1. Attain a copy of Kierkegaard’s Purity of Heart
2. Choose a favourite passage from the book with the word “eternal” inside
3. With an eraser, remove the word “eternal”
4. Everyday thereafter, faithfully check that passage in the book to see if the word returns.

If I were an ancient alien civilisation whose homeworld faced complete destruction through some cataclysm, I would have the best scientists invent a technology to recreate the civilisation on a distant planet. They would devise a method by which all the instructions of how to rebuild their civilisation… a vast, infinitely compressed archive of their complete history, from their technology, literature, music, architecture — to the very memories of each individual… are encoded within single-celled microbes. Capable of withstanding the cosmic vacuum and the harsh hazards of irradiated space, these microbes would be dispatched on intergalactic journeys across the universe, scattered like extraterrestrial pollen. Some of the microbes find shore on distant planets; and if the conditions are right, they begin the slow sequential process of uncompressing and rebuilding. They unfold into more and more complex organisms over millions of years. Eventually, these unfolding organisms become self-aware and develop technology to study the very technology embedded within themselves. Within their very bodily fabric, these self-aware organisms discover instructions to build a colossal distributive database spanned across all the permutations of all living creatures that has been rebuilding itself through an incredibly efficient algorithm unfurling over millions of years. In their very bodies, they find instructions to construct a computer that can access this database, and using this infinite archive, the lost civilistation will be rebuilt; and every individual will be recreated, from their body to their very last memories. The lost civilisation becomes self-aware… and realises who and what it is. It becomes itself again, reincarnated on another planet.

A Dance with Dragons
Conquest of the Useless
What is to be Done?

The House of the Dead
The Writings of a Savage
Penultimate Words

The Problem of Pain
The Heritage of Music
Unlikely Friendships