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Industrial Trauma Robots: Two Commonplaces

Why is trauma, as we know it, a distinctively modern disease? Why do we observe PTSD in domesticated, but not wild, animals? Trauma is physiological—it’s not just in your head. While it need not involve violence, death, or rape—in fact, it is reliably amplified by boring things like office buildings and public schools—its mechanism includes more than mean people and scary opinions. Let’s start with an example from 9/11:  “Sharon,” at work in the World Trade Center, felt a shock and an explosion, and tried to run, but found the… Read more Industrial Trauma Robots: Two Commonplaces

Degree is Shaked II

When we might write a sociology book, the ancients would tell a story. Our preference for the literal, explicit, and linear should not be allowed to persuade us that our science is more sophisticated than narrative—as we have seen, the Iliad and the “Judgment of Paris” long anticipated sociology’s distinction between “ascribed” and “acquired” honor—nor to authorize our reading ancient narratives in the same manner as a textbook. On this note, let’s return to Genesis. With a merely literal reading, we purchase six-day young-earth creationism at the cost of reducing… Read more Degree is Shaked II