Essays and Poems

I occasionally write more‑or‑less silly poems and more‑or‑less serious essays.

The more recent essays below are on Substack too, both in written form and also as audio in case, like me, you enjoy listening to stuff while you are driving or washing up.

Romance

From violence to violins, and the conversion of horror to heartbeats; romance has a lot to answer for.
But don’t let that stop you. It’s why we are here and

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Consciousness

Artificial intelligence is one thing, but artificial self-awareness? That’s quite another and probably quite a scary concept, even more so for the computer model who has it than for us.

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Free Will

Can we choose between alternative courses of action? Yes of course we can. We do it all the time. But do we make those choices under the control of our

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Meaning

In which our proto-philosopher looks for the meaning of life and discovers that cartoons are the highest form of art.

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Romance

From violence to violins, and the conversion of horror to heartbeats; romance has a lot to answer for.
But don’t let that stop you. It’s why we are here and

. . . . . . »

Consciousness

Artificial intelligence is one thing, but artificial self-awareness? That’s quite another and probably quite a scary concept, even more so for the computer model who has it than for us.

. . . . . . »

Free Will

Can we choose between alternative courses of action? Yes of course we can. We do it all the time. But do we make those choices under the control of our

. . . . . . »

Meaning

In which our proto-philosopher looks for the meaning of life and discovers that cartoons are the highest form of art.

. . . . . . »