Steve Patterson

Author: Steve Patterson

  • Charlie Hebdo as an Excuse to Take Selfies

    Forgive my bluntness, but I can’t help noticing the odd Western response to the Charlie Hebdo tragedy. It’s so abstract. The rallies, the symbolism, the arm-in-arm marches, the dramatic storyline between freedom of speech (the pen) versus religious fanaticism (the gun).

    Terrorists raid a magazine headquarters and shoot people, and the first response is for millions of people to walk with signs? To flood Twitter with clever hashtags? Public leaders and the media are claiming this is all to “show solidarity.” But to whom is everybody showing their solidarity? To their neighbors who already agree with them and share their same culture? All of this seems like a peculiar way to react to an act of terrorism.

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  • What’s the Big Deal About Bitcoin? | New Book

    If you’re wondering what’s kept me from posting recently, it’s life, of course. But more specifically, I’ve decided to create a short book on Bitcoin, and I’m trying to finish it before the end of the year. It’s going to be called What’s the Big Deal About Bitcoin?

    And, believe it or not, it’s going to answer the question, “What’s the big deal about Bitcoin?”

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  • You Don’t Know Ebola

  • Paradox Resolved: Buridan’s Ass

    This will be the first post in a periodic series resolving paradoxes.

    The paradox of Buridan’s ass is amusing and has many variations. It was originally formulated by Aristotle (or perhaps even earlier) but popularized by the French philosopher Jean Buridan. It’s considered a paradox even though no logical contradiction is involved – just an odd conclusion. Imagine the following:

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  • Intellectual Dismissal and the Existence of God

  • Can You Judge Intelligence Based on Beliefs?

    Here’s an uncomfortable question: can you accurately judge somebody’s intelligence based on their beliefs? The polite answer is “no”, but my own experiences make me think otherwise. Specifically, when people defend plainly inaccurate beliefs, it can reveal a few things: the amount of research they’ve done, their intellectual integrity, and/or their ability to critically think.

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