Robert Cottrell" />
  • ABOUT
  • PRINT
  • PRAISE
  • SUBSCRIBE
  • OPENINGS
  • SUBMISSIONS
  • CONTACT
The Missing Slate - For the discerning reader
  • HOME
  • Magazine
  • In This Issue
  • Literature
    • Billy Luck
      Billy Luck
    • To the Depths
      To the Depths
    • Dearly Departed
      Dearly Departed
    • Fiction
    • Poetry
  • Arts AND Culture
    • Tramontane
      Tramontane
    • Blade Runner 2049
      Blade Runner 2049
    • Loving Vincent
      Loving Vincent
    • The Critics
      • FILM
      • BOOKS
      • TELEVISION
    • SPOTLIGHT
    • SPECIAL FEATURES
  • ESSAYS
    • A SHEvolution is Coming in Saudi Arabia
      A SHEvolution is Coming in Saudi Arabia
    • Paxi: A New Business Empowering Women in Pakistan
      Paxi: A New Business Empowering Women in Pakistan
    • Nature and Self
      Nature and Self
    • ARTICLES
    • COMMENTARY
    • Narrative Nonfiction
  • CONTESTS
    • Pushcart Prize 2017 Nominations
      Pushcart Prize 2017 Nominations
    • Pushcart Prize 2016 Nominations
      Pushcart Prize 2016 Nominations
    • Pushcart Prize 2015 Nominations
      Pushcart Prize 2015 Nominations
    • PUSHCART 2013
    • PUSHCART 2014
Roving Eye, SpotlightNovember 3, 2016

Spotlight Site: Aeon

screen-shot-2016-11-03-at-08-09-18When I am sad and weary
When I think all hope has gone
I turn on my computer
And I read what’s on Aeon

I borrow the form of the poem from Adrian Mitchell, who did it much better. But the point remains. Whatever horrors the Internet has unleashed into our social and cultural lives, whatever it has taken away from our dignity and our decency, it has given much, too. And one of the exemplary things that it has given us is Aeon, a site devoted to elegant writing and serious thinking, mostly about philosophy and the human sciences.

When I say that the Internet has given us Aeon, that is not quite the full story. The Internet has given us Aeon by means of the persons of Paul and Brigid Hains interposed. They co-founded the site in 2012 and created its distinctive sensibility. There is an exciting hint of New-Ageiness about Aeon, a sense that life relies on rituals as well as rules; which is well explained when you see from Aeon’s People page that Paul has an MA in the psychology of religion, and that Brigid lists anthropology first among her interests.

It would not be an unfair summary to say that Aeon is about life’s mysteries. Today’s front page, as a I write, offers a lead piece on the philosophy of consciousness; another on alien intelligence; a discussion of alternatives to the Aristotelian account of human virtue; and an outstanding essay on probability which you really should read if you want to understand the current crisis of replicability in scientific research.

I am tempted to say that another one of life’s mysteries is Aeon itself. Was it sent here from another planet on a civilising mission? How and why does it go on publishing these wonderful articles with no apparent thought even to revenues, let alone profit? I see from Wikipedia that it registered this year as a charity in Australia; and I can only guess that this was the honourable conclusion of a four-year attempt to find a more conventional business model. I’m also going to guess that Paul Hains has the deep pockets which have kept Aeon going, and if so he deserves at least a knighthood for doing so.

It may be just me, but when I try to think of the best new publications which owe their lives to the energy of the Internet, they are all in the general area of popular science. I will hope to come to them individually in due course, but in addition to Aeon I am thinking particularly of Nautilus, Mosaic Science, and Quanta. Nautilus is a commercial venture, I believe; the others are philanthropic.

This is the opposite of dumbing-down. This is smarting-up
Why should this be? Why should we have had this flowering of fine new writing in popular science — but not in, say, history or drama (at least to my knowledge)? I’m going to guess that it’s partly because explaining science to people feels useful, and so satisfies the philanthropic impulse; and partly because there are huge commercial returns to successful science, which allows the Wellcomes of this world to set up foundations, which — well, what do you expect? — seek further to elevate the public standing and understanding of science.

But also, perhaps — and I am moving on to thin ice here — we have a boom in popular science writing because all you need in order to enjoy articles about popular science is a lively awareness of the world around you. No book-reading required.

It is a wonderful liberation, in its way. Like the Ancient Greeks, we can come fresh to ideas without first ploughing through the associated scholarship. A couple of decades ago I would have felt preposterous advancing an opinion on quantum neuroscience — but now Quanta has me covered. I would have assumed that I needed several years of lab work to hold any views at all about the biological definition of a species —  but in fact, all I need are ten minutes with Nautilus.

This is the opposite of dumbing-down. This is smarting-up. In the absence of Aeon I would not read more demanding pieces about science, I would simply read less science, or none at all. Aeon makes me smarter. Why Paul and Brigid Hains should wish to do me this kindness I am hard-pressed to explain, but no doubt there are some pieces about altruism in the Aeon archive which will do the job.

 

Robert Cottrell is editor of The Browser, which recommends five or six pieces of exceptional writing available online each day. He was previously a staff writer for The Economist and the Financial Times.

Tags

Robert CottrellSpotlight Sitewebsites

Share on

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Google +
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
Previous articlePoet of the Month: Nathalie Handal
Next articleSpotlight Site: Nico Muhly

You may also like

Author Interview: Rion Amilcar Scott

Spotlight Artist: Scheherezade Junejo

Poet of the Month: Simon Perchik

Ad

In the Magazine

A Word from the Editor

Don’t cry like a girl. Be a (wo)man.

Why holding up the women in our lives can help build a nation, in place of tearing it down.

Literature

This House is an African House

"This house is an African house./ This your body is an African woman’s body..." By Kadija Sesay.

Literature

Shoots

"Sapling legs bend smoothly, power foot in place,/ her back, parallel to solid ground,/ makes her torso a table of support..." By Kadija Sesay.

Literature

A Dry Season Doctor in West Africa

"She presses her toes together. I will never marry, she says. Jamais dans cette vie! Where can I find a man like you?" By...

In the Issue

Property of a Sorceress

"She died under mango trees, under kola nut/ and avocado trees, her nose pressed to their roots,/ her hands buried in dead leaves, her...

Literature

What Took Us to War

"What took us to war has again begun,/ and what took us to war/ has opened its wide mouth/ again to confuse us." By...

Literature

Sometimes, I Close My Eyes

"sometimes, this is the way of the world,/ the simple, ordinary world, where things are/ sometimes too ordinary to matter. Sometimes,/ I close my...

Literature

Quarter to War

"The footfalls fading from the streets/ The trees departing from the avenues/ The sweat evaporating from the skin..." By Jumoke Verissimo.

Literature

Transgendered

"Lagos is a chronicle of liquid geographies/ Swimming on every tongue..." By Jumoke Verissimo.

Fiction

Sketches of my Mother

"The mother of my memories was elegant. She would not step out of the house without her trademark red lipstick and perfect hair. She...

Fiction

The Way of Meat

"Every day—any day—any one of us could be picked out for any reason, and we would be... We’d part like hair, pushing into the...

Fiction

Between Two Worlds

"Ursula spotted the three black students immediately. Everyone did. They could not be missed because they kept to themselves and apart from the rest...."...

Essays

Talking Gender

"In fact it is often through the uninformed use of such words that language becomes a tool in perpetuating sexism and violence against women...

Essays

Unmasking Female Circumcision

"Though the origins of the practice are unknown, many medical historians believe that FGM dates back to at least 2,000 years." Gimel Samera looks...

Essays

Not Just A Phase

"...in the workplace, a person can practically be forced out of their job by discrimination, taking numerous days off for fear of their physical...

Essays

The Birth of Bigotry

"The psychology of prejudice demands that we are each our own moral police". Maria Amir on the roots of bigotry and intolerance.

Fiction

The Score

"The person on the floor was unmistakeably dead. It looked like a woman; she couldn’t be sure yet..." By Hawa Jande Golakai.

More Stories

Richman, O’Hara, and the aesthetics of the upbeat

Richard O’Brien explores the ‘untrammelled joy’ in the work of Frank O’Hara and Jonathan Richman

Back to top
One last love letter...

April 24, 2021

It has taken us some time and patience to come to this decision. TMS would not have seen the success that it did without our readers and the tireless team that ran the magazine for the better part of eight years.

But… all good things must come to an end, especially when we look at the ever-expanding art and literary landscape in Pakistan, the country of the magazine’s birth.

We are amazed and proud of what the next generation of creators are working with, the themes they are featuring, and their inclusivity in the diversity of voices they are publishing. When TMS began, this was the world we envisioned…

Though the magazine has closed and our submissions shuttered, this website will remain open for the foreseeable future as an archive of the great work we published and the astounding collection of diverse voices we were privileged to feature.

If, however, someone is interested in picking up the baton, please email Maryam Piracha, the editor, at maryamp@themissingslate.com.

Farewell, fam! It’s been quite a ride.

Read previous post:
The Best Medicine

"Inside is a black verse. Black like the womb of a deep river/ too black for this porcelain room..." Poem...

Close