It's the last month of the last month of the last year of the decade. The list of good intentions that I have failed to accomplish this decade would probably take the entirety of the remaining month to recite; instead, I'd like to commit to spend at least some of it doing these things.

Most prominent on my to-read list is Bedau and Humphreys' Emergence, a reader of seminal philosophical and scientific texts in the field of emergent phenomena. It's occurred to me that I could apply the same brute-force methods of the hackpact to a kind of public read-through of the book. Noticing its 24-chapter girth, I am thus proud to begin:

The Emergence Advent Calendar

Over the first 24 days of December, I will be reading each of the 24 chapters that comprise the Emergence reader, and writing a brief critical overview of each. It's partly a sustained research project, partly an exercise in self-discipline, and partly an ongoing secular-academic Christmas gift.