Finland's nuclear vault will be sealed around 2100. The waste inside stays lethal for 10,000 years. The real puzzle: how do you warn people that far ahead? by @daylightatheism.b... https://onlys.ky/a-warning-to-the-distant-future/ #NuclearEnergy #Futurism #NuclearWaste #LongTermThinking #Science

How can we get a warning to the distant future?

Can we design warnings that last as long as the mortal dangers we create?

onlys.ky

Morality isn't discovered floating in the cosmos. It's built — the way language and law are built. Human-made doesn't mean false. It means we're responsible for the quality of t... https://onlys.ky/morality-is-story/ #SecularEthics #Humanism #Morality #Philosophy #Meaning

Morality is story: What a secular future must build

Giving up belief in gods doesn't mean giving up the stories that teach us moral lessons.

onlys.ky

Entropy isn't just disorder — it's the statistical reason the past stays past. Physics doesn't explain time's arrow. Entropy does. And it maps onto growing up with uncomfortable... https://onlys.ky/entropy-time-and-the-arrow-of-adolescence/ #Entropy #Physics #Philosophy #Adolescence #TimeArrow

Entropy, time, and the arrow of adolescence

Is the forward motion of time inherently linked to an increase in disorder? Physicists (and novelists) have mixed opinions on the matter.

onlys.ky

The curb cut wasn't designed for you. The caption wasn't either. And yet you've used both today. Accessibility doesn't serve a minority — it builds the floor everyone walks on. https://onlys.ky/accessibility-should-be-boring/ #Accessibility #DisabilityRights #UniversalDesign #Inclusion #Design

Accessibility should be boring

People with disabilities should get to go to the beach, too.

onlys.ky

The Houthis now control the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Diesel is $6/gal. This is what cascading geopolitical failure looks like — by @daylightatheism.bsky.social https://onlys.ky/the-energy-crisis-is-coming/ #EnergyPolicy #GeoPolitics #FossilFuels #YemenCrisis #ClimatePolicy

The energy crisis is coming

Shortages, price spikes, inflation—it's about to be the 1970s all over again.

onlys.ky

75% of hospitals employ chaplains. 29% of Americans have no religious affiliation. That math hasn't been reconciled yet — and patients in crisis are living in the gap. https://onlys.ky/who-comforts-the-secular/ #Secularism #Healthcare #HumanistChaplain #PatientRights #Medicine

Who comforts the secular?

Hospitals still carry embedded religious assumptions, even as more people than ever are nonbelievers.

onlys.ky

Secularists treat public school as values-neutral. It isn't. Never was. That's the uncomfortable foundation of Bruce Ledewitz's argument. by @bledewitz.bsky.social https://onlys.ky/public-funding-of-religious-schools/ #Secularism #Education #SchoolChoice #ChurchAndState #PublicSchools

The secular case for public funding of religious schools

Greater school choice might be preferable to trying to create one curriculum that offends no one.

onlys.ky

Freud called the US "pious America" in 1927. A century later, a new annotated edition asks what his illusion framework still explains about us. https://onlys.ky/the-past-and-future-of-an-illusion/ #Psychology #ReligiousTrauma #Deconstruction #Psychoanalysis #Secularism

The past and future of an illusion

Freud's thoughts on religion through a 21st-century deconstructionist lens.

onlys.ky

99% of Americans can't see the Milky Way. We didn't lose it. We lit it out of existence. The question is whether we'll decide the sky was worth keeping. https://onlys.ky/keeping-the-universe-in-sight/ #DarkSkies #LightPollution #Astronomy #Science #Humanism

Struggling to keep the universe in sight

The future is too bright.

onlys.ky

Automation kills 92M jobs by 2030, creates 170M. The net math works. The meaning problem doesn't. By @susanfourtane.bsky.social https://onlys.ky/post-work-society/ #FutureOfWork #Automation #UBI #Economics #AI

Post-work society: The future of life after jobs

What would you do if you had all the free time in the world?

onlys.ky

A cabinet secretary's teenage daughter understood liberal education better than he did. "Conservative school to conservative college — that's just one-sided." She's 18. He runs... https://onlys.ky/value-of-liberal-education/ #LiberalEducation #HigherEd #CriticalThinking #Secularism #Education

The enduring value of liberal education

Higher education should challenge personal beliefs, not blindly reaffirm them. That's why conservatives hate and fear it.

onlys.ky

We treat privacy like a switch. It's actually a spectrum we've never mapped — and corporations mapped it for us while we weren't paying attention. https://onlys.ky/anonymity-privacy-transparency-integrity-do-we-even-know-the-future-we-want/ #Privacy #DataRights #DigitalIdentity #TechEthics #Futuri

Anonymity, privacy, transparency, integrity: Do we even know the future we want?

We react inconsistently to anonymity, but what does "knowing" a person actually do? What would a world of more integrity actually look like?

onlys.ky

Teahouse culture on Ceres. An asymmetric rattlesnake station. A pilot called Iron Fist Bailey. 'Gamelan Bowl' builds a whole solar system in the cracks between a job briefing. https://onlys.ky/gamelan-bowl/ #SciFi #SpeculativeFiction #ShortFiction #AsteroidBelt #Worldbuilding

Gamelan Bowl

Even in the future among the stars, tea is serious business.

onlys.ky

Climate change has shortened the re-chalking schedule for a prehistoric English giant from every 25 years to every 7-10. Deep time, disrupted. by @susanfourtane.bsky.social https://onlys.ky/rechalking-the-giant/ #Archaeology #DeepTime #ClimateChange #CulturalHeritage #History

Rechalking the giant

The Cerne Giant in Dorset is an earthly legend that links past, present, and future.

onlys.ky

Secularism is great at dismantling holidays. Terrible at building new ones. Thanksgiving is the proof. by @bledewitz.bsky.social https://onlys.ky/a-secular-life-of-thanksgiving/ #Secularism #Humanism #Thanksgiving #Ethics #Philosophy

A secular life of thanksgiving

It makes for a better life when we practice secular humanist gratitude.

onlys.ky

Four billion American chestnut trees, gone in decades. The roots are still alive underground — still trying to grow back. Still being killed every time they surface. by @dayligh... https://onlys.ky/the-resurrection-of-the-american-chestnut/ #AmericanChestnut #Conservation #Ecology #Biotech #Natura

The resurrection of the American chestnut

Humans wiped out a beloved tree species. Should we try to fix that mistake?

onlys.ky

Europe's hospital scanning machines are failing from heat. The continent was never built for this. Neither was our energy grid. by @daylightatheism.bsky.social https://onlys.ky/our-shady-future/ #ClimateChange #RenewableEnergy #SolarPower #ClimateAction #EnergyTransition

Our shady future

Where should we put solar? Everywhere!

onlys.ky

Disabled people asked for remote work for years. Were told it wasn't possible. Covid proved it was always possible. The future was just being rationed. https://onlys.ky/disabled-people-live-in-the-future/ #Disability #Accessibility #FutureOfWork #DisabilityJustice #TechForGood

Disabled people live in the future

Technology that merely represents convenience to some can be lifesaving to others.

onlys.ky

A fake press release. A plausible moral panic. Dozens of news outlets that ran it anyway. Negativland's 1989 hoax is the cleanest demonstration of confirmation bias ever recorded. https://onlys.ky/negativland-and-me/ #MediaLiteracy #Epistemology #Skepticism #MoralPanic #ConfirmationBias

Negativland and me: Why we fall for hoaxes

Public gullibility was a problem in the 1980s when I was caught up in a famous media hoax. It’s worse today.

onlys.ky

"The difference between their dependence and mine is not that mine exists. It is that mine is visible." This essay reframes independence from the ground up. https://onlys.ky/independence-is-interdependence/ #Disability #Interdependence #Accessibility #Humanism #DisabilityJustice

The future of independence is interdependence

Every one of us depends on others; the only difference is how visible that dependence is.

onlys.ky

AI attends your meetings. AI drafts your emails. AI coaches your small talk. Somewhere in that list, you became optional. Where's the line? https://onlys.ky/the-human-archipelago/ #ArtificialIntelligence #HumanConnection #Technology #Sociology #DigitalLife

The human archipelago

Like most modern toxins, AI's ability to isolate us proceeds with our enthusiastic permission.

onlys.ky

A portable planetarium in a school gym can fly kids past Andromeda. 22% of US high schoolers reach science proficiency. The math here is not complicated. https://onlys.ky/educated-by-the-stars/ #ScienceEducation #Education #Space #Humanism #SciComm

Educated by the stars

Science education can—and should—instill kids with a sense of awe and wonder at the world.

onlys.ky

Japan prescribed forest walks as medicine for tech worker burnout — in 1982. We're still arguing about whether wellness culture is cringe. https://onlys.ky/forest-bathing/ #ForestBathing #Nature #PublicHealth #MentalHealth #ShinrinYoku

How forest bathing can soothe our souls

The individual and collective benefits of immersion in nature.

onlys.ky

Atomic clocks define our seconds. A 16th-century papal decree defines our years. The most underexamined contradiction in modern science is the calendar. https://onlys.ky/godless-time/ #Secularism #History #Science #Calendar #ChurchAndState

Godless time: Time for a secular calendar

Time is measured by scientific standards, so why do we still use a calendar based on religion?

onlys.ky

The year 2100 is foggy. The year 3000 is almost readable. A millennium of cause and effect narrows the options. Three futures. All defensible. https://onlys.ky/three-visions-of-the-year-3000/ #Futurism #LongTermThinking #ClimateChange #Humanism #Civilization

Three visions of the year 3000

A quick look at the long run.

onlys.ky

Star Trek's humanist promise: you can hold two moral peaks at once and not need the universe to tell you which one is right. SNW remembers this. Most recent Trek forgot it. https://onlys.ky/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-a-return-to-humanist-form/ #StarTrek #SciFi #Humanism #Television #Philosophy

Strange New Worlds: Star Trek's return to humanist form

Finally! A Star Trek that we can really grapple with as humanists. Join me in reflecting on Strange New Worlds. More episode reviews to come.

onlys.ky

SCOTUS didn't impose religion on America. It just made the Establishment Clause optional. There's a difference — and it matters more. by @bledewitz.bsky.social https://onlys.ky/is-the-supreme-court-forcing-religion-on-us/ #Secularism #SCOTUS #FirstAmendment #ChurchAndState #ConstitutionalLaw

Is the Supreme Court forcing religion on us?

Right-wing justices are giving wide latitude to elected officials to impose their religious views.

onlys.ky

The problem isn't that we're too selfish to fix the world. It's that we're all waiting for someone else to move first. Prisoner's dilemma, civilizational scale. By @daylightathe... https://onlys.ky/the-future-is-a-prisoners-dilemma/ #Ethics #GameTheory #CollectiveAction #Humanism #Politics

The future is a prisoner's dilemma

Our future is increasingly made worse by a refusal to cooperate.

onlys.ky

Every solo survival plan hits the same wall: you can't manufacture antibiotics alone. Civilization isn't a luxury — it's the infrastructure keeping you alive. by @daylightatheis... https://onlys.ky/the-svalbard-seed-vault-a-survival-bunker-for-civilization/ #Futurism #Sustainability #Resilience #U

The Svalbard seed vault: A survival bunker for civilization

How could we reengineer civilization to be resilient against catastrophe? A vault of seeds slumbering in Arctic permafrost suggests one way.

onlys.ky

Spent a few days in a house with no Wi-Fi. It felt like time travel — and not the bad kind. by @susanfourtane.bsky.social onlys.ky/information-overload/ https://onlys.ky/information-overload/ #InformationOverload #DigitalWellbeing #Attention #Neuroscience #SocialMedia

The cost of information overload

Our brains' ability to process information hasn't kept pace with the tools that deliver it.

onlys.ky