Essays

The following essays come from a span of four years, from the earliest stages of writing the book in 2003, to the period following the release in 2007. Many of them arose from conversations I had about the book, experiences with students, and encounters at my workshops and seminars. Some are only tangentially related to the subject matter of the book; others represent phases I went through several years ago, before I had fully worked out some of the paradoxes that the book resolves.

You might notice that the quality of these essays is uneven. Some of them are gems; others are informal ruminations, speculations with no attempt at rigor. Overall, I believe that they will enrich and extend your understanding of the book.

I haven't added new essays to this website for a while, but I may soon. However, there is lots of new material at the online magazine Reality Sandwich, most of it more polished than the rough essays below.

• A 28-year Lie: The Wrong Lesson
• The New Epidemics
• Who Will Collect the Garbage?
• Security and Fate
• From Opinion to Belief to Knowing
• The Multicellular Metahuman
• The Great Robbery
• Don't Should on Us
• Grades: A Gun to Your Head
• Ascension
• Confession of a Hypocrite
• You're Bad!
• The Ubiquitous Matrix of Lies
• The Testicular Age
• All Hallows' Eve
• Humanity Grows Up
• The War against the Self and the World
• The Stars are Shining for Her
• For Whom was that Bird Singing?
• Human Nature Denied
• Soul Families
• A State of Belief is a State of Being