Sean Miller

Sean Miller is the author of Strung Together: The Cultural Currency of String Theory as a Scientific Imaginary, from the University of Michigan Press. He's working on a book about the science versus religion debate.

Recent

Science

Toward an Encyclopedia Apocalyptica

To a post-apocalyptic population, merely explaining scientific and technological facts about our situation won't help. We'll need a guidebook.

Science

Must We Sacrifice the Beasts at the Altars of Our Fierce Gods?

Like the Aztecs before us, and despite the sheen of humane treatment, zoos continue to be sites of ritual animal sacrifice.

Science

Consider the Troll

The pressing question isn't so much what a troll is and how he came to be, but what to do when confronted with a troll.

Science

We Have Never Been Human

Within our bodies, single-celled organisms outnumber cells that we identify as human DNA ten to one. We're merely a colony within a colony within a colony.

Science

A Brief Lesson on Poetry for Physicists

Praise for Carlo Rovelli's international bestseller Seven Brief Lessons on Physics has been near universal. Can the reviewers all be wrong? Yes, they can.

Film

E.T. Was Gay

Steven Spielberg's most child-friendly blockbuster primed a generation to be more accepting of homosexuality.

Interviews

The Biosemiotics of Butterflies: A Conversation With Victoria Alexander

It makes me miserable to see an artist turning himself into a handmaiden of science, using his skill to illustrate (or interpret) scientific concepts. C’mon man, I want to say, don’t make your art about science, use your art to do science.

Film

I Was So Bored Watching 'Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens'

Star Wars is the latest exemplar of a genre that's accelerating toward its own creative exhaustion. That genre, of course, is the Hollywood tent-pole.

Science

Where Is the Truth in Our Romance of Popular Physics?

If all the truth of physics is in the math, what kind of storytelling are we lay persons getting when we read popular accounts of physics that are completely stripped of it?

Games

Algorithmic Versus Parodic Mobile App Art

Digital art has been around for almost as long as computers have been. Internet art has existed since the '90s. But due to the mobile app's youth, and the perceived barriers to entry, it's still the Wild West.

Internet

How Ethical Are Ad Blockers?

For many netizens, a free Internet would be the apogee of its early techno-utopian vision. Yet the "free internet" rallying cry is one of the latest, greatest manifestations of consumerism.

Games

Why the Apple App Store Needs an "Art" Category

As a pivotal arbiter of culture, Apple should recognize the importance of art by recalibrating "how arts-centered apps are perceived, defined, and discovered in the App Store".

Technology

The Empire of Scientism Strikes Back

Despite what Steven Pinker has claimed in his epic debate with Leon Wieseltier in The New Republic, science is less Theory of Everything and more Harper's "Findings".

Games

Considering Twitter: An Interview with App Artist Nora Reed

Twitter is a place where bots prevail. And where they don't rule, people, acting like bots, rule. This uneasy person-bot rapprochement offers a fertile space for artistic exploration.

Games

The Intriguing Potential of 'Cornbread'

Cornbread is an app that lets you drop virtual graffiti all over town. The idea is simple, yet full of possibilities.

Television

'No God But Funny' and 'Earth Angel' Are Preaching to the Choir

It's challenging enough to write good comedy. It's nearly impossible to do so burdened with an agenda, even one as innocuous as featuring a "likeable atheist" as the protagonist.

Games

Object-Oriented Poetry: An Interview with App Artist Seth Carnes

PopMatters talks to Seth Carnes, developer of the art app, Poetics.

Games

No One Wants You to Become an (App) Artist

So where can we exiled life-of-the-minders, expunged from the academic system as waste, take our once-cloistered but now liberated creativity?

Games

Five Obstacles That App Artists Face

An opportunity presents itself now for a new kind of art, an art that takes the Minotaur of our times, the internet, by the horns and twists it back in on itself. What we need are more app artists.

Science

A Public Service Announcement From Your Future AI Overlords

Perhaps what worries Stephen Hawking and his fear mongering colleagues is not some hostile Other like Agent Smith from The Matrix, but the more pedestrian Other that is other people.

Games

Why Aren't More Artists Working in the Medium of the Mobile App?

Recently, I began looking for developers who design and publish apps with the specific intention of making them artistic. As it turns out, there's not much out there.

Television

What's So Funny About Atheism?

Since New Atheists have done a stand-up job of elucidating the illusions of religious belief, why not point out some of the logical absurdities of atheism?

Science

Someone Else's South America: Louis C. K. Considers Life on Other Planets

Louie knows that if we do, ever, really encounter aliens, they're sure as hell not going to bend over backwards to accommodate our point of view.

Reviews

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Features

Coronavirus Tunes: A Brief Playlist for Our Times of Self-Isolation

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To a post-apocalyptic population, merely explaining scientific and technological facts about our situation won't help. We'll need a guidebook.

Like the Aztecs before us, and despite the sheen of humane treatment, zoos continue to be sites of ritual animal sacrifice.

The pressing question isn't so much what a troll is and how he came to be, but what to do when confronted with a troll.

Within our bodies, single-celled organisms outnumber cells that we identify as human DNA ten to one. We're merely a colony within a colony within a colony.

Praise for Carlo Rovelli's international bestseller Seven Brief Lessons on Physics has been near universal. Can the reviewers all be wrong? Yes, they can.

Steven Spielberg's most child-friendly blockbuster primed a generation to be more accepting of homosexuality.

It makes me miserable to see an artist turning himself into a handmaiden of science, using his skill to illustrate (or interpret) scientific concepts. C’mon man, I want to say, don’t make your art about science, use your art to do science.

Star Wars is the latest exemplar of a genre that's accelerating toward its own creative exhaustion. That genre, of course, is the Hollywood tent-pole.

If all the truth of physics is in the math, what kind of storytelling are we lay persons getting when we read popular accounts of physics that are completely stripped of it?

Digital art has been around for almost as long as computers have been. Internet art has existed since the '90s. But due to the mobile app's youth, and the perceived barriers to entry, it's still the Wild West.

For many netizens, a free Internet would be the apogee of its early techno-utopian vision. Yet the "free internet" rallying cry is one of the latest, greatest manifestations of consumerism.

As a pivotal arbiter of culture, Apple should recognize the importance of art by recalibrating "how arts-centered apps are perceived, defined, and discovered in the App Store".

Despite what Steven Pinker has claimed in his epic debate with Leon Wieseltier in The New Republic, science is less Theory of Everything and more Harper's "Findings".

On its web site, the social media app, Somebody, is described as the "antithesis of the utilitarian efficiency that tech promises".

Twitter is a place where bots prevail. And where they don't rule, people, acting like bots, rule. This uneasy person-bot rapprochement offers a fertile space for artistic exploration.

Cornbread is an app that lets you drop virtual graffiti all over town. The idea is simple, yet full of possibilities.

It's challenging enough to write good comedy. It's nearly impossible to do so burdened with an agenda, even one as innocuous as featuring a "likeable atheist" as the protagonist.

PopMatters talks to Seth Carnes, developer of the art app, Poetics.

So where can we exiled life-of-the-minders, expunged from the academic system as waste, take our once-cloistered but now liberated creativity?

An opportunity presents itself now for a new kind of art, an art that takes the Minotaur of our times, the internet, by the horns and twists it back in on itself. What we need are more app artists.

Perhaps what worries Stephen Hawking and his fear mongering colleagues is not some hostile Other like Agent Smith from The Matrix, but the more pedestrian Other that is other people.

Recently, I began looking for developers who design and publish apps with the specific intention of making them artistic. As it turns out, there's not much out there.

Since New Atheists have done a stand-up job of elucidating the illusions of religious belief, why not point out some of the logical absurdities of atheism?

Louie knows that if we do, ever, really encounter aliens, they're sure as hell not going to bend over backwards to accommodate our point of view.