Why is “Honey Boo-Boo” a megastar? Fame can seem an empty category. But it also shows up everywhere. Daniel Dennett has described consciousness as the happy spoils of a competition among various representations of reality: “fame in the brain.” Is fame an important natural process, and our obsession with it inevitable?

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Space Colonization and the Meaning of Life
Colonizing the galaxy is the highest good humanity could achieve.
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The Surprising Importance of Stratospheric Life
The science of bacteria in the atmosphere is getting its moment in the sun.