The wonders of the universe

Everyone seems to love the latest BBC popular science programme 'The Wonders of the Universe' and it's no surprise - apart from having everyone's favourite former-pop-star-prof as a presenter, it provides an awe-inspiring view of the universe that we live in.

I think having a regular dose of this sort of perspective is important in our lives. It helps us to retain a sense of balance and context for our lives, and to appreciate both our relative insigificance in the great scheme of things and the remarkable fact that we are alive in the first place. See this link for an article on the value of perspective.

At Life Squared, we're currently redeveloping our website, and one of the new features the new site will carry is an interactive tool to help people see various aspects of their lives in a broader context. Apart from simply being very interesting, it may well encourage users to think about their lives and how they live them. Keep checking the site in late April/May to find out more...

Freedom debunked

'Freedom' is often held up as an unequivocal good in our modern individualistic society, and many people (and politicians) justify their actions or views on the basis of this. The short paper available I wrote for ChangeStar here explores the idea of freedom and our desire for it. It reaches what I hope is a reasonably common sense conclusion:

"Each person’s claim to freedom brings competing claims from others and we should be sure to weigh these up carefully before we jump to defend anyone’s claim for ‘freedom’."