Thought Experiments

About This Section
This is a space for thought experiments and half-formed ideas. Many pieces here are early sketches—sometimes written in part by AI or guest contributors. They’re not polished or fully developed, but rather starting points for conversation. Think of it as a workshop of nascent ideas: interesting, provocative, and still finding their shape.

How to Measure Life—from Cells to Code

The Biotropy Index and its Digital Twin - In a universe that slides toward disorder, life does something improbable: it shapes pockets of order—and keeps them going. Can we measure that talent, in biology and in software?

Growth Limitation – A taxonomy

A practical tool for exploring growth and its limitations - look at Resources, Relationships and Regulation, and for each check Quantity, Quality and Timing.

Emergent Ignorance

Emergent ignorance is the blind spot created by complexity: parts within a system can’t fully perceive the higher-order patterns they help generate. Just as a cell can’t grasp the organism it sustains, humans may be shaping cultural or planetary minds we cannot yet see.

The Algorithmic Hive

Algorithms have become the silent architects of modern life—shaping culture, economics, and human behaviour through feedback loops we barely notice. This essay explores how they've evolved from tools into autonomous systems, mirroring biology but lacking its safeguards.