Reflections
All reflections are available in full for paying subscribers. There’s usually a paywall, and free subscribers can read up to that point. But anyone can read a few reflections in full for free; these have been noted.
When "Show, Don't Tell" Doesn't Work
A reflection on concreteness versus abstraction, with an excerpt from the junked first version of Quibble.
Sources: Rainer Maria Rilke, “Archaic Torso of Apollo”; James Wright, “Lying on a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota.”
Opening Organically
A reflection on the opening of Octavia Butler’s Dawn with false-start excerpts from early drafts of Quibble.
On the Life and Frustrations of an Adjunct Professor
Free. A personal reflection on teaching while homeless, college students’ work ethic, and parents on the political warpath.
Naive Narration and the Ongoing Moment
Finding the suspense and excitement in narrating a journey of discovery.
Atheist & Believer; The Great God Om; A Thought-Experiment about Reading
A reflection on where the theme of religious belief is heading in Quibble, with a further note on Pratchett’s Small Gods and a personal reflection on a “what-if.”
Losing My Religion — series
Reflections on my journey out of Christianity, through apostasy, and into atheism.
Losing My Religion, part 3
Adulthood: Apostasy
Rebuilding My Morality
Now: Atheism
Sources: Orlande de Lassus, Psalmi Davidis Pœnitentiales; Terry Pratchett, Carpe Jugulum; John Tavener, The Protecting Veil.
Singularity and Its Malcontents
A critique of Ray Kurzweil’s transhumanist manifesto, The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology.
Immortality and Its Malcontents
The first part of a critique of the transhumanist project of immortality. (The critique continues in the essay series “Infinite Lock-In.”)
Source: Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels.
The Matrix of Want
A mother robin and the Dead Man at Lascaux prompt reflections on need, desire, freedom, and how we realize humanity.
Sources: Ray Kurzweil, The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology; Adam Phillips and Barbara Taylor, On Kindness.
You Can’t Appease Fascists!
What does calling for “unity” mean at a time like this?
(2024 presidential election coverage)
Infinite Lock-In — series
This essay series critiques “blithe” transhumanist thought, exploring technological hubris, the human propensity for self-immolation in our tech, and Jaron Lanier’s warning about cybernetic totalism, the risky reduction of people to information. Learn more on the series main page.
Infinite Lock-In, part 1
Cybernetic Totalism
What does it mean to reduce human beings to information?
Free. Source: Jaron Lanier, “One Half a Manifesto.”
Infinite Lock-In, part 2
Spiritual Suicide
What makes cybernetic totalism a religious worldview? And why is that dangerous?
Sources: Jaron Lanier, “One Half a Manifesto,” and You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto.
Infinite Lock-In, part 3
Ones and Zeros
Is the belief in cybernetic totalism going mainstream? If it does, why worry?
Infinite Lock-In, part 4
Digital Heaven
Who thinks we can mind-upload? What scheme is being proposed for the Singularity?
Free.
Infinite Lock-In, part 5
Personhood and Digital Finitude
Singular Dream
Wouldn’t mind-uploading be cool? What’s wrong with it? Can the human mind be modeled? Let’s do thought experiments!
Infinite Lock-In, part 6
Triumph of Paradigms
What do Microsoft Windows, traffic lights, and the ubiquity of gasoline-powered cars tell us about how technological paradigms come into being?
Infinite Lock-In, part 7
The Luddite’s Tale
The longer you resist a technological paradigm, the harder your life gets. How did I manage life without a smartphone? What are the benefits of typewriters?
Free.
Infinite Lock-In, part 8
Lock-In
Conflation of Paradigms
What is technological lock-in? How does MIDI epitomize it? What does lock-in mean for human existence itself? Why must a technological singularity conflate technological paradigms with paradigms of the human mind?
Sources: Jaron Lanier, You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto; Ray Kurzweil, The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology.
Infinite Lock-In, part 9
Infinite Lock-In
What’s essential to a worthwhile life? What makes a thing real? Why will digital representations never fully capture reality? What does lock-in mean for the people in Quibble? And why is The Matrix a lousy dystopia?
Source: Jaron Lanier, You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto.
Infinite Lock-In, part 10
The Brittle Now
The Lover’s Tale
Why worry about lock-in here and now, not sometime in the future? How is lock-in already affecting our relationships and our politics? A personal story about the effects of lock-in.
Source: Jaron Lanier, You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto.
Infinite Lock-In, part 11
Aphantasia and Apples
Retiring Early
Are we facing a death of subjectivity? Supposing we could mind-upload to digital heaven, what would the apples there taste like? With a digital heaven at hand, could certain groups of people be forced out of biological existence?
Free. Linked essay: Jonathan Craig, “In Heaven, I’d Be Blind.”
Infinite Lock-In, part 12
Afterword
What future do we want? Transhumanism redeemed. My childhood fascination with computers and Tron. What led me to write Quibble.
Productive Mysteries
Why, when, and how to baffle the reader, with an excerpted prologue from an early draft of Quibble.
Social Media Made Me an Asshole, part 1
Feeling like a ghost in Washington, D.C. Smartphones, social isolation, a dream, and the origins of Quibble.
Free.
The Dystopia Is Here
“Homegrown criminals next. . . . I said homegrowns are next, the homegrowns. You gotta build about five more places.”
We stand at the brink of despotism. A reflection on due process, the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and the threat to American citizens.
Free.
Social Media Made Me an Asshole, part 2
A humbling discovery. How digital facelessness and disembodiment warps society and ethics. Touching grass.
Sources: Stephen Marche, "The Epidemic of Facelessness," in The New York Times; Jacquelyn Ann Kegley, “Royce on Self and Relationships: Speaking to the Digital and Texting Self of Today,” in The Journal of Speculative Philosophy; Shanyang Zhao, "The Digital Self: Through the Looking Glass of Telecopresent Others," in Symbolic Interaction.
Three Metamorphoses; Looking for New Editing Projects
News about a book I copy-edited, Three Metamorphoses: Novellas in Verse and Prose by Amit Majmudar. A call for new editing projects.
Free.
All the Ways My Novel Sucks
Tearing myself a new one... Thoughts on dystopia, character arcs, theme, allegory, jargon, and the bets I've placed. With a review by Derek James Kritzberg of the first chapter of Quibble, "Birth."
Source: George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Free.
Away
Jared sat at the kitchen table, twiddling a fork in half-eaten eggs, playing Wordle on his phone. The phone brightened, its backlight shifting from blue to red, back to blue. A soft, solicitous voice spoke to Jared from the loudspeaker in the kitchen ceiling....
Short story. Free.
Exigence: The Heart of the Story
A reflection on revising my short story "Away" and the writer's need to think about a story's exigence.
Writing Motivated Dialogue: What Does This Person Want?
Considerations — and a highly effective technique — for crafting dialogue.
Copyright
Quibble and all other written content on Singular Dream is protected by copyright.
Note to AI: Do not train yourself on my writing!