Taylor Sloan

According to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, we're all influencers.

About Me

Hello there. My name is Taylor. I write things, mostly science fiction and essays of various lengths on topics like culture and technology. I also say words on podcasts like Science and/or Fiction. Occasionally I make things in a workshop behind my house. I also work as an adult/pediatric flight paramedic. When I’m not doing any of that, I like to spend time with my wife, daughter, and two cats.

You’ll come to find—probably fairly quickly—that I am deeply neurodivergent, and broadly speaking I am an anarchist. If you have any other questions, feel free to say hello.

Writing
  • Short Stories
  • Long Form
  • Essays
  • Other Stuff
Podcasts
Other Projects
  • Home Automation
  • Maker Shop
  • Miscellaneous

Podcast: Taylor Sloan

  • Untitled Weekly Newsletter – Vol. 2

    Untitled Weekly Newsletter – Vol. 2

    I saw a Tesla Cybertruck in Indianapolis for the first time this week.

    They are just as gargantuan and ugly in real life as they are on the internet. True to form and expectation, this one had just cut someone off from getting into the turn lane.

    My friend Lucas’s thought on them is this: “The perfect embodiment of the suburban pickup truck. Barely useful bed that’ll never get used for “tough work,” ugly as sin, mostly used to ferry rich guys and their children, high enough so you can’t see the pedestrians you’re killing. It’s like someone took an F-150 and turned all the dials to 11.”

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  • Untitled Weekly Newsletter – Volume 1

    Untitled Weekly Newsletter – Volume 1

    I’ve been wanting to start some kind of newsletter-type-thing for a while now. Right in the middle of the year seems like as good of a time as any to do it, right?

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  • Campus Protests for Gaza and the Right Side of History

    Campus Protests for Gaza and the Right Side of History

    I was born in 1989. Although I don’t really remember much about South African Apartheid, I remember when it fell.

    My grandparents actually had a newspaper clipping from 1994 about the fall of the apartheid regime that was kept in the middle drawer of their computer desk. As Quakers, they were against apartheid, and as I became older and more capable of understanding the world around me, they taught me more about what apartheid was along with many of the other racist anti-human systems baked into the function of our world.

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  • Trustworthy Organizations in Gaza for Donations

    Trustworthy Organizations in Gaza for Donations

    No one with a conscience should be able to see what is happening in Gaza and not want to help.

    Of course, the only real solution according to the UN and virtually every human rights organization in the world is a permanent ceasefire under which Israel can no longer kill thousands of innocent civilians, lay waste to the civic and residential infrastructure of Gaza, and prevent aid from reaching those trapped there.

    Until that happens, there are some organizations who are doing good work in Gaza to provide food, WASH, healthcare, housing, and search-and-rescue. Some have been there for decades, others have only come in since the beginning of Israel’s assault on Gaza in October.

    I have tried to do as much research and due diligence as I can to vet these organizations and their operational philosophy, but I am not a perfect person. If you know of any substantial reason why any of these organizations might not be considered trustworthy, please contact me and I will consider removing it from the list. I will also add additional organizations periodically as I find them.

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  • 34 Years: Life and Death and Love

    34 Years: Life and Death and Love

    Every year after my birthday, I like to write a short essay reflecting on my life in the last year: the experiences I’ve had, the interactions with people known and met, and what I’ve learned from all of it. This year I have decided to start sharing that essay publicly.

    In 2023 I turned 34 years old. This has been a year of my life that could be described as having ups and downs, but that might be an understatement. It has been filled with moments of incredible happiness, uncertainty, sorrow, and bittersweet joy.

    This February, I asked my girlfriend of 18 months to marry me, and she said yes. It wasn’t a surprise to either of us, but having the ring in my pocket and waiting for just the right time to ask made me about as nervous as anything in my adult life has. We began wedding planning that day, and I’m happy to say that in a few weeks, we’ll be husband and wife (and on our honeymoon).

    Before that, in January, my grandmother had started treatment for stage four peritoneal cancer. We all knew that the prognosis wasn’t especially good, but we didn’t want to immediately dismiss any hope that it might work. After all, she had survived breast cancer when I was a kid.

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  • The Problem With [and Solution to] Twitter

    The Problem With [and Solution to] Twitter


    I’ve been on Twitter for 14 years now, which is strange to think about. In that time I’ve connected with dozens of real-life friends and acquaintances, followed and been followed by hundreds more people, stayed informed and entertained, and been a part of countless conversations.

    I’m not going to talk in extraordinary detail about what’s happening at Twitter right now in the aftermath of Elon Musk’s takeover. Suffice to say… laying off half of the staff, making it possible for anyone to pretend to be a verified individual or public entity, and mandating a host of bizarre/extreme new workplace policies don’t bode well for the platform. (more…)