The article argues that to function normally, people must accept contradictory realities: that climate change is catastrophic but also that society treats mitigation as economically unviable. It explores the psychological dissonance required to live in a world facing existential threats while continuing daily life without urgent action.
The article explores how modern society requires individuals to trust complex systems and expert knowledge that are impossible for any single person to fully verify, drawing on examples from technology, law, and science to argue that belief in such "impossible things" is a necessary foundation of civilization.
The article argues that science, despite its claim to objectivity, remains fundamentally a process of persuasion, where researchers must convince peers through rhetoric, evidence presentation, and social dynamics, challenging the idealized view of pure empirical discovery.
Infinitary logic allows infinitely long formulas and proofs, enabling properties not expressible in first-order logic. Key variants like L(ω1,ω) permit countable conjunctions and disjunctions with finite quantifier strings. These logics are studied in model theory and set theory.
The article examines how certain fundamental assumptions in physics—like locality, realism, and continuity—are mathematically impossible to maintain simultaneously, highlighting the counterintuitive nature of quantum mechanics and the necessity of dropping at least one cherished assumption to build a consistent theory of reality.
Modern society depends on complex systems—bridges, encryption, elections—that most people cannot personally verify, forcing trust in experts and institutions as an unavoidable necessity.