Category Archives: ways of knowing

I and AI

Posted on May 16, 2021 by hessd

Sherry Turkle’s memoir, The Empathy Diaries, was published recently and I bought it as soon as I heard about it. She has spent nearly all of her professional career studying the human-robot interaction.  She is the one who, in Alone … Continue reading →

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The most lied about President

Posted on December 20, 2020 by hessd

It was a professional conversation.  About long-term financial planning, mostly.  We had done all the work and the comments being made were “on the way out the door comments,”  In some way, the topic of President Trump came up and … Continue reading →

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Hector lives

Posted on November 28, 2020 by hessd

There are so many things to like about Steven Spielberg, but among those I cherish his one-liner about The Terminal.  A reporter asked him whether the part of Viktor Navorski (played by Tom Hanks) was “a Christ story.”  I didn’t … Continue reading →

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Lasting Damage to the Republic

Posted on November 12, 2020 by hessd

I want to write this post as a rebuke to myself.  I want to look back on the day I wrote this and say, “This helped me avoid making a really bad mistake.” Here is the mistake: “At last, the … Continue reading →

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Thoughtless Lying

Posted on October 28, 2020 by hessd

I come from a small town in a conservative part of Ohio.  In some ways, that has been a very good preparation for the kind of life I have lived.  In our town, we believed in “the virtues,” despite violating … Continue reading →

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White women are vicious. Hm.

Posted on June 16, 2020 by hessd

A recent column by Charles Blow, a columnist for the New York Times, is one of the worst I have seen anywhere. It stands out particularly in the Times, where the columns written by people who work for the paper … Continue reading →

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“Spiritual therapy”

Posted on April 26, 2020 by hessd

I have no idea what spiritual therapy is.  I haven’t even consulted Wikipedia.  I do have some idea about physical therapy, however, and I want to approach “spiritual therapy” using that analogy.[1] Physical Therapy Here’s what my experience with physical … Continue reading →

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A Non-conversation about the COVID-19 Virus

Posted on March 26, 2020 by hessd

In today’s New York Times (March 26), Nicholas Kristof and Russell Moore had a non-conversation about the COVID-19 virus.   Kristof, with co-author Stuart Thompson and with the help of some statistical model builders, published an interactive graph on the … Continue reading →

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Teaching alienation to citizens

Posted on June 7, 2019 by hessd

Peter Berger says in one of his early books on sociology that “society” is a show that is meant to be seen only once.  It’s like a magic act.  The first time the illusion is complete.  Later on, you begin … Continue reading →

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Something happened

Posted on April 15, 2019 by hessd

The bad thing about the NBC show New Amsterdam is that it isn’t very realistic.  On the other hand, it is well done and week after week, manages to surprise.  In this essay I am going to tell you about … Continue reading →

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