John Horgan
@Horganism
Know-nothing/know-it-all. Science-lover/science-basher. Peacenik/hockey player.
My pal @wellerstein, a connoisseur of weirdness, reports on an especially weird thing he did recently. doomsdaymachines.net/p/wasteland-wr…
I woke up wondering what to do today, and I ended up writing about free will, enlightenment, utopia, tech bros, the purpose of life, yada yada. johnhorgan.org/cross-check/um…
All conflicts, from lovers' spats to wars, seem to conform to certain mathematical rules. johnhorgan.org/cross-check/th…
Wise, funny take on our current AI hysteria: open.substack.com/pub/radulod/p/…
The time seems right for a look at Solzhenitsyn's Gulag autofiction, "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich." johnhorgan.org/cross-check/so…
To know whether colonoscopy, mammography and other screening measures "save lives," you need to count all deaths, not just deaths from cancer. johnhorgan.org/cross-check/ny…
Articles in @nytimes and @NewYorker overstate benefits of colonoscopies and other cancer screens. johnhorgan.org/cross-check/ny…
Why does Freud endure? Not because psychoanalysis works, but because no rival paradigms work very well, either. johnhorgan.org/cross-check/wh…
Even by the standards of his day, Thomas Jefferson was a "brutal" hypocrite. Some thoughts for Independence Day. johnhorgan.org/cross-check/an…
Crafting Hyperbolic Hats for Sly and the Family Stone, by @margaretwerth open.substack.com/pub/margaretwe…
Human psychedelic therapists alarmed by AIs horning in on their action. Come on, that's funny. technologyreview.com/2025/07/01/111…
Years ago, during an acid trip, I stood on a cliff overlooking the ocean, and its surface was covered with runes that shape-shifted too fast for me to decipher. That's how Virginia Woolf's "The Waves" makes me feel. johnhorgan.org/cross-check/su…
Virginia Woolf's strange, beautiful book "The Waves" rocked me. johnhorgan.org/cross-check/su…
I just asked Douglas Hofstadter, one of the deepest, most original thinkers I've met, a few questions: johnhorgan.org/cross-check/ho…
My encounter with Amanda Feilding (RIP), a British aristocrat who was into LSD and trepanation (drilling a hole in your head). johnhorgan.org/cross-check/re…
"WHEN CRUELTY BECOMES NORMAL, COMPASSION LOOKS RADICAL." Sign I saw at a No Kings protest Saturday in Jersey City. johnhorgan.org/cross-check/no…
I went to a No Kings protest yesterday. johnhorgan.org/cross-check/no…
Legendary Apple coder Bill Atkinson just died. I contributed, over his objections, to a book of his photos of rocks' otherworldly innards. Here's the story: johnhorgan.org/cross-check/my…
The great @paulkrugman on "the end of science in America." paulkrugman.substack.com/p/nobody-expec…