Molly Simpson

a good what-if question needs to assume that nothing is unmovable.

Platform building is, by definition, a kind of exercise in emergent behavior. The tiny Scleractinia polyp isn’t actively trying to create an underwater Las Vegas, but nonetheless out of its steady labor—imbibing algae and erecting those aragonite skeletons—a higher-level system emerges.

Our humanness is not given to us. Instead, it requires our participation in its construction and realisation, which often comes about through collapse or calamity. We rummage through the chaos of our inner worlds, through our multitude of selves, to discover what we are, what we wish to be, and our authentic relationship with the world. This

Which came first, the neuron or the feeling? What was the universe like before there were any living beings around to observe it? Does it feel like anything to be a mushroom, or a bee, or a rock? What happens to your subjectivity when you die?

I’m not sure we’ll ever know. But I do know that life gets richer when you contemplate that either one of

When I first read it, I thought only a lover could use the word ‘soul’ and get away with it. But it can’t be right that I need a lover so that I can speak of having a soul. That doesn’t do justice to the role platonic love plays in my life, its endless occasions for consideration of the soul. And it does not recognise the way art enables deep