The End of Reading
Many articles are now discussing the decline in reading among the younger generation. Half of adults in the UK rarely pick up a book for pleasure. Reading is in decline in the US even in literature programs. Talking to professors…
Category Philosophy
What future do we want?
When my granddad died many years ago, I spent a long time thinking about the world he grew up in. A place where nature was abundant, where humans hadn’t caused so much damage yet, where insects flourished and where physical…
You’re Always Filling the Void… But What If the Void Is the Answer?
In 2023, Byung-Chul Han published Absence, a book that challenged the foundations of Western philosophy. He argues that while the West is obsessed with essence and being, Far Eastern thought is about absence and nothingness. In its pursuit of being…
Understanding the Sublime: Maxfield Parrish’s Legacy
What makes art truly great? What gives it the power to move us, to linger in our minds long after we’ve seen it? There’s something universal in the way we respond to beauty, to grand vistas, and mystery. Something that…
Solarpunk: A Vision for a Sustainable Future
In a world threatened by ecological collapse and corporate domination, Solarpunk offers an alternative vision for the future —one of resilience, cooperation, and harmony with nature. It is a genre that moves beyond dystopian cynicism, towards the ideals of the…
The Philosophy of Cyberpunk: High-Tech Rebels and Neon Dreams
The future has never seemed closer, yet we’re still struggling to find our place in it. It’s no surprise, then, that many of us are turning back to the cyberpunk genre. Its’ a world of hackers, rebels, and misfits, in…
Is the Internet Dying?
The first image to pop up on Google when you search for “Beethoven” is now an AI-generated image. This can be replicated for other famous composers, including Chopin. In some cases, there are real photographs of these composers being buried…
The World of Jun’ichirō Tanizaki: In Praise of Shadows
Several years ago, I picked up In Praise of Shadows, an essay by Japanese author Jun’ichirō Tanizaki. At the time, I couldn’t grasp its significance, but the opening passages lingered with me. The essay begins with Tanizaki’s musings on the…
Art in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
We are entering an era of upheaval that some are calling the fourth industrial revolution.[1] The rise of artificial intelligence, and in particular generative art, threatens to upend our social and cultural landscape, leading to a renewed conflict between mechanical…
Recommender Systems: Automated decisions, AI and Human Freedom
(Below is a pre-print shared for educational purposes. The full article is available here, with credit to my co-author Jan Blockx: ) My latest academic work looks at recommender systems, the recommendations that shape our digital lives on YouTube, Amazon,…