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CAM

Cameron Allan McKean

Editor, Aeon+Psyche

Cameron is a writer, editor and underwater anthropologist in Melbourne, Australia. After a decade in Tokyo working as an arts journalist, he began doctoral studies at Deakin University involving fieldwork with scientists and divers at coral reefs in the Pacific Ocean. Cameron is a former books and culture editor for The Japan Times, and a past contributor to CNN, ArtAsiaPacific, Dwell, Apartamento, and art-agenda.

See Cameron Allan McKean’s profile on Psyche

Edited by Cameron Allan McKean

An arid landscape with rocky ground, sparse green shrubs and distant hills under a cloudy sky.

essayProgress and modernity

The shadow of prosperity

A shrub meant to end hunger now chokes Kenya’s farmlands. It’s a parable of how visions of progress can outgrow their promises

Samuel F Derbyshire

A woman and four children inside a car, under an orange sky. A boy is in the driver’s seat, the woman in the passenger seat.

essayMetaphysics

Reality is evil

Everything eats and is eaten. Everything destroys and is destroyed. It is our moral duty to strike back at the Universe

Drew M Dalton

Photo of three people in traditional robes, two holding wooden staffs, standing outside a wooden building in sunlight.

essayRituals and celebrations

A life in Zen

Growing up in countercultural California, ‘enlightenment’ had real glamour. But decades of practice have changed my mind

Anshi Zachary Smith

A round pot encircles a hole in the soil, around the hole are dried leaves, a stone and a stick.

essayAnthropology

Spider divination

Life is complicated. In Cameroon, initiated diviners read the messages of spiders to untangle possible futures

David Zeitlyn

A crocodile underwater with mouth open wide showing teeth in a cloudy green environment.

essayThe environment

Beyond food and people

Nietzsche shows us how to embrace our connection with nature – without denying its essential conflict, strife and suffering

Nicholas E Low

Photo of an ocean sunset seen through a round window with a warm sepia tone across the sky and water.

essayLanguage and linguistics

The grammar of a god-ocean

To truly explore alien languages, linguists must open themselves to the maximum conceivable degree of cosmic otherness

Eli K P William

essayThe future

Homo crustaceous

‘Everything becomes crab’ is more than an absurd meme. The crab is a deep symbol of our devil’s bargain with technology

Michael Garfield

A beaver dam on a calm lake surrounded by dense evergreen forest with mountains faintly visible in the background.

essayAnimals and humans

Animals taught us culture

Prehistoric humans didn’t create art and architecture out of nothing. They took inspiration from the nonhuman world

Sarah Newman

Three ancient human skeletons laid side by side in an archaeological excavation site.

essayArchaeology

Deep time and the revenant

In enigmatic burials, crafted to bind the bodies within, we can see how truly ancient our fears of the undead must be

Rebecca Batley

Painting of a man on a rocky cliff overlooking a foggy mountainous landscape, with a walking stick in hand.

essayArt

Out of the fog

It’s a ‘failed painting’ that obscures the profound power of German Romanticism. Why do we love the ‘Wanderer’ so much?

Gianluca Didino

Medieval painting of soldiers in armour on a boat and horseback near a fortress with Cyrillic script above.

essayGlobal history

Vikings on the Silk Roads

The Norse ravaged much of Europe for centuries. They were also cosmopolitan explorers who followed trade winds into the Far East

Neil Price

Illustration of hands typing on a keyboard with handwritten notes and a man in a sequence of frames.

essayComputing and artificial intelligence

Chatbots of the dead

We can now create compelling experiences of talking with our dead. Is this ghoulish, therapeutic or something else again?

Amy Kurzweil & Daniel Story