Welcome! Ponderer.io is a non-profit platform for the exchange of reason-based thoughts and ideas on society, politics, life, science and philosophy.

While not necessarily more, today’s problems are ever-more present through the lenses of digital media across the social and political spectrum. Ponderer.io seeks to seed reason and evidence-based discussions for the building of bridges across ideological divides. Common ground can be found in the “golden middle” in most cases.

The existence of this middle ground and its perceived neglect was one of two main reasons to get the platform started. The other was the accumulation of thoughts and ideas on a range of topics often at the intersection of the individuum and society, but certainly also my own life experiences. These ought to be brought into contact with the wider world for discussion and refinement. This also means that none of it may be any good, interesting, or let alone popular. Nevertheless, you hopefully find some of the content here enjoyable and thought-provoking.

To contribute to the discussion, you can publicly comment on any post, or privately send an email to input@ponderer.io.

For a standard privacy notice please see here. In short, there is no goal to collect personal information or monetise the platform.

About the author

Ponderer.io is privately created, funded and maintained by Andreas Joseph (username AJ).

I am a research economist at the Bank of England (disclaimer: all views expressed here are my own and should not under any circumstances be represented as those of my employer). My work focuses on the application of models from statistical learning, often called machine learning or artificial intelligence depending on the context, and how these techniques can be used to inform public policy decisions.

I am also an advocate of greater public engagement in public decisions, where modern technology and analytical tools can help us to distil useful signals from the disparate views and experiences of individuals in society. Please see “The Public Economist” for an example of how such information could be used, and the Bank of England Citizens’ Forum for one such approach more generally.

More information on my research can be found here.