Society

According to transhumanists, we are close to entering a post-human age when technology allows humans to evolve.

The Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, a nonprofit based in Connecticut, has published an article which raises interesting questions about personal responsibility under the automated internet.

As the author Marcelo Rinesi notes, individuals now have the power to hand decisions over to a computer and to let automated software codes engage in actions while the person is doing something else. Examples include letting the computer place bids on your behalf on Ebay while you are out fishing or trading stocks based on artificial intelligence (see yesterday's Wall Street Journal for an article about

A loss expected to happen next year looks smaller than that same loss happening next week. Worse yet, a loss or catastrophe that may happen (indeed, is highly likely to happen) decades away is essentially invisible, unthinkable or unworthy of attention now. In other words, humans suffer from an intrinsic thinking defect best described as time blindness. It is the inability to correctly foresee and take seriously long term consequences of current actions.

No wonder that people easily spend decades eating unhealthy foods or living a sedentary lifestyle, or both, without appreciating or internalizing the inevitable negative and serious ....

Pioneering women at United Airlines (UAL) organized the world’s first Flight Attendant (FA) union in 1945. They were quickly recognized by the carrier as the official bargaining representative when the CEO said “they need a union.” Today, these same workers stand last as the lowest paid among all the major airlines and are hardly getting any notice from management. Negotiations have stalled.

“We are working at 1994-wage levels after suffering wage cuts, staff reductions and rising health care costs,” Chris Black told several hundred flight attendants and other union supporters picketing on January 8 at UAL departure gates at Sa....

Among the many things that trouble our world is the proliferation of meetings. In many professions of little significance, leaving out, perhaps, the lawyer, the doctor, and the educator (excepting the administrators), meetings for the sake of meetings appears to be the order of the day.

It has been my lonely role to rebel. I rose to my peak within my government profession at the tender age of 34. I was prevented from further advancement by the requirement of entering into senior executive service, which is to say, abandoning any pretense of useful work and descending into the murky swamp of administration with the attendant, all-consu....

Believing in volunteerism and trying to help make my local community a place where neighbors know each other, a place where people gather to share common experiences and where good clean fun is part of life. Recently I devoted many hours to what I will call my local MegaFest.

Over the last seven months MegaFest rose from a cloud bank on the horizon to a tsunami crashing through the last few weeks of reality. I’ve seen the Good, the Bad and the Ugly in our local community and having walked through the blast, survived the storm to now sit contented by the fire I can honestly say I was in charge of the feats of strength.

Looming ....