The World Wired Web

Despite marketing imagery to the contrary, the “cloud” remains very much grounded in physical infrastructure, including unfathomable miles of wires.

By David A. J. Reynolds | July 24, 2019 | Environment, Media | Amazon, Bandwidth, Britain, China, Choke Points, Coaxial Cable, Communication, Content Providers, Data, Entertainment, Facebook, Fiber-Optic Cable, France, Google, Infrastructure, Internet, Internet Traffic, ISPs, Long-Distance, Railroads, Servers, Telecoms, Telegraph, Telephone, The Cloud, Undersea Cables, US, Wires

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The Apex of Technological Birth

In many places, birth by emergency surgery–the C-section–is increasingly the norm. Part three in a series on technological childbirth.

By David A. J. Reynolds | October 11, 2018 | Family, Health, Medicine, Reproduction, Well-Being | Birth, Birth Complications, Caesarean Section, Child Labor, Childbirth, China, CTG Strips, Emotional Attachment, Epidural, False Alarm, Immune System, India, Institutionalized Birth, Litigation, Malpractice, Mexico, Natural Birth, Obstetrics, OECD, Risk, Surgery, Turkey, UK, US, Vaginal Birth

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The Death of Natural Childbirth

The second part of a series on childbirth examines how natural birth has been systematically disabled, at the cost of bonding and health.

By David A. J. Reynolds | June 27, 2018 | Community, Culture, Ethics, Family, Health, Medicine, Reproduction, Society, Well-Being | Ágnes Geréb, Amniotomy, Anesthesia, Asphyxia, Babies, Barbara Bridgman Perkins, Birthing, Caesarean Section, Childbirth, Children, Consumerism, Control, Demerol, Efficiency, Els Hendrix, Epidural, Finland, Forceps, Home-Birth, Hungary, Ignác Semmelweis, Infant Mortality, Institutionalized Birth, Interventionism, Irvine Loudon, Jacqueline Wolf, Jennifer Block, John Whitridge Williams, Kieran O’Driscoll, L.H. Lumey, Machines, Medicine, Michel Odent, Midwifery, Nature, Obstetrics, Oxytocin, Perfectionism, Pitocin, Pregnancy, Puerperal Fever, Rationalism, Sarah Buckley, Standardization, Taylorism, Technocentrism, The Netherlands, Twilight Sleep, UK, US, Western Medicine

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The Problems of Prediction, Part 2

Our overconfidence in our predictive abilities can be traced to the simple fact that the universe is infinitely complex.

By David A. J. Reynolds | February 21, 2018 | Cognition, Economics, Government, Philosophy, Prediction, Society | Brexit, Britain, Certainty, Comprehension, Cosmology, Data, Economics, Elections, Error, Forecasting, Foresight, Freakonomics, Genetic Engineering, Hanna Arendt, Hubris, Ignorance, Infinity, Information, Knowledge, Limitations, Manipulations, Models, Neuroscience, Over-confidence, Philip Tetlock, Polling, Prediction, Reality, Statistics, Stephen Dubner, The Brain, The Universe, Truth, UK, Understanding, Unknowns, Unpredictability, US

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