Making moves
It's been slow around here because it's picking up elsewhere.
I haven’t sent anything out over this list for about a month.
But that’s all for good reasons!
I started looking for work actively in late May. Then a really ideal job opening popped up and I went after it as hard as I could. And, what do you know? I got it.
So, as of a couple weeks ago, I’m on staff at Pirate Wires. I’m their new fellow devoted to the interaction between artificial intelligence and philosophy. I’ve already written a couple pieces for the site:
I was waiting till that second story came out to put out the word here, because It’s the first I’ve done on staff.
I’ve got a nicely strange story coming soon about what’s going on inside AIs and how much we should worry about it.
Most content on the site is paywalled, but every weekday we send out our “Three morning Takes.” These are funny, based and snarky opinion pieces clocking in around 150 words. It looks like I will show up there about three times per week.
Here’s the first one of those I did:
And for my crypto people, Illinois got me irate:
So if you want to keep me in your inbox on the reg, sign up for The Daily.
The dream
If you’ve known me personally for a long time, you might know that this is the kind of role I have wanted for a long time.
Back at CoinDesk, I did a bunch of stories about how philosphy relates to the crypto world. Here’s one on crypto anarchy. Here’s one on censorship resistance. One day I hope to write some kind of book about the internet and philosophy. Hopefully this new gig builds toward something like that.
I like the big think.
I have a long term fixation on Camus. If you want me to give you a pop summary of Hegel, I can do it. And, when it comes to ethics, I just can’t with Kant — iykyk. And if you get me started on consciousness it gets weird fast.
This new gig lets me chase threads like that and more.
So if you’ve been been meaning to subscribe to Pirate Wires in full, maybe this will be just enough to push you over the edge. Either way, thanks for being here!
Meanwhile, I expect to keep Front Stage Exit going on a much slower level. As things hit me that don’t fit on Pirate Wires. I might also do posts about interesting philosophical work that got left on the cutting room floor. We’ll see.
But the regularity of the posts is for sure over.
On crypto
So is this the end for me and crypto?
Mostly. Ish. Probably.
There are intersections between crypto and AI and I plan to explore them at some point. But, as I said before, I do mostly think crypto has found its place in the world. It’s mostly working out the kinks going forward.
My work here is done.
And I’m excited to move onto a new beat. It’s like exploring a new country.
See you on Substack!
P.S. I’m moving to San Francisco very, very soon (and yes actually San Francisco — the city not the concept). I have hardly any friends out there, so, if you are there, yes I would like to meet up and have a coffee. For sure. Let’s do it. I don’t know where I’m going to live yet, but I’m looking at SOMA or thereabouts. This is based on very little beyond: “It would be cool to live near a museum and Trader Joe’s" though.
Congrats on the new role.