are doing well. And one reason this is so is that they live in an unprecedented time for women and freedom. Throughout human history there have been very few [...]
Bumping into Limits
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009Perhaps many of you reading this watched the CBS 60 minutes show last Sunday on cold fusion power and its renewed potential. If not, you can view it here. I must admit I am still pretty strongly among the unbelievers.
One reason I am still not convinced is that any fusion reaction leaves different chemical elements [...]
Myth and Transformation
Friday, April 10th, 2009I have been asking myself the question – “How are we supposed to live in this age of carbon limits and energy sustainability?” And it seems to me that we cannot accept or require that each person live under some intricately defined limits and rules but rather perhaps we can live in fairness to one [...]
Ethics, Philosophy, Principle and our minds
Saturday, June 21st, 2008When I worked at Finisar and wrote essays I tried to make many of them on subjects relating to optical and high-speed networking. But inside Small World Group, I am free to range more broadly in what you see here.
Lately, I have been thinking long about how we are approaching a crisis in terms [...]
Movement of a Butterfly Wing
Tuesday, June 10th, 2008In an email exchange this morning, I was able to reflect back on the past 30 years of technology change in a very personal way. Let’s see if this can be reconstructed for you as well.
Around 30 years ago, I was finishing a PhD in Astronomy from the University of Virginia. Jobs were [...]
Radical Entrepreneurs of Social Change
Thursday, April 24th, 2008(This essay was originally published in November, 2001)
I’ve been slow to write about the events that changed the world on September 11, 2001, primarily because it was hard to find words to describe my shock and dismay. Yet, I have been reading and thinking about the words of other observers, and especially two interesting pieces [...]