Matryoshka
I watched the movie Synecdoche, New York last night. I say this, not to position what follows as a review, but to give context. I often worry that the connections my brain makes might come off as garbled nonsense to…
Category Life in the Machine
Patient Zero
We think of art as something which we create and then put out in the world, where it affects others and perhaps, in some small way, changes them. What we often ignore or disregard is that in addition to being…
Breaking, Unbroken
Something I used to think about a lot was what we mean when we use the term ‘free will.’ Some people argue a great deal over whether it exists, which has always seemed a bit silly to me: The so-called…
A Miner Shift
Decades ago, a friend told me a logic problem that had a big impact on how I see the world. Two workers emerge from the coal mines after a long day of work: One’s face is covered in soot, the…
Letting Go
I have a hard time letting go. Sometimes one gets haunted by the past not because it’s haunting but merely because it is past. Memories cling, like getting a song stuck in your head except it’s just a moment, a…
Vessels of Absence
I used to want to be fearless. This made sense as an aspiration at the time – I reasoned that many people avoid doing things out of fear, and to move beyond fear was to be freer, more able…
Dreaming Alone
I love single-player games. Don’t get me wrong, I like all sorts of multiplayer games as well, and I enjoy cooperation and competition as much as anyone, but what really excites me about the medium of games is the possibility…
A Net for Water
Writing has been difficult recently. Every idea I think to write about feels obvious, trivial, or disingenuous. I like to take threads of ideas and follow them back, to see what each idea implies about its underlying antecedents, to tug…
The Test of Time
Everything is temporary, and it’s easy to forget that. There’s something in us that drives us to seek stability, try to find something permanent and reliable, that can be there for us forever, and during this pursuit it becomes to…
The Weight of Words
I think words are important. This is, perhaps, an unusual trait – even many of those who make their living with words seemingly have little respect or affection for them. Often we treat words with contempt, as imperfect vessels for…