So, yeah, I like to learn. It's fairly well established that I read books for fun that normal people only read when it's an assignment. I've not found a whole lot of people who read philosophy and such without the academic prodding. Lately, I've been eyeballing a free, online course in Cognitive Liberty and Neuroethics. The description of the course looks like this:

Questions concerning freedom and coercion have played a fundamental role in the development of our society; the rapid flow of technological advances that we are experiencing often overtakes society’s ability to consider their implications in depth. Freedom and personal identity are being challenged on numerous fronts, and it is crucial that these issues be explored in a time when one’s perception of self identity may be bought, sold and manipulated in numerous ways. Cognitive Liberty may be defined as “the right of each individual to think independently, to use the full spectrum of his or her mind, and to engage in multiple modes of thought,” and is the basis of the rights conferred by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights. The course engages students in an engaging investigation of the ethics and implications of current social trends and practices affecting freedom of thought and mental autonomy, and covers topics including philosophy, technology, law, drugs, media, surveillance and academic freedom.

Needless to say, as a hardcore scifi fan, I'm intrigued. So, I'm doing it. I just printed the reading for the first week. Damn! Here's the list:

Richard Glen Boire “On Cognitive Liberty” (Parts I-III)
Adina Roskies “Neuroethics for the New Millennium” (from Neuron 35:21-23, July 3, 2002).
John Stuart Mill “On Liberty” (Parts I & II)
Plato “Apology”
Martin Heidegger “What is Called Thinking?: Lecture I” (in What is Called Thinking?)
U.S. Constitution: Amendments
Aldous Huxley “Culture and the Individual”

I went to my bookshelf to find I had the wrong Mill ("Utilitarianism" as opposed to "On Liberty") and nothing with the Plato or Huxley articles in them. When I first started investigating the site this course comes from, I thought they must be whackjobs. I still am leaning toward whackjobs, but this course is fairly well put together, as evinced by the first *week* reading list above, and relevant. Anyway, after I located and printed all the materials for the first week, I was a bit daunted by some of these readings. The smallest is the Huxley at 7 pages which is from a 1963 issues of Playboy. Who says no one reads Playboy for the articles(and no wonder I didn't have a copy lying 'round the house!) Once everything was printed, the last link led to the discussion questions and the main reason I didn't jump into this when I first saw it. I'm doing this by myself. While I'm often referred to as the crazy one in my family, I'm fairly certain I don't carry on discussions with myself. So, even though you aren't doing this with me, I'm going to be posting here with my thoughts on the material I'm reading and the discussion questions. Unless, you all think that's about the most boring thing you've ever heard. Then I won't (just kidding!). Anyway, I wanted to give you the background on why you may be seeing some bizarrely philosophical posts here. Oh, and, if anyone wants to join me, I'd love to have someone who's read the same material to engage in discussion. :)