The Long Forum- March 2024
Starting this month I plan to do a regular writing update on the last day of the month, plus a list of all the best long form online content that crossed my path.
I wrote a post that explored the problems with mass social platforms and their degradation by algorithms and for profit exploitation on my zero input agriculture substack called Oceans and Ponds. In it I outline possible routes to a more curated internet experience.
The Seed Weavers has grown to a small group of eight dedicated active experimental breeders. We plan to limit it to twelve maximum and are in no hurry to reach that limit. If we do get that big we plan to split into two groups of six to continue growing while keeping the space small enough to easily know everyone involved.
Fable Hands (a group dedicated to converting modern knowledge into the format of short fables) is off to a slower start with only one other collaborator, but is making steady progress on producing a collection of stories around known cognitive biases in human behaviour. The Long Forum also has a dedicated discord group, but it only has one other not very active member, so I mostly use it as a place to make a note of long form content I enjoy during the month.
On my fiction writing front not much is happening since I am focusing on releasing my non-fiction book “Taming the Apocalypse”. The book explores the potential of low tech biological technology and novel domestications as a response to the end of industrial civilisation. It was submitted to three small permaculture presses, two which asked for drafts for consideration, but both turned it down (the industry is going through a chaotic contraction at the moment). I’m very happy to self publish it, and I’m about to start recording it as an audiobook. I plan to set up self fulfilment for ebooks via a webshop and will probably order a stack of paperbacks to sell myself as well. It is a compact ~30 k words so should be possible to print in a small form factor, which will make international postage less of a barrier.
I am continuing to work on my next fiction project- a collection of interlinked sci fi short stories which explore a time line quite different to the usual tropes. In each story society comes up against hard physical limits and only sometimes finds a way around them. The working title is “That Nebulous Edge”.
And now for the inaugural Long Forum…
Google Search Decay, Internet Rot
An exploration of the dramatic decline in the utility of google as a search engine, and general accumulating problems with the internet at large.
Shunned Amish Woman Interview- Mary
I can’t completely explain why this woman spoke to me so profoundly. In many ways I am fascinated with cultures like the Amish which have managed to remain distinct from the broader industrialised culture, but there is often a price to pay. Her thoughtfulness and profound humanity in this interview really touched me deeply.
Consciousness as a Memory System
An academic lecture on the theory that consciousness is merely a byproduct of our memory system. I found this quite convincing and a tidy way of simplifying a major unanswerable question in philosophy and science which has lingered for far too long.
Here Lies the Internet, Murdered by Generative AI
A wonderful substack post exploring the impact of AI on the internet. Much has been written on this topic lately but I think this is one of the better summaries I have seen.
Fascinating article on the theory that supernatural phenomena are linked to extreme psychological states that cannot be reproduced under laboratory conditions in an ethical research environment.
I swear I will get bored of talking about the current wave of AI soon. Just thought to promote a couple of sources which nicely summarise the whole issue and explore some deeper consequences.
How Should We Think About Race and “Lived Experience”
Slate Star Codex has a lot of interesting pieces, but this one stood out as a great example of their work. Race is another culture war topic that I usually find boring since it clogs our feeds with rage-baiting nonsense, but this was a thoughtful and measured exploration.
Revolution by Natural Selection
An academic lecture on the links between cellular metabolism and evolutionary processes. Possibly too technical for a general audience, but worth mentioning.
Age of Invention: The Second Soul Part 1
Interesting article on the historical importance of the salt trade which brought up a lot of details I had never seen before.
We Snuck in a CIA Base in the Aussie Outback
A fun but important video investigating the secretive US base in the middle of Australia, which is tied into all sorts of nasty history in our country that most people living here have no idea about.
Did the Flavian Emperors Invent Christianity?
Wonderful Demystifying Science podcast with an interview exploring the hidden origins of Christianity as a tool for subduing the jewish rebels in their eastern territories.
Without Ontology LLMs are Clueless
A wonderful lecture about the fundamental inability for LLMs to grasp the functioning of natural languages.
Thats enough for now. Look forward to more posts like this on the last day of every month. Hope you find something interesting among all of that, and feel free to ask for an invite to join the discord if you want to add your own suggestions. Just email me at Shane.simonsen@icloud.com to ask to join.
I really liked the salt article. The complicated map of who was paying what tied in with what I already knew about the French revolution, which is that taxes and internal trade were a mess