Tidbits:
Stories, Quotes, and FAQs.
The wisdom builder tidbits that feed the columns, articles, and trainer.
Philosophy of Mind
Featured Story
Updated This Week
Science
Story
295 Million BCE
Early Complex Sentience Emerges: Dimetrodon
Complex Brains; Long-Term Memory; Early Complex Sentience.
Evolution
An Early Permian river world as Dimetrodon and its close kin rose into prominence, around 295 million years ago. Long before dinosaurs, these sail-backed synapsid predators hunted across warm floodplains filled with amphibians, early reptiles, giant horsetails, and seed ferns
Featured QUOTE
Philosophy
Quote
“Reality is self-creating by definition… our impressions of it are what we use to build knowledge.”
- Michael Alan Prestwood
- 2024
Empiricism
We never meet reality directly — we meet our impressions of it. But those impressions are enough to build understanding, truth-seeking, and meaning. Instead of chasing certainty, we work with what we perceive, refining our picture as we go. Knowledge grows from experience, not perfection.
Featured FAQ
Updated This Week
Philosophy
FAQ
Can the Venus Flytrap count?
Evolution
The Venus flytrap shows that structured responsiveness exists before human math, and human counting. Math wasn’t invented from nothing — it was discovered in patterns already woven into the fabric of life. Two rocks and two shells were equal long before we named them “two.”
Updated Tidbits
Science
Story
Homo habilis: Our Intelligence Settles.
Ancient Humans
05 May 2026
(Updated 2 days ago)
05 May 2026
(Updated 2 days ago)
05 May 2026
(Updated 3 days ago)
Philosophy of Mind
Your awareness and perception.
Consciousness and cognition stem from evolution.
The mind is the universe looking back at itself, the place where reality becomes experience. Philosophy of Mind asks how matter becomes awareness. Human consciousness emerges from our cognitive abilities, grounded in nature: experiencing the now, remembering the past, and anticipating the future. The mind is the living bridge between reality and worldview.
Deep-Dive Articles
Existential Toolkit: Evolution’s Consciousness Misstep
Existentialism evolved during the post medieval time. At its core, existentialism is about discovering your authentic self. You, in your environment, in your time, living life your way.
The Limits of Language and Understanding
Some skepticism questions our words. Deeper skepticism questions whether we can ever truly know.
The Evolution of Vocabulary in Ancient Humans
The evolution of language is the evolution of communication. From touch which evolved about 800 million years ago to human words. Along the journey, communication ...
Echoes of the Self: Exploring Consciousness Across the Ages
Consciousness is the capacity for awareness; animals add subjective experience, and humans add self-reflection and inquiry.
Must-Reads
Ethics
Existential Toolkit: Evolution’s Consciousness Misstep
Existentialism evolved during the post medieval time. At its core, existentialism is about discovering your authentic self. You, in your environment, in your time, living ...
Epistemology
The Limits of Language and Understanding
Some skepticism questions our words. Deeper skepticism questions whether we can ever truly know.
Ancient Humans
The Evolution of Vocabulary in Ancient Humans
The evolution of language is the evolution of communication. From touch which evolved about 800 million years ago to human words. Along the journey, communication ...
New Ideas
OVM
Mindscape Framework
The Mindscape Framework presents a layered philosophy of the mind: consciousness is the structured experience of reality, heuristics are its evolved shortcuts, and worldview and ...
Updated Articles
TST COLUMN
05 Nov 2023
Debut
Philosophy
Article
Restricted content
Consciousness
Sun 5 Nov 2023
(3 years ago)
Updated 16 hours ago.
TST COLUMN
29 Mar 2023
Philosophy
Draft Paper
Philosophy: Dualism and Nondualism
Metaphysics
Wed 29 Mar 2023
(3 years ago)
Updated 2 days ago.
TST COLUMN
01 Jan 2028
Philosophy
Article
The Nature of Time
Time
Sun 2 Jun 2024
(2 years ago)
Updated 2 months ago.