Archive - The Long Reply

The Games That Stay Behind

On Place, Play, and Why Some Worlds Outlive Their Graphics

Oct 23 • Tom J. Elston

The Machine in the Mirror

AI, Greek Myths, and the Fear That Consciousness Is Made of Matter

Oct 16 • Tom J. Elston

The New Gods Don’t Feel Guilty

Towards a secular theology: rationalism, meritocracy, and the strange afterlife of older moral orders

Oct 9 • Tom J. Elston

Minding Our Own Business

Steelmanning Tucker Carlson's case against foreign wars, and what happens when everybody agrees with him.

Oct 5 • Tom J. Elston

Why Labour Will Always Disappoint the Left, and Why That’s Okay

On the Agony of Proximity

Oct 2 • Tom J. Elston

September 2026

Fallout: New Vegas and the Politics of Not Choosing

No Gods, No Masters, No Missiles

Sep 25 • Tom J. Elston

The Machine-Made Soul.

Why the human being was never just a body.

Sep 18 • Tom J. Elston

Oxyrhynchus and the Accident of Memory.

The Rubbish Dump That Saved the Ancient World.

Sep 11 • Tom J. Elston

Theory Is What You Leave Out.

Theory, Nuance, and Maps, Maps, Maps.

Sep 4 • Tom J. Elston

August 2026

The Right to Be Wrong.

Why error needs mercy, but not immunity.

Aug 31 • Tom J. Elston

Give Steven Moffat a Locked Room, Not a Universe.

On puzzles, promises, and why clever television still has to end.

Aug 21 • Tom J. Elston

The British Empire Was Not a Vibes-Based Institution.

The question is not whether empire was good or bad.

Aug 17 • Tom J. Elston

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