Culture, technology, and other macromutations
A hopeful monster is a concept from 1940s evolutionary theory. It refers to the idea of macromutation: a major change in a biological system, which usually causes disorders and death (the “monster” part) but can conceivably, in rare cases, lead to good, even great outcomes (hence “hopeful”). Extend this to culture, and macromutations seem to be everywhere: sometimes the world seems to “jump” ahead, thanks to the progress of technology and science, social or political quakes, and the ever-changing waves of art and aesthetics.
This is a blog about many macromutations, which is to say, about everything: optimism, history, evolution, humanism. Welcome.
Intellectually, I’m somewhere between adjacent to and squarely into rationalism, post-rationalism, and progress studies. My role models are Astral Codex Ten, Wait But Why, and The Roots of Progress. I make a point of picking diverse and beautiful historical art in each post.
In November 2020 I gave myself the challenge to publish on 100 consecutive weeks. I completed the challenge in October 2022, and then just kept going until it had been four years, or 210 weeks. Since November 2024, the blog has been on an irregular schedule.
Subscribing is free, but you can subscribe to one of the paid tiers if you want! There aren’t really any benefits for now other than a gated index page, so I don’t expect you to send me money. But the option is there, and I’ll greatly appreciate your support if you do.
If you want to check my past work, here are some of the ones I’m most fond of:
Science, Tech, Progress
AI
Aesthetics and Art
History
Misc
Beyond Hopeful Monsters, I work in AI evaluation at Elicit, where we build a tool to analyze the scientific literature. I do occasional writing gigs, for instance at Works in Progress. I used to publish 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.
The sea monsters, logo, and other parts of the Hopeful Monsters’s visual identity come from the Carta marina et descriptio septentrionalium terrarum, a map of Scandinavia from 1539. I’ve remade some of them into pixel art, because pixel art is fun.
