Tyler Lynch

Good science-fiction doesn’t predict the future; it tweaks a feature of the present and extrapolates to an obsessive degree. Ursula K. Le Guin likened extrapolative works of science fiction to the methods of a scientist feeding large doses of a food additive to lab mice “in order to predict what may happen to people who eat it in small quantities.”

In this philosophical essay for Protean Magazine, I examine fictional dystopias—how they form, why they are allowed to exist, and to what extend they mirror our own realities.

The New Preemption raises questions about civic responsibility and ultimate political authority in an age of climate change, regulatory capture, and political deadlock. By stifling grassroots-driven policy change, preemption laws have forced a wedge not only between cities and states but also between local governments and the communities they’re meant to serve. They raise the question: Should local governments exist merely within the vacuum of higher authority, even when higher authorities are disinclined to act on issues whose impact lands, first and foremost, at the community level?

For years, Toni Genberg assumed a healthy garden was a healthy habitat. That’s how she approached the landscaping around her home in northern Virginia. On trips to the local gardening center, she would privilege aesthetics, buying whatever looked pretty, “which was typically ornamental or invasive plants,” she says. Then, in 2014, Genberg attended a talk by Doug Tallamy, a professor of entomology at the University of Delaware. “I learned I was actually starving our wildlife,” she says.

A small group of chemicals referred to as “forever chemicals” are increasingly becoming this generation’s poster child for reckless corporate industrial pollution. Like lead in the 1970s and asbestos in the 1980s, we are only now beginning to understand the scope, severity, and lethality of “forever chemicals,” and the outlook is grim.

This article served as the landscaping page for an irrigation installation and repair service. The writing is clean, authoritative, and well researched. Another happy customer.

Another edited magazine article written for a law firm—this one about the scourge of medical errors in the U.S.:

"Culture or Negligence: What’s to Blame for the Thousands of Deaths Caused by Medical Errors?

Twenty years ago a landmark report from the Institute of Medicine (IoM) revealed that as many as 98,000 patients die in the U.S. each year from preventable medical errors. Since then, little has been done to improve patient safety. In fact, most experts believe that the original report’s figure of 98,000 patients greatly underestimated the true extent of the problem."

This is a blog post written for a California manufacturer of plastic tanks. It's not the sexiest type of content, but the piece is a good example of the range, depth of research, and clear writing that I can offer. The entire 1500-article was composed from a single-sentence prompt.

A film review I wrote of the film "Dark Waters." The content was commissioned by a law to cover the history, toxicity, and legality of Teflon:

‘Dark Waters’ Confronts the Doom and Gloom of Reckless Corporate Power

"During World War II, scientists working on the Manhattan Project were looking for a substance that could resist the corrosive powers of radioactive materials. They found it in a chemical called polytetrafluoroethylene, or PTFE."

Drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), are no longer confined to the battlefield; soon enough, a civilian market will emerge and share the same airspace with manned commercial aircraft. Remotely operated and GPS-guided, these drones will help monitor storm systems, assist in search-and-rescue operations, track wildlife, survey power lines, deliver goods, broaden photographic possibilities, and trace wildfires.

This isn't speculative; it's inevitable...