The Quest for Thriving Communities
This blog has one abiding concern: What does it mean and take for a community and its residents to thrive?
Self-Knowledge in the Age of the Digital Panopticon
A short piece in the British thought journal Prospect, "Quantified Self: The Algorithm of Life," reminds me once again that satire of the dystopian variety can barely keep up with what the real world throws at us every day.
The European Issues
Readers whose interest has been whetted by the Harper's symposium on Europe should look forward to the Hedgehog's diverse delvings into Europe's current crisis.
The Best Case for the Humanities
Many years ago, a friend of mine was asked what she planned to do with her English degree after she graduated from university. Her reply was terse but only partly ironic: "I plan to read novels."
Compared to What?
What debates and research about the effects of digital technologies on our lives so often lack is historical perspective.
Human Freedom and the Art of Nudging
Richard Williams, director of policy research at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center, recently argued that the Obama administration's growing interest in using behavioral economics signifies a renewed and creeping enthusiasm for massive government oversight and coercion of its citizens. Like many libertarians before him, he traces this critique back to an overall anxiety that a "nanny state" will interfere with our lives, and take away our natural freedom.
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