Commentary on technologies of reading, writing, research, and, generally, knowledge. As these technologies change and develop, what do we lose, what do we gain, what is (fundamentally or trivially) altered? And, not least, what’s fun?
By: Alan Jacobs
July 5, 2016
Three issues into the Ta-Nehisi Coates/Brian Stelfreeze Black Panther and I’m struggling. Coates has a really interesting vision here but his lack of experience in writing comics is showing, I think. Stelfreeze’s art is quite beautiful, but there are a great many panels that are somewhat difficult to read, visually, and...
July 5, 2016
I don’t have any strong opinions about the Brexit decision. In general I’m in favor of functioning with the smallest possible political units; but I’m also aware that to leave the EU would be a huge step with unforeseeable consequences, which is something my conservative disposition also resists. So: no strong opinion about...
July 3, 2016
Apology One: I wrote a post a while back about hating time-travel stories, and almost immediately after I did so I started thinking of exceptions to that rule. I mean, I’ve been praising Adam Roberts’s The Thing Itself to the skies and it’s a time-travel story, though it’s also many other things. I thought of another example, and...
July 2, 2016
Returning to Edward Mendelson’s essay “In the Depths of the Digital Age”: an essay about technology, some might say, as this is a blog about technology. But we’re not talking today about “technology” tout court; we’re talking about digital technologies, and more specifically digital communications technologies, and more...
June 30, 2016
For the last month, almost every night, I have listened to Max Richter’s Sleep. I have some things to say about it: It amounts to more than eight hours of music. It is comprised of 31 sections, ranging in length from 2:46 to 33:46. Only seven of the sections are shorter than ten minutes. The music is made by voices, strings, and...
June 29, 2016
I want to devote several posts, in the coming days, to this essay by Edward Mendelson. I should begin by saying that Edward is a good friend of mine and someone for whom I have the deepest respect — which will not keep me from disagreeing with him sometimes. It’s also important to note that his position in relation to current...
June 28, 2016
If you’re looking for case studies in technological solutionism — well, first of all, you won’t have to look long. But try these two on for size: How Soylent and Oculus Could Fix the Prison System New Cities That second one, which is all about how techies are going to fix cities, is especially great, asking the really Key...
June 27, 2016
One reason the technological history of modernity is a story worth telling: the power of science and technology to provide what the philosopher Mary Midgley calls “myths we live by”. For instance, Midgley writes, Myths are not lies. Nor are they detached stories. They are imaginative patterns, networks of powerful symbols that...
June 26, 2016
A bit of a follow-up to this post, and to brutus’s comment on it (which you should read) as well: My friend Matt Frost commented that Jeff Guo is the “bizarro Alan Jacobs,” which is true in a way. Guo clearly thinks that his problem is that there’s not enough new content and he can’t consume it fast enough, whereas I have...
June 24, 2016
Jeff Guo watches TV shows really fast and thinks he’s pretty darn cool for doing so. I recently described my viewing habits to Mary Sweeney, the editor on the cerebral cult classic “Mulholland Drive.” She laughed in horror. “Everything you just said is just anathema to a film editor,” she said. “If you don’t...