Column Dankeld Vanmeenen

It seems easier to talk about the end of humanity than about giving up the internet or giving up driving. It is argued that in our developed "first" world, we now need development aid ourselves. We are “blind” at the mercy of technological “progress”, which we continue to see against our better judgement, …

It is argued that if we decide to keep a technology or practice if we get at least one positive result from it, we do not have to change anything at all. Even factory farming, and wars, have some positive results... Due to the complexity and all the "smart" devices and apps, we may have started to feel, …

Onze maatschappij schreeuwt om nieuwe oplossingen, nu het neoliberalisme al tijden niet meer werkt. Vanuit Fontys doet de auteur onderzoek naar veranderende waardesystemen en brede welvaart. In diverse regio’s in Nederland wordt gewerkt aan brede welvaart, bijvoorbeeld door gebruik van de brede welvaartsmonitor …

Green energy is just one of the two types of energy humanity needs, the energy for our man-made world, including cities, road networks, industries and technological systems (energy for the systems that drive out the ecology). However, a second type of energy is needed to meet our biological needs, energy …

Psychologist and computerscientist Geoffrey Hinton, called the godfather of AI, argued that we should stop with A(G)I. In this column it is argued that Artificial General Intelligence like ChatGPT works very differently than organic intelligence. An organic complexity works like a chain reaction. Unlike …

It is argued that in our world there are many "pessimists", who do not believe that climate, environmental and natural disasters can still be averted, and therefore want to live today as if there was no tomorrow. And if you have nothing more to expect, why should you also let the pleasures of today be …

Even journalists and academics sometimes employ dichotomies that fall short almost immediately. An example is the prophets and wizards dichotomy. Populism with a scientific twist, which apparently makes sense and appeals to our gut feeling. A golden formula, with an implicit logical appeal to dialectics, …

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Als je het maatschappelijke debat over bedrijventerreinen volgt, vraag je je soms af of deze gebieden überhaupt een bredere waarde hebben. Bedrijventerreinen worden verbonden met typeringen als verdozing en hebben het uiterlijk van blokkendozen. Ze komen over als anonieme en verweesde landschappen. Het …