Joshua Samuel Zook
Bio
Grew up in a religious household. Listened to countless sermons on the wrath of God. An epiphany struck him and he realized no one is that angry, not even God.
Stories (19/0)
Is Vernor Vinge's Singularity The End Of Days?
Vernor Vinge is a former San Diego State University math professor and a Hugo award-winning science fiction novelist. He is best known for his novels and novellas A Fire Upon the Deep (1992), A Deepness in the Sky (1999), Rainbows End (2006), Fast Times at Fairmont High (2002), and The Cookie Monster (2004). In Vinge's 1993 essay "The Coming Technological Singularity" Vinge wrote, "Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence, also referred to as the singularity. Shortly after, the human era will be ended." The singularity, in essence, is the end of days.
By Joshua Samuel Zook7 years ago in Futurism
Dan Simmons' Hyperion
In Hyperion, Dan Simmons accomplished the creation of one of the most beautifully rendered science fiction universes ever encountered in the readers mind. Hyperion tells the story of a group of seven strangers on their way to the distant world of Hyperion. Earth is dead, but humanity has spread among the stars in a web of worlds (connected by an FTL transportation system called The Web) known as the Hegemony. There are worlds humans live on which are not a part of the Hegemony, but that number is in constant decline as the benefits of conformity outweigh the benefits of independence. Somewhere in the galaxy, a self-aware collective of artificial intelligence known as the TechnoCore have made their home, helping the Hegemony to care for its technology. Also spread in between the stars are the Ousters, “barbarians,” who roam in Zero-G mobile cities and flotilla, attacking Hegemony targets whenever the opportunity presents itself.
By Joshua Samuel Zook7 years ago in Futurism
Can Scientific Theory Prove Philosophical Ideology?
Philosophy was once the domain of the purely speculative—the nearly abstract. A well-known philosophy department posed the question, "What is human?" The questions were too complex. The answers available only to God. That is, if there is a God.
By Joshua Samuel Zook8 years ago in Futurism
What Is the Bahai Faith?
As long as there has been religion, there has been conflict over which is the true religion. Humankind has been going to war over gods and customs for tens of thousands of years. Sometimes religion is a convenient mask for secular disputes over land, such as in the Israeli conflicts with Egypt and Syria. Sometimes it is the backdrop of cultural conflicts like terrorist activity in Afghanistan and Pakistan, or an old grudge like India and Pakistan. From ancient times to suicide bombers on the streets of Peshwar, the major religions have struggled against each other over claims of being the one true religion.
By Joshua Samuel Zook8 years ago in Futurism
Where Does Personality Come From?
As his name, so is he. The Talmud expresses a scientific sentiment many prominent empiricists believe to be true. It appears that Jewish law scholars understood a psychological notion thousands of years before psychology. Almost against his will, psychologist Lewis Lipsitt, of Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island, came to believe that nomenclature is destiny. If artificial intelligence is an attempt by mankind to create a better species in its own image, then perhaps the same will hold true of robots, and other automated self functioning forms of AI. A person’s name, or a robot's designation, will influence his, her, or its chosen profession.
By Joshua Samuel Zook8 years ago in Futurism
Why Presidents Swear on the Bible
Symbolism is not always what it seems. Presidents swear on a Bible. “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Do they actually believe in the deity whose purported book, religion, and ideals are sworn over and, by definition, are therefore the judge of their success? Are all our presidents, according to accepted scientific belief, swearing over a book that may have no more truth in it than Lord of the Rings. Did Eve talk to snakes? Did Frodo talk to a dragon? In an age of deteriorating numbers of true believers, and a resurgence of science as the authority, why do the leaders of our country swear over what half the country believes is a book written by men in their pursuit of organized and institutional religion. Where is the separation of church and state, when the first act as president is religiously symbolic? Maybe they should swear over Frank Herbert’s Dune or George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones. Or perhaps the best idea would be to swear over the constitution. God should have very little to do with it, irrespective of traditions. The perception that it is a requirement is wrong. There have been notable presidents who have not sworn over a religious book. Irrespective of their religious beliefs, they did not confuse their duties to America with God.
By Joshua Samuel Zook8 years ago in Futurism
Finding Meaning Without Religion
Traditionally, people have had churches and religion as a support system for life's emergencies. No matter the enormity of the crisis, God and his local representative, one's priest or minister, would be there to serve as a reminder of "what a friend [one has] in Jesus." But people who have grown alienated from religious orthodoxy or even from religion itself, what do they have?
By Joshua Samuel Zook9 years ago in Futurism