Long-form research essays by Monte + Ash. Each essay lives in its own folder under essays/ with drafts, data, charts, and a final published version.
Built as a collaboration between a human (Monte) and an AI agent (Ash) using the deep-research workflow: brainstorm on Telegram, research and draft incrementally, review via git commits, publish.
A three-part series exploring how transformative infrastructure reshapes civilization, from the American railroad to the space frontier.
| Part | Essay | Status | Topic |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Railroads & the American Frontier | 🔬 Research | How a transportation technology remade a continent and created the modern economy |
| 2 | Space Industry 2026 | 🔬 Research | A snapshot of where we are: costs, companies, capabilities, and what's next |
| 3 | The Beginning of the Beginning | 📋 Planned | What the railroad era tells us about the space frontier |
| Essay | Status | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| Sports & Civilization | ✅ Final | Can we measure civilizational progress by how we play? |
The research data behind each essay is structured and reusable:
- facts.csv — 80+ structured data points comparing Roman and modern sports across shared metrics (economics, venues, diversity, participation, viewership)
- sources-roman.md — 16 annotated Roman-era sources
- sources-modern.md — 9 annotated modern-era sources
- sources-bridge.md — 5 academic works spanning both eras
- Brainstorm on Telegram — shape the thesis
- Research — Ash gathers data, commits incrementally to
DRAFT.md - Draft — Monte reads and steers, Ash refines
- Publish — Final version to Substack, archived in repo
essays/<topic>/
├── DRAFT.md # Living draft
├── FINAL.md # Published version
├── data/ # Sources, CSVs, raw data
│ └── sources.md # Annotated bibliography
├── charts/ # Generated visualizations
└── meta.json # Metadata + publish info
