Technology & Science

Philosophy
Salt That Knew Its Place: The Stoic Doctrine of Natural Hierarchy and Why Every Diner Salt Shaker Is a Small Philosophical Argument About the Cosmos
April 7, 2025April 8, 2026
Marcus Aurelius says salt is perfect because it disappears into the dish. Nietzsche says that’s slave morality. The chrome salt shaker on every diner table has been taking sides this whole time.
Read More Salt That Knew Its Place: The Stoic Doctrine of Natural Hierarchy and Why Every Diner Salt Shaker Is a Small Philosophical Argument About the Cosmos
Philosophy
The Universe Had No Business Working: The Anthropic Principle, Fine-Tuning, and the Question Nobody Can Stop Asking
April 3, 2025April 3, 2026
Physicists are not generally a mystical lot. They spend their careers dismantling wonder into equations,…
Read More The Universe Had No Business Working: The Anthropic Principle, Fine-Tuning, and the Question Nobody Can Stop Asking
A.I.
The Vestigial Bias: How AI Language Models Inherited the Prejudices of Their Ancestors and Why They Cannot Simply Shed Them
March 20, 2025April 11, 2026
AI bias isn’t a bug — it’s an inheritance. Using Darwin’s concept of vestigial structures, this piece examines why bias in large language models cannot be patched at the output layer alone.
Read More The Vestigial Bias: How AI Language Models Inherited the Prejudices of Their Ancestors and Why They Cannot Simply Shed Them
Technology & Science
The History of Science’s Most Productive Mistake: How Phlogiston Theory Built the Experimental Infrastructure That Killed It
February 6, 2025April 11, 2026
Phlogiston — the invisible fire-essence that doesn’t exist — produced some of the most rigorous chemistry of the 18th century. Here’s how a false theory built the tools that killed it.
Read More The History of Science’s Most Productive Mistake: How Phlogiston Theory Built the Experimental Infrastructure That Killed It