Mary Martin

Hyperstition is a positive feedback circuit including culture as a component. It can be defined as the experimental (techno-)science of self-fulfilling prophecies. Superstitions are merely false beliefs, but hyperstitions — by their very existence as ideas — function causally to bring about their own reality.

what would education look like if the goal is human and planetary flourishing?

In the case of a monk who has attained the cessation of perception and feeling ... his vitality is not exhausted, his heat has not subsided, and his faculties are exceptionally clear.

Located in the town of Gelephu in Southern Bhutan, Mindfulness City is described as an economic hub that will lay the foundations for the country’s future growth. Spanning more than 386 square miles (250,000 acres), the site will include a new international airport, railway station, hydroelectric dam, healthcare center, and multiple public spaces.... See more

So is this the real threat? Not that we’ll believe false things, but that we’ll stop being able to identify true things? Where truth becomes impossible to establish?

I believe that in nearly every instance where science fiction has successfully ‘predicted’ a turn of events, it’s more true to say that it has inspired that turn of events.

The discovery suggested to Robert that electrostatics can enable a plant-pollinator mutualism, a well-known example of coevolution. This dynamic — in which a bee feeds on a flower’s nectar and gathers pollen to feed larvae, and also propagates pollen from flower to flower, enabling plant reproduction — was already well established. The potential... See more