Author Archives: d4vid

Almost daily I think about this clip of William Gibson talking about the time-and-space trauma we as a culture are enduring, much like the Victorians before us:

In futurist Alvin Toffler‘s book The Third Wave he coined the term “electronic cottage” to describe a hypothetical future when, thanks to advances in telephony, people would be able to work from their own homes.  He thought of this as a … Continue reading →

There is a very specific feeling I experience from time to time.  And I find myself always using the same word to describe it:  “upsetting” I think it might be something like the 18th century usage of “sublime”. The last … Continue reading →

I’ve coined the portmanteau word “quarantime” for the weird, elastic sense of time during quarantine.  Every day feels like Monday and Friday simultaneously.

While reading three wildly different books… A Secular Age by Charles Taylor Skin in the Game by Nassim Taleb A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles …I noticed that all three mentioned Michel de Montaigne.  Seems like it’s time to … Continue reading →

People keep asking me how I’m dealing with the lockdown and I have to remind them that a lifetime of introversion, earthquake preparedness, and post-apocalyptic media means that I am well-equipped for this exact scenario.

Alas.

Things that devour our time.

Learned a new concept today. “This generalized view of autopoiesis considers systems as self-producing not in terms of their physical components, but in terms of its organization, which can be measured in terms of information and complexity. In other words, … Continue reading →