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It's dangerous to go alone

Yep, I'm starting a 'blog in 2025 🔥

Apr 12, 2025 - 4 minute read
feature image An AI-generated spaceman stares into your soul

Starting a weblog? Really?

Let’s face it: I’m old, at least for a pre-immortal. I’ve seen things, lived through pivotal moments in this pre-history of post-human ascendancy. I’ve witnessed “core” technologies invented, blossom in popularity and adoption, and fundamentally reshape our societies and civilisation. R. Buckminster Fuller (the friendly genius) used to talk about “ephemeralisation”, wherein our technological advancements allow us to “do more and more with less and less”, and almost a century later this continues to hold true.

I used to write semi-regularly for no other reason than to see it up online and get the occasional comment from friends and family—what the kids in this timeline call “engagement”—but with the birth of my son, and an experience with my workplace (more below), I let the practice go. But I do enjoy it, and even if large language models are increasingly able to churn out decent writing (among other things) I still think there’s value in doing it myself, even if only for myself.

I’m writing anonymously because, well, some things are better left unattached to a specific identity. Oh, I’m not taking great pains to hide who I am in “realspace”, but for a time I worked for a company that has made the news recently for its capabilities and customer-base, and not in a good way. Back then, I believed the hype and thought we were building solutions to life-and-death problems; these days, the same “solutions” can be used to usher in a technofeudalist dystopia. Then someone from the company contacted me about a tweet I’d made—from an account with so few followers that I figured I was below the radar—and it so thoroughly spooked me that I didn’t feel safe on the Internet any more.

Please don’t try to find out who I am; or if you do, do it quietly.

The focus here isn’t about me, but the ideas and stories that other fellow humans tell each other. With so many trips around Sol, I’ve had time to observe and to think about where we might be headed as a species. I want to share that, as well as the great pieces of fiction that have been and continue to be created. Society seems to have a short memory, so for every “new” vision of the future there is another from an early time: flawed, mistaken, predictive, glorious, terrifying. And maybe you haven’t found it yet!

So what?

I don’t know what I’ll make the blog into, I really don’t. If I was more, I don’t know, American, I’d have an entire monetisation plan before I even wrote a word—but I’m not, so I don’t. Maybe I’ll have news, reviews, deep-dives, lore-dumps, play-throughs, from across the galaxy of scifi media? Maybe I’ll re-read classic novels, re-watch old scifi films, play video-games, and binge TV series. Maybe I’ll add a newsletter and collect email addresses in some measure of “reach”.

I do know I love stories, ideas, and technologies that push the boundaries of imagination. I want to focus on thoughtful analysis of speculative fiction, particularly those that grapple with the potential consequences of technological advancement. I’d love to create a space for lively discussions about the future—both the one we’d like to build, and the ones we should actively avoid.

I also know I like building things, especially retro computers. I’m no Perifractic, but I do love “the future we were promised”. I grew up with the PC, literally: our first family computer was an IBM JX, with an Intel 8088 CPU. It feels like I’ve always been a programmer, but there’s still so much I don’t know and want to go back and explore. This stuff I’ll try to dump on the projects page.

So … let’s chart the unknown, celebrating the creators and communities that bring these universes to life. Whether we’re dissecting the ethical dilemmas of advanced AI, exploring the speculative science behind interstellar travel, or marvelling at the artistry of a perfectly crafted alien world, there’s always something new to invent and/or discover. Together we can uncover hidden gems, revisit beloved classics, and ponder what kind of future we want on this pale blue dot—and beyond.

You can always find me exploring the digital frontier on: