This video podcast interview of Tom Murphy is pretty interesting. Its two parts and really they dont say much new to me in the first part. Its developing background and rapport etc... So I actually think its really important if you dont know who Tom Murphy is but if you know the Do The Math blog and such you could skip it and go to the second episode maybe. I haven't watched the second episode yet... My advice would be carve out time for both
#TomMurphy
@pycomtois pour faire echo à cette proposition iconoclaste, ici Tom Murphy s'interroge sur l'utilité (à très long terme) de l'écriture et du considérable tribut que notre cerveau limité doit lui verser.
https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2025/07/the-writing-on-the-wall/#more-12693
From my favourite physicist, Tom Murphy:
"Is the 6th Mass Extinction Hyperbole?"
https://www.resilience.org/stories/2025-09-17/is-the-6me-hyperbole/
TL;DR: no
Je ne saurais trop recommander la lecture des deux derniers essais de T. Murphy, ne serait-ce que pour la singularité de leur position: l'écriture est mauvaise (sur le temps long 😏)
"Scramble and Cling | Do the Math"
https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2025/05/scramble-and-cling/
I love the analysis the author does of Modernity. We are completely submerged in it and we think this is the only possible way to live in this world. Luckily, it's not (as it hasn't been for millenia). Most indigenous tribes fought when the white European came, therefore they weren't miserable, otherwise Europeans would have been welcomed.
I say luckily because what Modernity is doing is to exterminate life (us included, of course), so if it were truly a necessity, we'd be royally fucked.
#Modernity #Indigenous #TomMurphy
https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2025/05/scramble-and-cling/
I love the analysis the author does of Modernity. We are completely submerged in it and we think this is the only possible way to live in this world. Luckily, it's not (as it hasn't been for millenia). Most indigenous tribes fought when the white European came, therefore they weren't miserable, otherwise Europeans would have been welcomed.
I say luckily because what Modernity is doing is to exterminate life (us included, of course), so if it were truly a necessity, we'd be royally fucked.
#Modernity #Indigenous #TomMurphy
Useless quote for 6 Mar:
"Our culture has installed in each of us a newfangled operating system that has serious design flaws built in."
~ Tom Murphy in "Learning to Walk Again", 29 Aug 202 post on the blog "Do the Math"
Link to source:
https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2023/08/learning-to-walk-again/
Tom Murphy succinctly breaks down the reason people get so angry and resort to personal attacks when the subject of civilization is brought up negatively, rather than consider and discuss it.
Useless quote for 31 Aug:
"We have to pay attention to the stupid stuff right in front of us, as it might well stand between us and a smart future."
~ Tom Murphy, 2011
Link to source:
https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2011/10/why-not-space/
Quick! buy one before the end of modernity and our manufacturing capacity. Buy spare parts too! 🤣
Tom Murphy with a new thought-provoking post.
https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2024/05/watching-population-bomb/
Tom Murphy's review and critique of The Dawn of Everything.
"Energy transition aspirations are similar. The goal is powering modernity, not addressing the sixth mass extinction. Sure, it could mitigate the CO2 threat (to modernity), but why does the fox care when its decline ultimately traces primarily to things like deforestation, habitat fragmentation, agricultural runoff, pollution, pesticides, mining, manufacturing, or in short: modernity. Pursuit of a giant energy infrastructure replacement requires tremendous material extraction—directly driving many of these ills—only to then provide the energetic means to keep doing all these same things that abundant evidence warns is a prescription for termination of the community of life."
https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2024/03/lets-make-a-deal/
#DoTheMath #TomMurphy #MassExtinction #Collapse #EnergyTransition (haha) #CO2 #Modernity
https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2024/03/lets-make-a-deal/
#DoTheMath #TomMurphy #MassExtinction #Collapse #EnergyTransition (haha) #CO2 #Modernity
"Confessions of a Disillusioned Scientist"
https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2023/12/confessions-of-a-disillusioned-scientist/
«After a rocket ride through science, I am hanging up the gloves, feeling a little ashamed and embarrassed to have devoted so much of my life to what I now see as a misguided cause that has done more harm than good in this world.
The previous post details my views about the limits of science. In this post, I will focus more on my own reaction as a human participant in the enterprise.»
We humans as a whole have developed intelligence but not wisdom (despite such wisdom actually exists in certain places and among certain people). Intelligence without wisdom, as Daniel Schmachtenberger says, is very dangerous (to be accelerated by "AI", by the way). Tom Murphy is realizing this (as I myself have, too, not long ago). Let his testimony be received by as many people as possible 🙏
#DoTheMath #TomMurphy #Science #ScientificMaterialism
https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2023/12/confessions-of-a-disillusioned-scientist/
«After a rocket ride through science, I am hanging up the gloves, feeling a little ashamed and embarrassed to have devoted so much of my life to what I now see as a misguided cause that has done more harm than good in this world.
The previous post details my views about the limits of science. In this post, I will focus more on my own reaction as a human participant in the enterprise.»
We humans as a whole have developed intelligence but not wisdom (despite such wisdom actually exists in certain places and among certain people). Intelligence without wisdom, as Daniel Schmachtenberger says, is very dangerous (to be accelerated by "AI", by the way). Tom Murphy is realizing this (as I myself have, too, not long ago). Let his testimony be received by as many people as possible 🙏
#DoTheMath #TomMurphy #Science #ScientificMaterialism
"The Intransigence of Now" | Do the Math
https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2023/11/the-intransigence-of-now/
«The nearly impossible task, then, is to convince people that this time is not normal: it cannot persist, nor could its direct derivatives. It’s very similar to telling someone they’re the villan, an adolescent that they don’t know what they’re talking about, an elder that they don’t know what’s good for them, or a mentally impaired person that they are nuts. How does that usually work out? After all this time, we still haven’t figured out how to do these things—not in one shot, certainly.
It’s one thing to convince someone that their notions about the pangolin are entirely wrong. Most people have little knowledge or personal stake in the ways of the pangolin. But people immersed in modernity are going to have strong opinions, feeling that they know a thing or two about it. In addition, it is the only thing they’ve ever known. Saying that modernity is a temporary fireworks show is like saying: all you have ever known is an illusion—not as “real” or permanent as you have come to believe. Yet, modernity is what we see out the window. It’s very real and tangible—not easily argued away.»
#DoTheMath #TomMurphy #Sustainability #TheGreatSimplification #Collapse #Psycology
https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2023/11/the-intransigence-of-now/
«The nearly impossible task, then, is to convince people that this time is not normal: it cannot persist, nor could its direct derivatives. It’s very similar to telling someone they’re the villan, an adolescent that they don’t know what they’re talking about, an elder that they don’t know what’s good for them, or a mentally impaired person that they are nuts. How does that usually work out? After all this time, we still haven’t figured out how to do these things—not in one shot, certainly.
It’s one thing to convince someone that their notions about the pangolin are entirely wrong. Most people have little knowledge or personal stake in the ways of the pangolin. But people immersed in modernity are going to have strong opinions, feeling that they know a thing or two about it. In addition, it is the only thing they’ve ever known. Saying that modernity is a temporary fireworks show is like saying: all you have ever known is an illusion—not as “real” or permanent as you have come to believe. Yet, modernity is what we see out the window. It’s very real and tangible—not easily argued away.»
#DoTheMath #TomMurphy #Sustainability #TheGreatSimplification #Collapse #Psycology
"Context is King!" | Do the Math
https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2023/10/context-is-king/
Reading Tom Murphy is very enlightening. This post has hit me especially because I work as a teacher, but I recommend it for everyone nonetheless, because it also points to something that other people are saying out loud: less compartmentalization, more broader view, or systems view (like Nate Havens says).
#DoTheMath #TomMurphy #NateHagens #Collapse #GreatSimplification
https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2023/10/context-is-king/
Reading Tom Murphy is very enlightening. This post has hit me especially because I work as a teacher, but I recommend it for everyone nonetheless, because it also points to something that other people are saying out loud: less compartmentalization, more broader view, or systems view (like Nate Havens says).
#DoTheMath #TomMurphy #NateHagens #Collapse #GreatSimplification
Anyone know Tom Murphy (CBC) on Twitter?
I don't use it but he just said Canada had never launched a rocket?
Maybe he doesn't remember Cape Quoddy?
#CBC #TomMurphy #TheNational
#Canso #Rockets #Space
Sounding Rockets
http://www.friendsofcrc.ca/Projects/Sounding%20Rockets/rocket2.html
No sign of launch pad today that I can find
One rocket just launched and a second rocket is ready for launch. East Quoddy NS solar eclipse expedition, july 1972 #AltText #NewdyQuoddy #NovaScotia #History #Rockets #Launchpad #Halifax (County then)
A Random Fix to Polarization
Fixing polarization, therefore, must involve fixing the nomination process. To do this, we need to allow centrist voices to speak. That only happens if we bring down the artificial partition dividing the primary process, cleaving centrists into two non-interacting camps.
https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2022/11/a-random-fix-to-polarization/
Tom Murphy is playing on ideas I'd first encountered in this classic and excellent 2014 Aeon essay, "If you can’t choose wisely, choose randomly", addressing sortition and its uses, by Michael Schulson:
https://aeon.co/essays/if-you-can-t-choose-wisely-choose-randomly
HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34682741
#TomMurphy #DoTheMath #Sortition #Politics #Elections #ElectoralProcess
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