There was a time when a person’s value was defined by the value of their bank account. This misunderstood sense of self-worth day by day devoured creativity and our sense of joy. In its place was left behind a program, a calendar, a schedule, a shift, another Zoom meeting, another day. The banality of 9–5 in combination with working from home, the strict code by which one decides when to wash, when to eat, what to eat, when to go, when to stay, and when to sleep has become a part of our self-definition and self-isolation. …

When I think about how I think, I realize that I am using words to think. When I think about the words I am using, certain thoughts or better impressions show up in my understanding. There is no exact word that I can think of to capture this experience of impressions I am having. My use of the word impressions, rather than thoughts, is an attempt to point out the way words have an impact not only on our understanding but on our senses also. I have also chosen to use the word understanding rather than mind because words do…

In the introduction of Being and Time, continental Philosopher Martin Heidegger criticizes various sciences by claiming that they have remained blind and perverted — because they lack an answer to the question “what is being.”

Interestingly, Heidegger gives us the answer in the introduction when he says that being (which determines entities as entities) is that on the basis of which entities are already understood. Understanding what that meant was an unexpected beginning for me, and it laid the foundation of my thinking on existentialism.

Expanding Heidegger’s Initial Answer To “What Is Being?”

Dasein, the being for which being is an issue, is a term Heidegger utilizes throughout…

I wrote this poem, Not About Roaches, when I was 14 years old. I stumbled across it while going through old hard drives I recently rediscovered. The poem is about my struggle with acne. I had really bad acne as a teenager that scarred me for life. It’s been thirty-plus years since these words were born into this world, and I still find it hard to read. I wouldn’t have dared to share it with anyone at the time of its writing, but perhaps by sharing it now, I can lay to rest this really depressing period in my life.

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“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” simply does not apply in a world where those words can be amplified. When your words can be sent instantly to 1,000 people with the push of a button, the potential virality of any given post makes them exponentially worse.

Bullying is not something new, but the technology used to proliferate emotionally damaging words at an exponential rate is. Unlike bullying of yesteryear, the imbalance of power created by technology between the victim, the bully, and now enablers allows the bully to hide behind a screen, to…

Politics, Racism

Upon first reading, Article 1, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, you may assume that the 3/5ths rule is a simple calculation that identified slaves i.e. “other Persons”, as only 3/5ths human, but the story of racism and power in America is far more complicated then you might imagine.

“Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed…

If you are a lawyer working at a rate of $250/hr, it would take you 720,000,000 hours, or 30,000,000 days or roughly 82,192 years to earn the equivalent of one man’s net worth. Jeff Bezos’ net worth is roughly $180,000,000,000. Unfathomable doesn’t quite capture what it means to have that much money.

Bill Gates is the second richest person in the world behind Jeff Bezos with a net worth of $103,000,000,000, followed by either a Mark Zuckerberg or Warren Buffet who trade spots for third at over $80,000,000,000 each. Collectively, these four individuals alone own more wealth than half the…

Imagine an advanced civilization of aliens that visit Earth. These aliens call themselves “Dasien” and bring with them advanced technology. They offer it to us.

We do our best to try to understand Dasien and the tools they bring, but no matter what we do we are incapable of understanding. They provide manuals written in their Dasien language, which we try to decipher and translate into our own human language. Despite our best efforts, we stumble and fail to grasp anything meaningful. To us, Dasien and their technology are nothing short of magic.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from…