The Daily Inchoate

In which we make a beginning

The Anthropocene is upon us, and I’m on a mission to learn more about it. There are wonderful resources out there, so I’ll be curating a few of them, whichever seem the most useful.

I like to think of learning about the Anthropocene as comprising four main areas. First are the overarching megatrends that let us know we’ve entered a new geological era, for example, all the hockey-stick shaped graphs which chart the explosion of world population or energy use or economic growth over long periods of time. Second is geography, especially case studies of places where land use (or water use) shows how much humans have impacted the earth’s landscapes and seascapes. Patterns of ecological diversity and also human settlements fall in here, too. So, time and place, A1 and A2.

Third comes the circular economy — or what ought to be a circular economy — in which we humans come by resources, to be made into things for use, and when we’re finished, we (ought to) return those resources back for a further round. To shift from our current linear economy to a circular one requires a shift in how we design things and processes. A3

Finally, there’s the human dimension itself. Who are these anthropoi who are creating a new Anthropocene era? A4

This leads me to the research side, rather than the curating or reporting side, of what I hope to work on daily. How did we get to where we are? I’m thinking not so much in terms of macro trends (A1 above), but in terms of more concrete and vivid world history and ideas. Then, not only how we got here, but what we might actually do about it. Are there any ancient human wisdom traditions that might help, or must we rely primarily on innovating and technologizing our way out of any messes we create while the human project advances? Hint: right there lies the flashpoint of much of contemporary politics as conservatives face off against progressives.

On the research side of things, I’ll drop original comments on things I’m reading, and try to dig deeper into subjects like political economy or comparative philosophy and religion. I’m learning here too, in the realm of the humanities (taken broadly), but I’ll be working more rigorously toward philosophical, and even political, engagement.

The plan is to post daily. Fair warning that whatever appears will be inchoate, since these are investigations and researches in process. Hopefully, in due time, a few longer, more coherent essays will come out of it, to be posted or published elsewhere.

If you decide to come along for the ride, welcome.