Trance – Trance Blackman

A Single Point of Failure: Convenience, Control, and the Cost of Dependency

A Single Point of Failure: Convenience, Control, and the Cost of Dependency

The Fragility of a Connected World

14 November 2026 ~ 23 minute read

There’s something rather peculiar about the direction we’ve taken with technology. We have more computing power, more connectivity, more automation, and more supposedly intelligent systems than ever before, yet somehow we seem to have become increasingly dependent on a handful of corporations and institutions to keep the most basic aspects of everyday life functioning. At what point did convenience become dependency, and when did we collectively decide that handing over control was an acceptable price for modernization? A few recent developments provide an interesting opportunity to examine that question.

Lux Colloquii

Alewives, Gruit & the Lost Knowledge of Traditional Brewing

14 November 2026 ~ 23 minute read

There’s often more to the history of something as ordinary as brewing a household ale than we might imagine. Behind the ingredients, recipes, and traditions are generations of accumulated knowledge, much of it passed down through observation and experience rather than written records. And as familiar practices become commercial industries, it’s worth asking what gets preserved, what gets lost, and whose knowledge survives the telling.

Love Is War

Journal Entries

Love Is War

A Life in Three Words

11 November 2026 ~ 3 minute read

Some phrases stay with us because they capture something we’ve spent years trying to understand. Looking again, loving life, walking the walk, amplifying the light: each has marked a different stage of my journey. Now another has emerged. Amor bellum est. Love is war. Perhaps the greatest battles are those that bring us closer to truth, dismantle our illusions, and change everything we thought we knew.

Lux Colloquii

The Seduction of the Final Answer: Salvation, Certainty, and the Human Condition

The Myth of the Diminished Human

07 November 2026 ~ 29 minute read

What happened to humanity, what was taken from us, who or what is responsible, and how might we finally reclaim what was lost? It’s a familiar refrain. The language changes, the cosmologies evolve, and yesterday’s authorities become tomorrow’s false prophets. Yet beneath it all, some remarkably familiar ideas persist. I’ve spent a good deal of time exploring these subjects, and increasingly find myself less interested in another grand explanation than in examining the assumptions that hold these narratives together. Perhaps it’s time we questioned not only the answers being offered, but why we’re so compelled to find them in the first place.

Lux Colloquii

Suppression and Resolution: Rethinking the Nature of Healing

Hering, Homeopathy, and the Art of Observation

07 November 2026 ~ 23 minute read

We spend a great deal of time trying to understand the body, often through the lens of what we’ve been taught about disease, symptoms, and treatment. But perhaps we’ve been looking at things from the wrong direction. What if many of the things we regard as problems are actually expressions of the body’s ongoing efforts to restore itself? And what if understanding those responses requires a little less intervention and a little more observation? Exploring the work of Lies are Unbekoming and the historical principle attributed to Constantine Hering, we consider the relationship between suppression and healing, the remarkable intelligence of the organism, and the importance of understanding our own individual stories.

Author: Trance

A Single Point of Failure: Convenience, Control, and the Cost of Dependency

Alewives, Gruit & the Lost Knowledge of Traditional Brewing

Love Is War

The Seduction of the Final Answer: Salvation, Certainty, and the Human Condition

Suppression and Resolution: Rethinking the Nature of Healing