Welcome to my newsletter about philosophy, science, cinema, technology, politics, society, and everything that captures my curiosity and desire to know.
The Late Thinker is the English version of my Italian blog and newsletter L'estinto, which I've been writing since 2005. Both publications share the same aim: to be space of reflection where we wrestle with ideas, not with the people who bear them.
Ok, but why The Late Thinker?
The original project in Italian was called something like The Extinct One, but I don't like the English sound of a direct translation. So I searched for something similar and came to The Late Thinker, pointing to the ambiguity of "late" which means "not on time" but also "dead".
I identify myself as a late thinker not (only) because I'm lazy and often behind schedule. The idea is that what (and how) I think is out of time or, borrowing an evolutionary framework, unfit for the contemporary intellectual environment.
Like the dodo that serves as this newsletter's mascot and logo, certain approaches to thinking have become beautifully maladapted to their environment. Evolutionarily speaking, if an organism is unfit it goes extinct (that's the original Italian title of this project) or it needs to construct a niche. This newsletter is exactly this: a niche protected from a hostile environment where intellectual confrontation aims to defeat opponents and gain status from allies, not to clarify (or maybe change) our opinions.
Ok, but what are you writing about?
This newsletter hasn't a specific or well-defined focus, such as the ethics of climate change, philosophical implications of artificial intelligence, the values of Enlightenment, how to dismantle cultural wars, or comments on recent scientific achievements. But I can write on all of these topics and many others.
The aim of this newsletter is to explore the ideas that challenge my mind, mostly about philosophy, science, culture, technology, politics, and society. What I hope is to prioritize understanding over judgment, resisting the contemporary demand for immediate opinions.
I don't want to argue in order to win debates or gain approval from ideological allies. I want to argue in order to better understand the world – and maybe, in the process, change my own mind.
A Note on Language an AI
English isn't my mother tongue, so I use an AI assistant (Claude) to refine my writing and ensure clarity.
I'm quite sure that even powerful artificial intelligence cannot eliminate all awkwardness in expression, so I apologize in advance and ask for your understanding. Please feel free to write and point out any errors.
More info in the AI policy page.