The Seeds of Blockchain Technology Are Found in Ancient Norse Mythology
Did ancient Norse mythology anticipate the future rise of blockchain? Maybe not literally but figuratively, it’s interesting to consider.
Technology
Orwellian Times: On Manic Street Preachers’ ‘The Ultra Vivid Lament’
Manic Street Preachers’ The Ultra Vivid Lament is driven by George Orwell’s aim to make political writing into art.
Could Artificial Intelligence Help Us Become More Human? Mouse on Mars’ Jan St. Werner Says Yes
In this interview with Jan St. Werner, the veteran electronic musician discusses how Mouse on Mars have attempted to blur the distinction between machine intelligence and empathy on their new album AAI.
Right/Wrong: How Technology Transforms Our Ethics (excerpt)
So you think you know the difference between right and wrong? Sure about that? Juan Enriquez's Right/Wrong, excerpted here courtesy of MIT Press, might shake you loose from your convictions.
Manual for Survival’s History of Chernobyl Resonates in Our Time of COVID-19
Shortly after the reactor explosion in Chernobyl in 1986, officials in Belarus offered up an argument that will be hauntingly familiar to those tracking the spread of COVID-19.
UbuWeb’s Kenneth Goldsmith Writes the Book on Internet Archiving
Kenneth Goldsmith's Duchamp Is My Lawyer, a tale of the creation and upkeep of the anti-internet internet, UbuWeb, is highly engaging and avoids the risk of ploughing down theoretical wormholes of limited interest.
Home Computers: 100 Icons that Defined a Digital Generation (excerpt)
Whether you remember waiting for dial-up access, tiny screens, and green lines of text or not, you'll get a kick out of Alex Wiltshire's travel back in time to when computers came with wires. Enjoy this excerpt of Home Computers, courtesy of MIT press, with nostalgia photography by John Short.
From the Enterprise to the Discovery: The Decline and Fall of Utopian Technology and the Liberal Dream
Sci-fi TV such as Star Trek and Doctor Who have more in common with Harry Potter’s wand-waving than Gene Roddenberry’s techno-utopian dream.
‘Memento’ Is the Movie of the Attention Economy
We are afraid of time, and so like Leonard in Memento, we kill it, compulsively and indiscriminately.
Be Kind. Please Rewind: An Ode to the VCR
Like Netflix, the VCR diluted and transformed the film itself.
‘Uncanny Valley’: When the Confidence Boys Took Over Everything
Anna Wiener's Silicon Valley memoir, Uncanny Valley, reveals a piratical industry choking on its own hubris and blind to the cost of its destruction.