Writer and Friendly Neighbourhood Philosopher
Just Thinking…
Sorry Folks, But You’re Gonna Have To Be Human.
I cannot tell a lie. I’ve made the acquaintance of our future AI overlords, and I’ve been playing with ChatGPT. I’ve used it for bits of work, asked it silly questions, and pushed it to see how far it would go and what it would do. And, true to form for a philosophy geek, I’ve spent a great deal of time puzzling over how this tool is going to change things in our already mixed-up, discombobulated world.
“I Enjoy Being A Girl.”
I really do enjoy being a girl. I’m happy with the mind I was given, not in spite of it being female, but because of it. It’s not a blessing or a curse, it’s just a fact of who I am, and I’m good with that. So I’m done apologizing, for something that is neither in my control, nor a bad thing to begin with.
It’s The (Really) Little Things That Matter
Here’s to the little things, and to the lovely people who trust us with them. May we take good care of them.
When You’re Not Supposed To Ask…
It’s not like there are easy answers to any of these big questions. Besides feeling like we have much to lose in asking them (though often, there’s much to gain), there’s always a bit of fatigue surrounding the prospect of them being ongoing. Wouldn’t it be splendid if we could just put them to bed and not think about them every again? Couldn’t we just sit with our neat and tidy, nicely-packaged, preestablished views of the world?
For The New Year
All of those things we wish for each other at New Year’s, like love, peace, and happiness, I think they’re all tied to curiosity. None of these things just land on us, not even in the midst of the twinkly magic of a fresh start, without us going digging for them, exploring what they are, why we want them, how to share them and sustain them.
There’s No Such Thing…Until There’s A Lot Of It.
As a kid, I loved the book “There’s No Such Thing As A Dragon” by Jack Kent. It was a sweet story of a little boy who wakes up one morning to find a dragon in his house. It’s a small dragon, and fairly innocuous. When the boy tells his mother about it, she simply replies that it’s not really there.
What We Owe Our Kids
Collectively speaking, we act as if children are a big, expensive, sloppy, sticky, noisy nuisance. We treat them as something to be endured until they (finally) mature and join the rest of us real humans, the ones who are really important.
Not cool, grown-ups. Not. Cool.
So I propose this, as a way to make at least something right with our kids:
We start taking them seriously.
Why It’s Good To Be An Existentialist
It sounds like an angry kid phase one goes through as an undergrad, whilst hanging out in cafes and shaking one’s fist at the establishment. Thank goodness I never outgrew this phase, because being an existentialist philosopher is one of the key reasons why I still have at least some of my wits about me. It’s a big part of why, even in the messiest of times, I still have a little gas left in the tank.
Why Philosophers Are A Lot Like Ghostbusters
Being a philosopher, like being a Ghostbuster, is unexpectedly cool. Even when everyone thinks you’re a modern day Chicken Little, when you’re dealing with demons, when you’re covered in slime (all metaphorical, of course), you can’t quite imagine yourself doing anything else.
Ex Nihilo, Let’s Go!
I wish you all a whole lot of nothing.
An Editor’s Guide To Intolerance
I’m a human being, and every so often, stupid thoughts about other human beings ping-pong around in my head. Honestly, I don’t even believe these things are actually true. These thoughts are basically echoes of historical and cultural “bad grammar”, bits of misinformation or ignorance that I’ve heard often enough to have them lodge themselves into the dark corners of my brain.
Do Us All A Big Favour and Read
I need to know if big meanies didn’t get enough bedtime stories as children. I want to see if getting into the right novel can actually be life-changing. I’d like to hear if other people finish a book and then suddenly see the characters mirrored in people they see on the street. What gaping personal and cultural caverns can we bridge by reading each other’s stories?
Out Of Office
As is the case with any major world-changing event, the way I see all kinds of things has been flipped over and reversed, and that includes office life.
Big Fish, Little Fish
For so long, we’ve been looking at things as if they were beneath the ripples of a lake. We’ve become accustomed to distortion, to being afraid to get a little cold or soggy in order to take a closer look.
Beautiful People, You Can Do Hard Things.
Difficult, annoying, inconvenient, and frightening are not the same as impossible, and it’s time we started expecting excellence from ourselves.
Making It Through With Metaphor
It’s allowed a lot of us to understand how a virus works, and how we keep a society going through stress and isolation. It’s been our comfort, popping up in the movies, tv shows, books and music we’ve consumed while we waited for the world to open up again. I’d wager it’s been part of how we see each other, and how we see ourselves in the emerging “new normal”.
For Those Who’ve Lost Their Curiosity
I’m scared that what we’ve gone through recently has squeezed curiosity out of us, that we’re just trying to get by, and we’ve ceased to notice that there’s a universe worth of hidden ideas tucked away in it. I’m scared that we’re now too tired to search. Perhaps we’ve seen so much unthinkable awful that we just don’t want to tip over any more rocks, for fear that there will be more awful. Curiosity often yields the unexpected, and we’ve been given huge doses of the unexpected.
An Ode To Stubbornness (And Why It Isn’t Stupid)
I’ll willingly admit that we are selfish, crude, arrogant and that we have the collective sense of humour of an overtired toddler. But we aren’t stupid. Not even close.
Addicted To Asides: Why I’m Like Deadpool
If I’m awake (and maybe when I’m asleep), I’m in a heated discussion with hypothetical “others”, some of whom agree with me, and some of whom play devil’s advocate. It’s like I have a built-in fanfic generator for real life, one that allows me to run through a series of what-ifs at any given moment.
A Plague of Otherness
As we’re finally starting to get a handle on a virus that’s kept us apart, it’s becoming apparent just how detached we’ve been all along.