If ever there were an overburdened term, it’s “real,” or its aggregate, “reality.” We obviously find it important to discuss whatever we’re discussing when we ask if something is “real,” but we mean so many different things by the term, agreement on the reality of an object of discussion is hard to arrive at, and once we agree we’re not often too certain that we agree on how the object at hand is real. Therefore I suggest breaking down any discussion of the reality of an object into a discussion of seven related qualities of that object, seven qualities that most often underlie any discussion of an object’s reality. (more…)

“What’s love got to do, got to do with it? What’s love, but a sweet old-fashioned notion?” -Tina Turner

I’ve previously spent a lot of digital ink exploring the nature of love. And I’m fairly confident that most of what I wrote holds together and offers a nucleus of wisdom or ethical knowledge, with a platinum and golden rule at the core. But humanity has been discussing the nature of love for millennia; the real task seems, to me, not just to establish a firm and credible and inspiring sense of what love is, but also to establish some firm theoretical connection between this wisdom and the realm of hard science and analysis and math. (more…)