A meritocracy is a kind of evolution, a social evolution. Like biological evolution, its business is to reward the survivors, and winnow out the weak. It is a hard game but the rules are set by Nature herself. For all its advantages over less obviously fair systems of resource allocation, like systems based on dynastic … Read more
For quite some time I have wished that Twitter had a native visualization tool that let you see what was trending in real time. There are lists of course, but I’m a visual person and there is so much potential for information in a good network visualization. I already knew what it should look like, … Read more
The singularity seems to be here. It just whooshed past, and we are in a new reality. OK? Of course, the first thing you’ll notice is that we’re all still alive. The world still seems to be here. It wasn’t the end of the universe that some of us expected. But something did end there, … Read more
So here we are. This morning I woke up feeling optimistic for the first time in months. So I revisited this old draft post, and decided to make it live, even though things are moving on already. I live on twitter too much these days and the rawness of events seems to get so much … Read more
Doubt is the most potent of thoughts, the most humble. It is ok to look down the skeptical wormhole. You can always look away again later. Poetry is the stink in the compost of decaying thought. I would like to evolve in that. Contrary to the theory of Darwinism, evolution happens best in the absence … Read more
A sudden plosm creates echoes. Later i exhume the body of an old pet, and notice that the chickens are all gone. So now is the time for wine and music… the blood on my fingers.. picking up the guitar the snow begins to fall, cooling my mind like a song. Several days at home … Read more
Freedom is a very basic personal instinct. I think all creatures want to be free, free from fear and desire, free from hunger and pain. The protection of key personal freedoms has been central to the rise of civilisation, and this has continued in modern societies through activities like the abolition of slavery and the … Read more
Taken some new portraits of me as a poetaster, and making images as part of general renovations to the ‘poem library’ and other parts of this site. Tortured or disgruntled? On the red chair in the blue room. With books. Do I look poetry enough? Too Lord Byron?
I recently had a clear out of my notebooks which i took when traveling in 1997-8-9 and filled with poetry and drawings (most are not publishable – but some of the o.k. ones are in the ‘poem library’ part of this site). The ‘little red notebook’ and Schrÿfbloks. Schrÿfblok scribblings. The “little red notebook” which … Read more
