Introduction - your intrepid companion

Hi there. My name is Niles Eastman, and I'm something of a dabbler. I've studied some wide-ranging fields, from hard science to religion, and along the way I've gained some insight into how people tend to understand the world around them. It turns out that even when things seem totally unrelated there can be some surprising commonalities in the ways we seek to understand them. That's what this blog is going to be about: exploring those commonalities and putting our own natural tendencies to use in developing a robust, multifaceted understanding of the world around us. I'm not out to prove anyone right or wrong about anything. I'm just out to hopefully open up some novel ways of thinking for people. It's fun! Give it a try! Watch this space as I work to develop these ideas and apply them to some of the thorniest questions facing us as individuals and as cultures today.