meaning

The Consumerism of Calvin (yes, that Calvin!)

V’Ger Has Left The Building

One of the more philosophical Star Trek movies was Star Trek: The Motion Picture released in 1979. The plot line wrestled with what makes humans human; what makes a machine a machine; what makes a sentient being sentient; and what might happen when an alien race encounters a human-made probe. The story revolved around a…

Follow-Up to Information and Meaning

On March 2  I posted Information and Meaning. This cartoon by Bill Watterson is an appropriate follow-up to that blog post. In three frames this philosophical cartoonist captures the angst of many regarding both meaninglessness and medications of choice. (Click on the comic for a larger image.)

Information and Meaning

We have all seen this situation numerous times. We are sitting among friends talking about some subject when someone asks a question to which no one has the answer. Soon, someone pulls out their phone and googles the question (yes, I did just use the verb form of Google; language is always changing). A few…

Contact

I watched the 1997 movie Contact once again. I love this movie because most of the time it seems to be truly wrestling with questions of philosophy, science, and theology. It asks questions that don’t get answered (just like real life). It recognizes that there are fundamentalist zealot Christians and there are fundamental zealot scientists.…

Why?

A friend and regular blogger (4 Minute Writer) directed me to a blog which asked some questions about why humans exist. She knew this would catch my attention. Nrhatch wrote: “On an individual basis, I have no problem seeing the meaning for life since I agree with the Dalai Lama: We are here to be…