Category: Columns
The foundation of psychohistory?
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2011/05/Psychohistory.mp3[/podcast] In his famous Foundation series (published six decades ago now), science fiction writer Isaac Asimov postulated a fictional branch of mathematics, discovered by scientist Hari Seldon, known as “psychohistory,” which could predict the future. Psychohistory was based on the principle that the behavior of a mass of people is predictable if the quantity of …
Embarrassment
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2011/04/Embarrassment.mp3[/podcast] Some people are easily embarrassed. Some, not so much. I, for example, have no problem at all singing in public. (Here’s proof!). That’s not true for everyone. Which is why, I guess, that researchers studying the neurological basis of embarrassment recently chose to trigger embarrassment by making people listen to recordings of themselves singing. …
Inattention blindness
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2011/04/Inattention-Blindness.mp3[/podcast]
A bit about bias: the encore
I don’t usually repeat columns quite as soon as I’m repeating this one on bias, but my big brother Jim recently suggested this might be a good time, with the Canadian election on, and I always do what my big brother tells me to. (Right, Jim?) Also, I’m swamped with editorial revisions on two novels …
Political irrationality
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2011/04/Political-Irrationality.mp3[/podcast] This week, in honour of the Canadian federal election coming up May 2, I’m revisiting a column from a few years ago that seems apropos. It’s all about political irrationality, and if you read that phrase and immediately assume it’s referring to the obvious irrationality of the political beliefs of those who plan to …
The Space-Time Continuum: In praise of Locus
Here’s the latest of my SF/fantasy columns for the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild’s magazine Freelance. *** For most of the world, Charlie Brown is only a beloved cartoon character with a round head. But for those immersed in the science fiction and fantasy genres, Charlie Brown was also the nickname (though he hated it) of Charles …
The case for accidental politicians
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2011/03/Accidental-Politicians.mp3[/podcast] Canada is about to enter a federal election campaign, and you know what that means. Platforms, proclamations, partisanship, preening, pretending, pandering and pestering, not to mention politicians on your porch. It’s enough to make you tired, but at least here that knock on the door is a smiling politician and not the secret police. …
Basketball bank shots
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2011/03/Basketball-Bank-Shots.mp3[/podcast] Basketball skills ought to run in my blood. My father won multiple provincial high school basketball championships as coach of the Western Christian College Mustangs, and my brother was both a good player and championship-winning coach himself. But, alas, basketball and I never got along very well. I could sort of dribble (if I …
Stretching: the truth
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2011/03/Stretching-the-Truth.mp3[/podcast] Exercise is good for you. It’s a shame, since I personally find the whole sweating/breathing hard/ hurting thing a (literal) pain, but I don’t believe I can mount a successful argument as to why sitting on your rear end eating junk food all day is actually better for you, even though evolution seems to …
Atomic-oxygen art restoration
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2011/02/Atomic-Oxygen-Art-Restoration.mp3[/podcast] Whenever you visit an art museum that houses really old paintings, you may find yourself underwhelmed by their appearance. Case in point: the Mona Lisa. Although I haven’t seen it recently, when I did see it, back in the 1980s…well. It was small, dark, and hard to see inside its climate-controlled compartment. That darkness …
The Space-Time Continuum: Sturgeon’s Law doesn’t always apply
My latest column for Freelance, the magazine of the Saskatchewan Writers Guild. *** Ever heard of Sturgeon’s Law? It does not, as you might think at first glance, regulate the caviar industry in Russia; rather, it is a general description of the world around us. Formulated by the late science fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon, it …
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