Ali Alkhatib: On techno-optimism
On technological optimism and technological pragmatism
"There are no guarantees that things are going to turn out very well for anyone.”
Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology
A witty, often terrifying that chronicles our transform…
Retrofuturism
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m an avid reader of L.M. Sacasas’s Convivial Society which I feel offers some of the best thinking on technology while always remaining clear and accessible, with no sensationalism and an abiding humanity. So when Mike wrote in the latest instalment (III.9) that he was offering seven theses “less cautiously formulated” with the thought that they might elicit some responses, I found jumping in hard to resist.
Opinion | How Scared Should We Be of A.I. Right Now?
The dark and distressing way that Silicon Valley talks about A.I. can be traced to a philosophy that influenced many tech executives.
The Techno-Optimist Manifesto | Andreessen Horowitz
We are told that technology is on the brink of ruining everything. But we are being lied to, and the truth is so much better. Marc Andreessen presents his techno-optimist vision for the future.
Optimistic Computing
I recently made two new friends: Abhinav Omprakash and Dawn Walker. Abhinav said I’m an optimist and I should write about it. Dawn said I shouldn’t try to coin any new terms. I should know better, but this essay follows Abhinav’s recommendation — and credits Dawn, in the very likely event I should have followed her advice instead. I have been alive for approximately four decades. Each of those decades was witness to its own fun brand of computering.
What’s the best technology that doesn’t exist yet?
We analyzed 100+ conversations and essays on positive futures to find out
Technological Metamodernism (Sep 2024)
Technological Metamodernism A four-week course with Stephen Reid and special guests Telegram group: https://t.me/+4CC9lfZMBN04ZTdk Substack post announcing the open-sourcing of the notes: https://stephenreid.substack.com/p/technological-metamodernism-course This work is licensed under Cre...
Alex Komoroske on Twitter / X
What if technology didn’t feel so… hollow?Some friends and I just released a manifesto about a world where tech leaves us feeling nourished (along with an evolving list of theses about how we can build it)https://t.co/sfKBVZ2zXr— Alex Komoroske (@komorama) December 5, 2025
FF26 – This is not the tech I signed up for! – An approach to permacomputing - Darío Gutiérrez Mori
other futures: tech, resistance & imagining otherwise
big tech wants to control our future, but there are other paths we can choose instead. on "other futures" we bring together leading tech researchers, organizers, critics, and storytellers to help us imagine what more liberatory and human-centered tech futures could look like—and how we can build them together. brought to you by DAIR and the All Tomorrows Institute.
A Thesis on the History of the 21st Century: Technocracy, AI, and the End of the World
Reviewing a trio of books by a sextet of ruling-class ideologues, Mathias Fuelling finds an ambient anxiety hanging over a perceived crisis in American capitalism, with visions of bolstering a Silicon Valley-led technocracy fueled by AI investment reflecting American fears over the dawn of a "Chinese Century."
Lambda Land | Book Review: Technopoly
In Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology, Neil Postman argues that our infatuation with technology has insidiously eroded our culture. We gain much through technology, but it comes at a price; all too often we are blind to that price. This book seeks to call attention to the costs of a technology-focused society. I felt this poignantly because I, as a technology worker, know what that infatuation feels like.
Should Scientists and Engineers Run Society?
I’ve got a longer draft in the works, but I don’t think that’s going to become a blog post, so I figure it might be useful to publish something here and solicit feedback, or just plant a flag in the ground that this was a thing I did. Last week Several weeks ago I gave a talk at Wayne State University titled “the uncanny pessimism of techno-optimism”. In this post I’m going to breeze through some of the stuff I talked about and give a sense of what’ll be coming. Eventually.