A different type of technology blog
I've been thinking about blogging about technology for a long time. But instead of doing a personal blog, I want to see if anyone would be interested in a different type of publication.
The idea:
existentialist: A publication that intersects art, science and technology in a format that is thought-provoking, curious, meta, abstract.
Another way to think about it is - I want to make a research paper read like a novel you can't put down, if that makes sense. Somewhat academic, but still easily digestible to the general public. And content that actually gives a sense of closure, not articles that leave you longing for something substantial like a book.
- Explores tech through human aspects (philosophy, psychology) i.e "how did we get here?"
- The style of the blog portrays a sense of curiosity, technological progress, but also somewhat artsy and creative - to give room for less serious topics from time to time.
- (optional, on the side) With guest authors providing fiction, mini-stories
The first article is going live next week at https://existentialist.xyz. If you'd be interested in reading stuff like this, leave a comment or quickly answer the poll!
I think it could be cool to do a sort of “Black Mirror”-like series where you portray real tech, and the potential impact of it, through fictional stories.
Interesting! I like comparing not-so-far-fetched dystopian sci-fi to today's society.
Although it doesn't have stories, you might enjoy this website called Technovelgy - it's a list of every science fiction invention becoming reality in today's world. Actually quite fun to browse through!
Very interesting idea. Sounds like a magazine a bit in the mold of Aeon to me 🤓.
I’d be interested in non-fiction — hard technical topics — being explained using tools from fiction (allegory etc). I’m not sure I’d be interested in non-fiction mixed with fiction as explained by @davidpuplava.
If I were doing something similar to this, a guest post on Stripe’s Increment magazine is one way I’d attempt to gain technical readers interested in long-form writing.
BTW, there’s no CTA in your post. Where will the articles live so interested readers can help themselves?
That makes sense, I'd rather stick to a consistent theme and format too - the fiction idea actually came from some friends that wanted to pitch in their stories, it wasn't part of the original idea.
Stripe's Increment is great, I got an issue at one of their events in SF and remember reading the Open Source one back to back. Good quality stuff, didn't know they accepted submissions openly.
I've just set up the (empty) website and updated the post with the URL.
Thanks for sharing Aeon, never heard of it!
I voted, "Yes", but I'd say that "Sort of" is more appropriate.
I love the idea of doing a deep dive on technology especially in a "how did we get here, how did this thing come to fruition"
I wouldn't want any mixture of fiction / mini-stories because I might too easily conflate them and think the fiction might be the real story behind the story.
On a separate, but related idea, I'd definitely be interested in a blog that took actual papers and studies from acadamia and explained it in a captivating, informational, lay person format. Something to think about pivoting too if your first iteration doesn't yield results.
Hi David, the first article is now published at https://existentialist.xyz. Have a read!
True, I'll rethink if fiction will be included at all.
Thanks David, that's spot on. Every post is essentially an existential walk through a piece of technology.
It's almost like that, a lot of research goes into each post to connect the dots between different fields of study. But I see what you mean - this may be a different way to approach it.