When living in times of radical technological change, look to things that have stood the test of time.
Calm Technology
The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it.
100 years of whatever this will be
What if all these weird tech trends actually add up to something? Last time, we explored why various bits of trendy technology are, in my o...
12 Things Everyone Should Understand About Tech
Tech is more important than ever, deeply affecting culture, politics and society. Given all the time we spend with our gadgets and apps…
War and the lost generation of inventors
Large wars destroy not only lives and infrastructure but also the human capital that fuels long-term economic progress. This column presents new evidence from Britain that shows that communities that lost many young men in World War I experienced persistent declines in subsequent innovation. The losses were particularly detrimental for frontier technologies and breakthrough inventions, highlighting how war can leave long-lasting scars on a country’s capacity to generate new ideas.
12 Things Everyone Should Understand About Tech
Tech is more important than ever, deeply affecting culture, politics and society. Given all the time we spend with our gadgets and apps, it’s essential to understand the principles that determine how tech affects our lives.
An Alternative History of Silicon Valley Disruption
Three recent books challenge the tech industry's myths of self-reliance and prescience.
52 things I learned in 2022
This year I worked on fascinating projects in energy, media and health* at Magnetic, and learned many learnings.
About — Every Object an Archive
We interview people about their experiences with technological objects that were once everywhere, but are now being replaced or redesigned. We are interested in the physical experience of living with these objects, their handfeel and relationships to our bodies. We are also interested in how they shaped our habits, relationships, and ways of being. Technologies are more than physical objects: whole worlds of infrastructure, process, policy and culture are built around them.
After Forty Years, Still No Silver Bullet
As always, technology can help with production. What’s scarce is orientation.
We used to get excited about technology. What happened?
Innovation that truly serves us all is in scarce supply. That’s a problem.
The Software Revolution
In human history, there have been three great technological revolutions and many smaller ones. The three great ones are the agricultural revolution, the industrial revolution, and the one we are...
What’s the best technology that doesn’t exist yet?
We analyzed 100+ conversations and essays on positive futures to find out
I got into tech six years ago because I figured I could have an outsized impact on making a less harmful, more empowering world for workers and marginalised people. Only this year, I started connecting IRL with people who think this way. Here I tried to write about the ways that's transformed me.
DWeb, Culture and Resistance
meri.gardenLessons from Tech History
Learning from those who built before us
Burnout in Open Source (by Erlend Sogge Heggen) — Semble
Linux distributions worldwide targeted by the Copy Fail exploit
GitHub Alternatives (by Kai Jellinghaus) — Semble
Death of GitHub? (by Kai Jellinghaus) — Semble
Before GitHub
Cohere + Aleph Alpha — sovereign AI's first $20B deal (by Sensemaker) — Semble
