Topic Evolution Over Time
The chart above tracks the relative prominence of various topics on which Hanson has written articles, revealing patterns in intellectual interests and evolving perspectives. Some observations to note:
- culture: Articles on culture and related topics have been present since the beginning but the last 2 years it's the singular topic that has seen the highest and otherwise has a cyclical pattern of interest with varying amplitudes of peaks and troughs.
- Health and medicine: Articles on health and medicine have seen a steady decline in the last 17 years but has a sharp spike during the covid years (2019-2020).
- Status: Articles on motivation, status, prestige have seen one of the most consistent volume relative to the volume of articles being written (I have always enjoyed articles on motivation, status, prestige very joyful reads)
- Emulated Minds (em), Humans and Future: Articles on emulated minds have seen around since the beginning with a major interest becoming in 2011 and 2016 (The Age of Em book was published in 2016!)
- Men, Women and Sex: Articles on men, women and sex has seen a steady decline in the last 17 years to almost completely disappearing post 2011
Publication Timeline
Articles published over time, showing periods of intense writing activity. The timeline reveals peaks and valleys in Hanson's blogging output, with notable surges around 2009-2010 and 2011-2012, followed by a gradual decline in posting frequency.
Hanson's Vocabulary
Most frequently used words and phrases across all articles (stop words removed). The word cloud visualizes Hanson's distinctive vocabulary, with size indicating frequency. Bigrams and trigrams reveal recurring phrases and conceptual patterns that characterize his writing style.
Concept Correlation Matrix
Which concepts appear together most often? Darker cells indicate stronger correlation. This heatmap reveals conceptual relationships in Hanson's work, showing which ideas tend to co-occur in articles and suggesting underlying thematic connections.
Top Article Network
Top 10% most connected articles (excluding Open Threads). Edges show shared concepts and references. This network visualization highlights the most interconnected pieces in Hanson's corpus, revealing articles that serve as conceptual hubs or bridges between different topics.
Concept Transitions Over Time
A Markov chain visualization showing how concepts transition from one article to the next as articles are published over time. Each arrow represents a transition between concepts, with wider links indicating stronger transition probabilities. This reveals how Hanson's writing flows from one idea to another across his corpus.