The Progressive Secretary

“Most people don’t have the time to send these badly needed messages, because

they are doing other things. But our computers have the time, and want to go to work

for you. If you join us, we’ll send you proposed email letters. You can tell us to send

each one for you, and we send it out over your return address.”

Science — Hofstadter 281 (5376): 512 Douglas Hofstadter worries about the future of rational inquiry. This is not so new — from July of 1998 — but the concerns are worthy of ongoing attention even in this brief-attention-span post-MTV world. I’m not sure, however, I totally agree with Hofstadter. While I’m a scientist, I am exposing my children to the joys of the pseudo-scientific, the eerie and unexplained. These two are not necessarily dichotomous.