“Art imitates nature.” This oft-quoted concept from Aristotle’s Poetics is often taken to mean that artists represent what they find in the natural world like a landscape painter might replicate a scenic…
How do you know when someone is a great friend, or perhaps even someone to pursue a relationship with? Most people would say it has something to do with being able to…
From page 78 Byung-Chul Han’s latest book: Stillness emanates from what is unavailable. What is not available stabilizes and deepens our attention; it brings forth a contemplative gaze. The gaze has the…
In The Wizard of Oz, the wizard is thought to be a powerful and mysterious ruler with magical abilities. However, it turns out he is merely using mechanical devices and tricks to…
From my recent book Rediscovering the Goodness of Creation: A Manual for Recovering Gnostics Clearly, as believers we cannot embrace the givenness of things if we do not perceive the world in…
In my column at Salvo Magazine I’ve been writing a series on artificial intelligence and robotics (full links given under “Further Reading” below). My most recent contributions, “AI Mission Creep” and “GPT-3…
Yesterday we heard Vladimir Putin address the Russian parliament, and once again he justified the war in the Ukraine as an attempt “to protect the people in our historical lands.” This has…
How many more people have to die before we wake up to the dangers of robotics? That is a question that Nicholas Carr explored in his 2015 book about automation, The Glass…
I often have occasion to return to the wisdom of Metropolitan Jonah, particularly his talk “Do Not Resent, Do not React, Keep Inner Stillness.” Here is what the retired Metropolitan has to…
In my book Rediscovering the Goodness of Creation (now available), I discuss the practical difference that resurrection makes to how we think about the body and ourselves as physical beings. From chapter…
From Byung-Chul Han’s Saving Beauty: Natural beauty is opposed to digital beauty. In digital beauty the negativity of the other is entirely removed. It is therefore perfectly smooth. It is not meant to…
