The Athanor

AI, Alchemy and Strategy

Accelerated Distillation

Aug 1 • Richard Merrick

July 2026

The Assay

Avoiding Fool's Gold

Jul 7 • Richard Merrick

June 2026

The Journey So Far. Part 3.

The Cut

Jun 29 • Richard Merrick

The Journey So Far, part two.

Slow Heat

Jun 22 • Richard Merrick

The Journey so Far - Part One

Like any exploration into new territory, the Athanor project started with an idea and an aspiration, not a map.

Jun 15 • Richard Merrick

May 2026

The Craft of Distillation

When did you last wash your car with bottled water?

May 22 • Richard Merrick

April 2026

Prima Materia

What We Bring to the Vessel

Apr 27 • Richard Merrick

Working In The Dark

The Athanor Project — April 2026

Apr 13 • Richard Merrick

March 2026

The Alchemy of Unlike Minds

In the early 1990s, I was negotiating the acquisition of a state business in Shanghai, before it was all the rage.

Mar 27 • Richard Merrick

Harbingers

John Boyd talked about "fingerspitzengefuehle".

Mar 24 • Richard Merrick

AI, Alchemy and Apple...

In the alchemical tradition, the athanor was the furnace at the heart of the practitioner's work.

Mar 16 • Richard Merrick

Alchemy, AI, and Soft Power.

Hard power breaks things.

Mar 10 • Richard Merrick