Frank Herbert

Selling Confidence

To my ears, Trump is an inarticulate ignoramus with a heavy dose of meglomania. In a prior post, I linked to John McWhorter‘s analysis of Trump’s speech patterns. These YouTube clips summarize his conclusions: McWhorter elaborates in The Atlantic and concludes that Trump is a walking “hot mike” with no sensible filter. I agree. ButContinue reading “Selling Confidence”

Facial Recognition

In Privacy, I highlighted the problem of the surveillance state. The public forum now debates how far that power should reach; whether police, corporations, or federal agencies should control it. The question is framed as one of fairness or accountability. It should be one of existence. The simplest way to see the danger is throughContinue reading “Facial Recognition”

Arrakis teaches the attitude of the knife—chopping off what’s incomplete and saying: ‘Now, it’s complete because it’s ended here.’ Dune, Collected Sayings of Maud’Dib by the Princess Irulan I first read most of the Dune saga in high school and arrived at college in Oregon eager, naïvely, to meet its author. A classmate from theContinue reading “Frank Herbert”