Traditional Thai Ways of Perceiving in Modern Bangkok
September 25, 2025
The horrors of the sack of Ayutthaya in 1767 made old Thai traditions seem like a lost haven. The siege dragged on for more than
Wealthy Merchants, Pious Monks, and Royal Glitter; The Unique Cultural Wealth of Thailand’s Old Capital Ayutthaya
September 14, 2025
It was one of the world’s greatest cities before Bangkok became the capital in 1782. Ayutthaya was founded in 1351, and it became the most
Truth and Culture; Updating Ideas of Truth
September 1, 2025
What is truth? A common theme in different definitions of it has been constancy. For example the Middle English (spoken from about 1150 to around
The Multidimensional Body
August 13, 2025
The biologist Mae-Wan-Ho, in The Rainbow and the Worm; The Physics of Organisms, wrote that biology has a long tradition of seeing organisms in atomistic
Beyond Maps; Seeing the World in a Richer Way
August 4, 2025
Maps can distort our views of the world. Thongchai Winichakul, in Siam Mapped, wrote that the map of Thailand became a metasign—it acquired meanings that
Beyond Information and AI
July 23, 2025
Many of AI’s leaders are concerned about aligning AI’s goals with what will benefit humanity, but its LLMs have a narrow view of us. Humanity’s
Ancient Indian Concepts of Space; More Hidden Wealth in Basic Ideas
July 12, 2025
Western scientists in the 16th and 17th centuries increasingly conceived space as a void that objects move around in. At the same time, architects were
Culture and Time
July 4, 2025
Just after the beginning of the 20th century, the French philosopher Henri Bergson defined two kinds of time. One is objectively measured. We identify a
Cultures and Concepts; Hidden Wealth in Basic Ideas
June 25, 2025
What is a circle? Many Westerners have been trained to think of it as an abstract geometric shape with a circumference of 2πr and the