GENIUS FORUMS

I prefer drawing devil horns and buck teeth on Rex Morgan.

Actually the third-world quality of life has risen significantly by virtually any objective metric over the last half a century, despite all the horrible problems we are witnessing; because the problems used to be much, much worse. It's far better than most people even realize, even with a fair num...

I wish I shared your optimism. We may continue to pull rabbits out of hats indefinitely, as we have in the past - or we may hit up against some hard limits; some of which we may have not yet foreseen. There is only a certain amount of sunlight, land area, water and so on, on the planet. The Earth h...

The spirit of this post and what (little) I know of QRS from Dan's description at FP seem to be at odds. I see one side arguing about "femininity" in terms of actual females and the other using "femininity" as a heading describing a certain type of person. Using femininity as a p...

I noticed this as well, Vic talking about "Unidian's position" and "Unidian's argument" (and how awful he thinks they are) in a bunch of posts while you stayed out of it for the most part. Odd how people's chief perception here seems to be of you getting all "worked up"...

Oh, that happens quite a bit. Take this forum for example - full of people who support voluntary unemployment (all 3 QRS plus several others) and I still get the bulk of it. The reason for their absence or low participation is not that they don't support or agree with me. The reason is that with th...

Since most people work, being at work puts people in an environment that reflects what a lot of other people are experiencing, and often puts people in touch with more people, and people of a different sort, than they would interact with otherwise. In these ways, work could put a philosopher in tou...

Cory, I had a similar situation with my mother growing up and, to some extent, I still can't quite get it out all the time and have to "cutesy" it. I've never really felt it meant anything or, when I did want to say it, that it was adequate. With my family and friends I have trouble gettin...

broken, As I read your response I couldn't help feeling you were responding to someone else because I don't feel I embody any of what you said. When I talk about "humanity" it's in the general sense that the word is associated with. As a whole we have failed to push ourselves over the edge...

Easy? I've got a friend with pretty serious bi-polar disorder and the government refuses to give him any aid even though he certainly needs it to continue schooling. Without myself and my family he'd be screwed since his parents are completely useless. Either way, I think philosopher's contribute as...

I don't think a separate class would work. Religious institutions are given free reign because people want it to be so while most people wouldn't understand what a philosopher does. If you add some state funded philosopher exception it would probably take on a more "scientist" form in such...

The term "genius" is not important. In my view, those who understand this do not object to the use of the term as a matter of convenience. Why either embrace or shy away from an unimportant term? If it's germane to the discussion, I say use it. Otherwise, there's no need to. Conspicuously...

Why do you need someone else to set "Genius criteria"? I, personally, fit almost all of Nat's criteria (and he knows which I don't fit into) but I feel no need to call myself a "genius" and would really rather prefer I wasn't called a genius by anyone else. The journey of underst...

I admit, I missed the joke in a fit of literal...ness? I'm addled by staring at plans, foamcore, and my xacto knife all day. I do, however, think there is a distinction to be made between "better than" and "more advanced". In my mind "better than" is a useless argument ...

Do you consider nuclear bombs to be something which makes us advanced? They are a symbol of violence, a method of maintaining our fragile territoriality which exists in beasts. Fundamentally nuclear weapons are simply a method of enforcing our animal instincts which say, as sedentary creatures "...

I don't feel humans are fundamentally better than chickens... For all our technology, our governments, our countries, ethnicities, and everything else which supposedly makes us "better" none of these things accomplish anything. More than any other species on this Earth we control our own d...

I don't think you're wrong in saying it's possible just like I don't think someone from the 60's would have been wrong in saying it was possible we could have had colonies on Mars by now. It's all theory anyway and assuming the effort we put into putting someone on the Moon had continued we'd be muc...

There are two types of men: a woman's man and a man's man...clearly you have singled out the woman's man who relates better with women than men. There also exists a man's man who relates better with men and treats women like s**t. I don't think that's quite true...I think, as with everyone, there i...

I can't say as I've ever felt odd about us being descended from animals because I don't see humans as anything really "special" because I don't see as we've really accomplished much of anything with our vaunted intelligence. Though I do confess to rarely understand most people and why they...

Since I missed the fun part I'll just post my two cents: Personally, I don't now and never intend on owning a gun. As much as I believe I could trust myself with one I don't trust anyone around me with one and I believe simply owning one increased my chances of being hurt by a gun. Constitutionally ...

I think to an extent it's true that men can treat other men like crap but to a larger degree than anywhere else? I just don't see it. I've never had a problem striking up a civil conversation with random people at parties, work, class, or even public places like Borders or Kinko's. Over-competitive ...

There are limits because video games can only be so "real". A newish game, Company of Heroes, does a great job of keeping as realistic as possible though only inasmuch as the names are correct, their functions are correct, and a guy with a pistol can't kill a tank. I think Civilization is ...