Possible topics for future blog posts…

On this page I just want to collect a couple of topics and issues I find interesting enough to think and write about in future blog posts. This list is in no way ordered by preference or by anticipated date of writing/publishing! In fact, I rather put these topics here so as to “stash them away for a rainy day”, and it might be a while before any of them becomes a blog post…

  • Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of Mental Disorders – how come it has become so much larger in the past decades, how exactly are diagnoses defined in terms of the editing process of this manual, would I “qualify” for one if not several diagnoses, what is the consequence of getting a diagnose of a mental disorder, and without a model for psychopathology how much value does a diagnosis have over actually sticking with symptoms?
  • What makes music pleasurable? Breaking music down into elements of anticipation and surprise at the different levels of pitch, harmonics, rhythm, music structure, etc.
  • How to decide between consumption, mostly for hedonistic value, such as direct pleasure, and investment? And can the outcome of labor truly be stored? In money? If not, how else?
  • Humans seem to be getting more and more dependent on external processes, devices, chemicals, and facilities–we rely on banking just as much as on computers, pain killers, or the internet. What are the similarities, what are the differences? Where to draw the line between useful and dangerous dependencies? A look into the future…
  • The state of our current democracy – assuming it is, to date, the best way of organizing a civil society via representational government, are there elements that can be improved by taking new technologies and scientific research into account? Is there something like “Democracy 2.0”?
  • New York City, a place to live long-term? What makes the city absolutely livable and what factors might speak against remaining here “for ever”…

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