The Machines Ran on Anguish

The machines are fine. I'm worried about us.

On AI agents, grunt work, and the part of science that isn't replaceable.

I Know Why the Mathematicians Weep

On technological grief

Life With Machines | Substack

A cultural movement (and show) for people who want to live well with AI, not just endure it. Bringing clarity, critique, curiosity (and some comedy) to the AI discourse. A production by Baratunde. Click to read Life With Machines, a Substack publication with thousands of subscribers.

Rethinking the Luddites in the Age of A.I.

Brian Merchant’s new book, “Blood in the Machine,” argues that Luddism stood not against technology per se but for the rights of workers in the face of automation.

The Crooked Timber of AI

The philosophical perils of conflating discoveries and inventions, and how to overcome them

Humanities in the Machine - Blain Smith

There is something quietly remarkable about the people who built the foundations of modern computing. Not their technical achievements, though those are extraordinary. What is remarkable is where they came from before they ever touched a machine.

On working machines

In part one, on thinking machines, I explored two facets of the philosophy of artificial intelligence: “intelligence”, and consciousness. That left an important topic to consider for this post: the...

Sundae Labs PBC

We, the makers of the machines, are more than the sum of our parts. Let’s domesticate tech to aid human flourishing.

The Fork in the Road: AI Horseless Carriages or Collective Intelligence for Science - Cosmik Labs

The contagion of fear | The Observation Deck

I have a difficult confession to make — a shameful incident that I have never spoken of, even to those closest to me. Late one night in my first year at university and having found computer science to be my life’s calling, I was in the back of the large computer science lab, talking with some fellow underclassmen. We were snidely decrying the lack of technological understanding in the broader population, with the kind of arrogance and hubris that youth and precociousness can uniquely summon. Somewhere in this discussion, a terrible idea was hatched: what if we went next door to the general computer lab, and told the humanities students there that a computer virus was spreading through their machines? Would they believe it?

Deconstructing the algorithmic sublime

This special theme contextualizes, examines, and ultimately works to dispel the feelings of “sublime”—of awe and terror that overrides rational thought—that much of the contemporary public discourse on algorithms encourages. Employing critical, reflexive, and ethnographic techniques, these authors show that while algorithms can take on a multiplicity of different cultural meanings, they ultimately remain closely connected to the people who define and deploy them, and the institutions and power relations in which they are embedded. Building on a conversation we began at the Algorithms in Culture conference at U.C. Berkeley in December 2016, we collectively study algorithms as culture (Seaver, this special theme), fetish (Thomas et al.), imaginary (Christin), bureaucratic logic (Caplan and boyd), method of governance (Coletta and Kitchin; Lee; Geiger), mode of inquiry (Baumer), and mode of power (Kubler). [Box: see text]

The tool, the craft, and the joy

On AI, craft, and building things that matter (1300 words)

Conscious or Not

For as long as I remember, people have been arguing about whether machines could be intelligent or not.

The 40 Most Rage-Inducing Problems in Tech

The bugs, broken apps, and nightmare customer-service bots we can't escape, presented as a blessed and sacred addendum to Pope Leo XIV’s new encyclical on AI