Seek the wonders, slay the monsters

This is a blog about exploration. The world is grand and beautiful, and we should make it a duty to seek out its marvels. Of course, along the way, we’ll also encounter problems — monsters, which it behooves us to destroy in order to make the world better.

In practice, this means a lot of thinking about science, history, art, and philosophy, but any topics are fair game. This is a generalist blog. Like a seafarer in a new land, you never know what you’ll find.

For 100 consecutive weeks, I have published a new post every Wednesday (or Thursday when I was running late). From now on I will most likely keep up a similar rate, while allowing myself some more flexibility in scheduling. The best way to keep up with my writing is to subscribe.

If you want to check my past work, here are some of the ones I’m most fond of:

On beauty and art

• Five Propositions on the Future of Art

• A Taxonomy of Beauty

• Retrofuturism Is Futurism Done Well

• Aesthetics as Epistemic Humility

On the scientific and technological wonders

• Paint With the Colors That Don't Exist

• The Difference Between Science and the Humanities Is Reading the Classics

• A Visit to the Idea Machine Fair

• Common Tech Jobs Described as Cabals of Mesoamerican Wizards

On history and the long arc of progress

• The Four Shapes of History

• The Two Most Tragic Moments in History

• The Industrial Revolution That Almost Was

• Hieroglyphic Notes on the Most Important Century, Etched Into the Stone of a Long-Sealed Tomb

On living

• Don't Spend Your Life Building Rube Goldberg Machines

• Remaining Ambitious

Beyond the Atlas, I publish in The Classical Futurist, a bimonthly magazine about classical antiquity and the future. I’m also active on Twitter, which happens to be the best way to contact me.

At the moment I may be available for hire if you need writing, editing, or research work.

The sea monsters, logo, and other parts of the Atlas’s visual identity come from the Carta marina et descriptio septentrionalium terrarum, a map of Scandinavia from 1539.