For those of us with different brains, learning to be understood can often be accomplished for little, daily things. The soul-crushing loneliness of existence can be mediated with companionship and learning to talk about things other people want to talk about—maintaining surface level conversations, keeping ourselves small. But deep in my heart, at least, I do crave talking about topics that have no words, that are indescribably beautiful and complex. I have only been able to find this in my books. My textbooks and technical handbooks do their best, but a real conversation with the mysterious is challenging. Books like Hofstadter’s Golden Braid let me feel a little less alone for a brief moment in conversation.

Don’t you hate it when the old ways actually seem to work?

And people say that wastewater isn’t fun.

What’s the value of wisdom in engineering and science fiction?

‘Capitalism is just slavery with more steps’ - Rick Sanchez

I thought I would get to be in charge at some point. Turns out, we’re all just strapped into harnesses, trapped in our tiny boxes working for some capitalist. Exploitation, with nice jackets.

Why are we doing this?