Title: Iconoclast

Gender: Female

Age: Ageless

Location: Warsaw, Poland

News: I quit my job, applied to graduate schools, and moved to Poland. I'm hoping to start blogging regularly to chronicle my current exploits.

Some superficial facts: Until just last month I worked as a science journalist, producing TV news segments for ABC and NBC affiliate stations and also wrote online articles (for sciencentral.com, as well as for discover.com). I’m a dual citizen – US and Poland. I’m fluent in three languages, proficient in five. I was raised in the “international” community in New York City, where I attended the United Nations International School for most of my formative years. I started working in labs when I was 15, but I began looking for alternative applications for my science background as soon as I started college. Broadly speaking, my primary interests as I see them now are in the intersection of science and society and the improvement of the connection between these two spheres – whether it be through journalism, art, or public policy.

The software I run: I am an atheist**, a materialist, and an evolutionary moralist. I am a scientist by nature, even more so than by education. Meaning that I rely very sparingly on “faith,” unless it is faith in things that are extremely well empirically supported (for ex: faith that matter will continue to behave in a manner consistent with physical laws). Contrary to what this might sound like, though, I don’t find this point of view spiritually vacant – far from it. I can think of nothing more transcendent than the realization that the matter I’m composed of and the energy that animates me has existed in some form or other since the beginning of time and that after I die it will continue to be recycled throughout the Universe. My particular set of beliefs also has some significant consequences for how I choose to lead my life…but I’ll leave off with this briefest of introductions. I can’t possibly do justice to my infrastructure of belief and motivation without making this /even/ longer.

in closing…I’m on a search for kindred spirits. But I always enjoy a stimulating argument and I’m more than ready to have my mind courted by some sexy rhetoric – the last thing I’d like to do is stubbornly hold on to misguided beliefs. Please drop me a line if you’d like to chat – as far as I can tell, Zaadz is a place full of fascinating people and I’m delighted to be joining in.

**I say “atheist” in specific rejection of the idea of any kind of conscious god - it’s clearly unreasonable to reject certain broader definitions of the term, like merely “first cause.”

A snapshot (10.31.05): On the plane this evening I wished that I could pour everything in my head out of my ear, into a cup, so that I could later preserve it - dashed out onto a page. I was ecstatic, looking out over the black, sooty Earth, seeing the lights of Warsaw quietly blanketing the ground - I thought: Humanity is a beautiful infection, a fungus that leaves this spreading photon stain…inflamed arteries of light. I also thought: I love everything about the challenge of living. I want to suck it dry, scrape out all the pulp till I taste bitter rind. At times like these, I’m almost embarrassed by how ecstatic I am, as though I secretly want to be a digit: dry, definite.

Member Since: Saturday, October 21 2006

Last Visit: 344 days ago.

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