All Possible Worlds and Natural Selection
Recently (for the past couple months, in fact) I’ve been down quite the rabbit hole. More or less, it can be described as an as-in-depth-as-I-can-manage exploration of “multiverse theories.” I’d like to give a relatively brief synopsis of my findings thus far, with the caveat that none of these descriptions of various theories will be exhaustive (though I’ll provide links to further reading, if you’re interested), hoping to arrive at a point that rang a little truer for me recently: speculation is healthy, sometimes even necessary, in order to more fully grasp the concrete and actual. That’s not at all to say speculation can’t be outlandish, especially when it becomes masturbatory speculation for speculation’s sake; but when it remains rooted in the actual and concrete, when it moves from the mortifying realm of “conspiracy theories” to something more like mapping possible upcoming roads, I believe it’s quite useful. I believe the immediate use for writing will be apparent, but this perspective seems to me to be broadly applicable to other fields as well.
Modal Realism and Platonic Selectors
My deliberate leaning over the rabbit hole (followed by an arguably accidental slip of footing and a headlong dive) started with interest in the speculative metaphysics of Eric Steinhart (whom I’ve mentioned before), which in turn led…
