Laura Pike Seeley

There is an effective middle ground where anger can be leveraged to make positive change. When anger’s heat burns brightest is the time to make plans

The Enlightenment changed the course of human history, placing reason at the center of culture. Our current project of civilization is failing and needs a new direction. Learning about life in the Universe highlights the uniqueness of our planet and of life here. This knowledge should pave the way to a new Enlightenment, one with the goal of... See more

Numerous psychological studies have found that we seek out information that supports our pre-existing views – and avoid information that might contradict them.

The brain is continually making predictions about the causes of the sensory information it receives, and it uses that information to update its predictions. In other words, we live in a “controlled hallucination” that remains tied to reality by a dance of prediction and correction, but which is never identical to that reality.

Scientists have demonstrated that, as the years go by, much of what we think we remember is false. It seems our brains can't store every detail we experience, so we recall the gist of events — enough to create a story that makes sense to us. Every time we recall a story or tell it to others, we change small bits depending on whether our audience... See more