The Intrinsic Perspective is a newsletter about “consilience.”
And what is consilience?
It is when evidence for a truth converges across different fields and methods, so it is when science, history, literature, and cultural commentary all wind together, and the perfect pristine unity connecting them like fibrous tissue, like bloody math with a heartbeat, is revealed. I often fail to find consilience, but please know that I’m trying. I’m trying each and every week.
I. WHO IS ERIK HOEL?
I’m an essayist. I grew up in my 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 and The New York Times.
I’m also a scientist. I received my PhD in neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, have been a Forbes 30 Under 30 in science, a visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and am known for several scientific hypotheses, like causal emergence and the Overfitted Brain Hypothesis and my work on formalizing scientific theories of consciousness. I am 38 and reside near Boston, in Massachusetts.
II. WHY BECOME A PAID 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 not quite at home in traditional 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. I’m trying to create a beautiful and interesting corner of the internet, and if that quest means something to you, I’d love your support.
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.
III. A HUMAN-ONLY POLICY
Everything published here is (and always will be) 100% written by me, a mammal who can taste tap water and stub his toe. Nothing is AI generated.
While I often use topical images (graphs, memes, photographs, etc.) for the social previews of posts, the overall look and aesthetics of this newsletter are digital collages and photomontages dreamed up by me as well. They were adapted from public-domain sources like museum collections of centuries-old art (and some earlier posts even involved collaborations with living human artists as well).
Out of respect for the amount of warm-blooded human effort all this takes, please 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. Actual human comments are highly 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. In general, any comment may be removed without warning to improve discourse, and chronic low-information argumentation will lead to a ban or block. That way I can avoid drama and continue to focus on producing stuff worth reading.
