Escaping Screens: A Tech-Free Travel Quest, Part II
A stranded American tourist shares the story of a six-month screen-free quest through India and Nepal just as the coronavirus explodes. Part II.
Escaping Screens: A Tech-Free Travel Quest, Part I
An American tourist stranded in India shares his story: six months traveling without a screen, only to pick one up again just in time for the global meltdown.
The Risks of Public Data
A desire for convenience and openness has left local and state public records easily available for mining, combining, and abuse.
Undoing Dystopia: a Review of Douglas Rushkoff’s Team Human
A review of tech and social critic Douglas Rushkoff’s latest book, Team Human.
Podcast #23: David Bosworth on Conscientious Thinking
Author and cultural critic David Bosworth discusses America’s myth of individualism and how it feeds a digital culture that ironically infantilizes its users and demands constant approval from strangers.
Podcast #20: Huei Peng and Driverless Cars
A tour of autonomous vehicle testing track Mcity with director Huei Peng answers many questions, and raises others.
Google’s Smart Reply: Convenience Over Connection
Gmail offers users canned responses to emails, based on AI interpretations of the contents and the user’s typical writing style. This convenience, unknown to the recipient, comes at a social cost.
Plastic’s Legacy of Pollution
Our obsession with disposability and sterility has ironically led to an explosion of plastic, which is non-biodegradable and full of contaminants.
The Limits of Efficiency
Demanding convenience in every aspect of life might have some rather inconvenient effects: the atrophying of skills, self-worth, and wisdom.
Podcast #8: Tim Wu On Attention and Communications Networks
Tim Wu is a renowned scholar on our communications networks, having coined the phrase “net neutrality” and written extensively on the subject both inside and outside of government and academia, including the White House and Columbia University. His latest book, The Attention Merchants, is a history of advertising, and it’s not pretty. He spoke with us about our declining private spheres, the current state of the Internet, and the effects of what he calls The Cycle, as new communications technologies inevitably move from open to closed.