Many science fiction authors have written about androids — robotic humans simulating human intelligence with powerful software — and as usual, science fiction (20th century mythology) is becoming reality. The term “android” was popularized, I think, by prominent science fiction writer Phillip K. Dick, whose Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep? short story was one [...]
Mythphile
all the myth that’s fit to print
Browsing the archives for the Modern Myths category
24 Mar 12
Secret Service Code Names: The Power of Names in Politics
U.S. Secret Service code names have been used to refer to the president and VIPs since the Truman Administration. I find them fascinating, because they are a modern expression of a very old mythological theme, the Magic Name or Secret Name. Names have power in both mythology and psychology. In many mythologies, speaking a name [...]
21 Dec 11
The Ritual of the Gift
A Time magazine article this week notes that traditional ink-and-paper paper books are seeing a surprising spike in sales this year, as they did last year, despite the meteoric rise in popularity of ebook readers. The article flails for causes: “The holiday spike may reflect this year’s partial lifting of economic gloominess.” If that’s true, why was there one [...]
21 May 11
Rapture vs. Ragnarök: A Pagan Apocalypse
While the earthquakes of Harold Camping’s apocalypse failed to roll around the globe at precisely 6PM (God has apparently modernized enough to observe human time zones), I spent the day reading The Road to Middle-Earth: How J.R.R. Tolkien Created a New Mythology. I suppose I find modern mythology more appealing when presented as such. Of course, [...]
2 Apr 11
The Ham Sandwich and Eternal Happiness
An old logic joke goes like this: I. Nothing is better than eternal happiness. II. A ham sandwich is better than nothing. III. Therefore, a ham sandwich is better than eternal happiness! It turns out that there are a lot of ham sandwich myths trying to reassure us that our life is tasty just as [...]