The Intrinsic Perspective is a newsletter about consilience: breaking down the disciplinary barriers between science, history, literature, and cultural commentary. I started writing it in 2021 and I’ve received a Substack featured publication badge every year since.
Why become a paying subscriber? If you like writing, if you enjoy words themselves, that’s a reason. If you like science, or literature, or the combination of the two, that’s another. You also might want to support a class of thinkers outside of academia. Or you might want to join a community that shares your values of intellectual investigation, interdisciplinary thought, and civil conversation about complex topics. Or you might just really want to read a particular piece.
In addition to the free content, paid subscribers uniquely receive:
50% more content via paid-only posts.
A regular round-up of interesting links and commentary.
Perks like open threads, ask-me-anythings, an advice column, calls to submit links, etc.
Undying gratitude for making all this possible.
Who is Erik Hoel?
I’m an essayist. I grew up in his mother’s independent bookstore. Before getting on Substack, I wrote a novel, The Revelations, was a New York City Emerging Writer’s Fellow, and published essays in publications like The Atlantic.
I’m also a scientist. I received his PhD in neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was a Forbes 30 Under 30 in science, a visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced study in Princeton, and is known for several scientific hypotheses, like causal emergence and the Overfitted Brain Hypothesis and my work on formalizing scientific theories of consciousness. I am 37 and live on Cape Cod in Massachusetts.
Policies
Comments are encouraged. When commenting, try to maintain a civilized discussion—imagine this is a salon, or intellectually diverse dinner party, and you are trying to not make enemies of half the people around you. Keep in mind that people from across the political spectrum read The Intrinsic Perspective. Avoid politics unless the post bears directly on political subjects, and even then, tip-toe. Do not use AI to write comments here. It will lead to an immediate ban. Do not link to content that is AI-generated either.
In general, any comment may be removed without warning to improve discourse, and chronic low-information argumentation will lead to a ban or block. If someone is blocked on Substack, it is not because I hate them, can’t address their arguments, or feel any way whatsoever about them. It is because I don’t have the time and don’t feel that debates with them are high-information or interesting enough to pursue. That way I can actually focus on producing good original content.
