A substack for short-lived ideas

I had a blog under blogger from 2015-2016 that I used to motivate me to write. I kept up for about a year posting some sort of idea every week. It was time-consuming, even though the ideas were unpolished, on top of a teaching load and the philosophy job market. But it was intellectually productive. I never got any kind of audience, but two of the posts became some of my first published papers and I still think back from time to time on some of the ideas that it forced me to clarify.

The title was ‘transitional forms’. It came from my interest in the Cambrian explosion at the time and stood for the impermanence of the writing. I was aiming to post drafts of ideas, some of which might survive and morph into something different. I also thought it highlighted my uncertainties as my academic career was falling apart. The subtitle, ‘a blog for short-lived ideas’ belied the fact that many of those ideas have stuck with me, and some continue to shape my worldview. I still think it is a great title for this sort of thing, and I’m somewhat surprised no one has grabbed it.

I find myself wishing I had more space to write about the things that occupy me these days: mostly around digital minds and the future of humanity. I was thinking about this a bit back in 2015, but so much has happened since. Hopefully, I can as much out of this venue as I did the last, and maybe reach someone else too.