Can you still be human?
September 19, 2025 • #Iain McGilchrist on the threats to our humanity with the coming AI wave.
Topic / technology
95 posts✦
Brain-Computer Interfaces
April 23, 2025 • #We already have BCIs, in our hands.
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Expected and Unexpected
March 6, 2025 • #Kevin Kelly on the unexpected and expected.
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We Live Like Royalty and Don't Know It
February 20, 2025 • #Charles Mann on the unseen, unappreciated wonders of modern infrastructure.
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Technovelgy
December 16, 2024 • #A blog about the future of technology and science.
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November 25, 2024 • #
Western Electric Plant. Cicero, IL.
Western Electric was the captive equipment arm of the Bell System and produced the majority of the telephones and related equipment used in the U.S. for almost 100 years.
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November 18, 2024 • #
Map of the Bell Telephone System , 1909.
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September 16, 2024 • #
My thoughts on the books that constitute Silicon Valley’s “canon” of essential, influential works.
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June 27, 2024 • #
The launch complex at Cape Canaveral.
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May 7, 2024 • #
On Kevin Kelly’s “Technium” and why human innovation is different than the biological variety.
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April 25, 2024 • #
Politico:
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February 8, 2024 • #
A group of researchers just won the Scroll Prize, a project to read the ancient Herculaneum papyri, burned and buried in the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD.
Using AI and computer vision techniques they were able to discern text from the rolled, charred, and brittle papyrus. An unbelievable feat.
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February 7, 2024 • #
Ben Southwood looks at the waning of the big R&D labs:
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Daniel Gross and Nat Friedman on AI
October 6, 2022 • #An Interview With Daniel Gross and Nat Friedman About the Democratization of AI
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Netflix Couldn't Build Netflix
September 22, 2022 • #The things hyperscale companies do now would've stunted their early success.
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The Challenge of High-Capital Startups
August 17, 2022 • #Thoughts on satellite/earth observation startups, high-capital requirements, and the search for product-market fit.
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Exapting Technologies
September 9, 2021 • #Embracing, reusing, and remixing existing technologies to build new ones.
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Taking Back Our User Accounts
July 28, 2021 • #Ethereum's decentralization of identity management for applications.
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Weekend Reading: Bubbles, the Magic of Hobbies, and Legitimacy
June 18, 2021 • #Byrne Hobart on the positive side of bubbles, PG on kids and hobbies, and Vitalik Buterin's analysis of how systems develop legitimacy.
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M1 Mac Mini
June 15, 2021 • #Experiences with the M1.
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Stripe's Content Strategy
November 17, 2020 • #Looking at Stripe Press and how it spins Stripe's business flywheels.
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2020 Bundles
October 2, 2020 • #Ben Thompson's updated state of bundling across the big tech players.
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The Rise and Fall of the R&D Lab
August 31, 2020 • #Ben Southwood on what happened with the corporate research centers of the mid-20th century.
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Weekend Reading: Disintermediating Media, Boring Tech, and DIY Lights
July 25, 2020 • #Substack and disintermediating media, choosing boring tech, and building DIY LED lights.
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The Torch of Progress with Tyler Cowen
June 11, 2020 • #Video interview with Tyler Cowen on human progress.
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Roots of Progress on Agriculture
March 31, 2020 • #Roots of Progress digs into the history of agriculture, with an open process.
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The UNIX System
March 5, 2020 • #Brian Kernighan, Dennis Ritchie, and Ken Thompson from Bell Labs on UNIX.
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The Rise and Fall of Minicomputers
March 4, 2020 • #✦
Readwise and Instapaper
February 27, 2020 • #Using Readwise's Instapaper integration for highlights on the web.
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Ben Thompson's Daily Update Podcast
February 26, 2020 • #Ben Thompson launches a podcast version of his Daily Update feed.
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Enter Ethernet
February 25, 2020 • #Bob Metcalfe's original schematic drawing of the ethernet spec.
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10th Anniversary of the iPad: Perspective from the Windows Team
February 18, 2020 • #A look back at the iPad release from Steven Sinofsky.
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The Deal of the Century
February 14, 2020 • #A history of the deal that moved Apple to the IBM PowerPC platform.
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Kindle Features and Areas for Improvement
February 12, 2020 • #Thoughts on the Kindle devices, ecosystem, and user experience, with a number of proposed improvements.
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A Retrospective on the History of Work
February 11, 2020 • #A look at office life from the 1950s to 2000s.
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Laws of Tech: Commoditize Your Complements
February 10, 2020 • #Gwern's analysis of Spolsky's 'commoditizing your complements' essay.
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Google Maps at 15
February 6, 2020 • #A history of Google Maps' development on its 15th birthday.
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The Tech History Playlist
February 5, 2020 • #Creating a list of videos on tech history.
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Tech in 2020: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
February 3, 2020 • #✦
Man-Computer Symbiosis
January 24, 2020 • #JCR Licklider's 1960 paper.
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Weekend Reading: Internet of Beefs, Company Culture, and Secular Cycles
January 18, 2020 • #Venkatesh Rao's theory of internet beef, the impacts of company culture, and Turchin's Secular Cycles.
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Some Reflections on Early History by J.C.R. Licklider
January 17, 2020 • #JCR Licklider talk from the ACM conference, 1986.
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How to Lose a Monopoly
January 16, 2020 • #Benedict Evans on the differences between influence, dominance, and monopoly.
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Starlink is a Very Big Deal
January 12, 2020 • #A deep dive on SpaceX's internet platform project and why it matters.
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Hong Kong Is Fast Becoming an Also Ran
January 6, 2020 • #On Hong Kong's recent economic stagnation.
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Dan Wang's 2019 Letter
January 5, 2020 • #Dan Wang's letter on China, the trade war, the state of tech, industry, and more.
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Protocols, Not Platforms
December 20, 2019 • #The advantages of protocols as a path to greater freedom and innovation.
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Hard Problems in Cryptocurrency: Five Years Later
December 13, 2019 • #✦
AWS re:Invent 2019
December 9, 2019 • #A few of the most interesting announcements from this year's re:Invent conference.
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How Big is Twitter Moments?
November 25, 2019 • #Is Twitter Moments still a large competitor for news attention?
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Venkatesh Rao on Waldenponding
November 4, 2019 • #✦
Weekend Reading: Strasburg Tipping, RapiD, and TikTok Investigation
November 2, 2019 • #Stephen Strasburg tipping pitches, mapping with AI, and ByteDance under CFIUS investigation.
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iPad Pro 11" Impressions
October 20, 2019 • #First impressions after switching to the 11" iPad Pro from the 12.9".
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Why New Technology is Such a Hard Sell
October 16, 2019 • #✦
The History of Steel
October 10, 2019 • #A presentation on the history of steel-making, from the SF progress studies meetup.
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Dictating Notes with Siri
October 9, 2019 • #Using Siri Shortcuts, dictation, and Zapier for keeping a notes scratchpad.
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The All Things Tech History List
October 8, 2019 • #A great list of books, podcasts, movies, and more on the history of tech and Silicon Valley.
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Age of Invention
October 6, 2019 • #A newsletter on innovation and the history of technological progress.
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Instant Stone
September 26, 2019 • #Roots of Progress on the history of cement and concrete.
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Green Tech Bringing Life Back to the Sea
September 22, 2019 • #An Israeli startup building a new kind of marine-safe concrete.
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Netlify for Content Management and Hosting
September 10, 2019 • #Using Netlify for hosting and content management.
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AirPods with Apple TV
September 9, 2019 • #✦
Adobe Wall Hut
September 8, 2019 • #Checking in with Primitive Technology, this time he builds an adobe brick wall.
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1Password X
September 6, 2019 • #Switching to the 1Password X browser extension.
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Suncoast Developers Guild
August 30, 2019 • #Joining the advisory board of the Suncoast Developers Guild.
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Steve Jobs in 1981
August 23, 2019 • #Steve Jobs on Nightline in 1981.
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On the Tumblr Sale
August 19, 2019 • #Thoughts on Verizon's sale of Tumblr to Automattic.
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The Dark Forest Theory of the Internet
August 9, 2019 • #We're retreating to our dark forests of the internet, and away from the mainstream.
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Garmin fenix 5
July 23, 2019 • #A review of the Garmin fēnix 5 after two years of heavy use.
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Why Did We Wait So Long for the Bicycle?
July 22, 2019 • #Digging into the origins of the invention of bicycles.
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Neuralink
July 17, 2019 • #Neuralink's launch event for their brain-computer interface device.
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Entrepreneurs, Then and Now
July 7, 2019 • #Conversation with a16z's founder.s
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The Bing of Maps
June 19, 2019 • #“Om Malik compares Apple’s position against Google in maps to Bing in search.”
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Reaching the Early Majority
June 18, 2019 • #An overview of Geoffrey Moore's tech industry standard, Crossing the Chasm.
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Weekend Reading: Tissot's Indicatrix, National Park Fonts, and Starlink
June 8, 2019 • #Visualizing map projection distortion interactively, a National Park Service typeface, and SpaceX's move for space-based connectivity.
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Primitive Technology
June 6, 2019 • #Building Stone Age tools and structures with Primitive Technology.
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A Spreadsheet Way of Knowledge
May 20, 2019 • #A history of the spreadsheet by Steven Levy, from 30 years ago.
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Twitter Lists
May 7, 2019 • #Using TweetDeck to segment Twitter using lists.
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Foxelli Headlamp
May 5, 2019 • #Bought a headlamp for running at night.
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New Things In New Ways, or Same Old Things In Old Ways?
May 2, 2019 • #A framework for thinking about product development, what's being built, and how it's built.
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Clippy: The Unauthorized Biography
April 28, 2019 • #Steven Sinofsky gives the history of Clippy, Microsoft's original assistant
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Weekend Reading: Gene Wolfe, Zoom, and Inside Spatial Networks
April 27, 2019 • #A tribute to Gene Wolfe, Zoom's Eric Yuan, and a Q+A with Tony on SNI.
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Disney and the Future of TV
April 26, 2019 • #Ben Thompson on the Disney+ service and how it fits into the TV marketplace.
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Weekend Reading: Remote Work, Autonomous Behaviors, and AirPods 2
March 23, 2019 • #Naval Ravikant on remote working, Studio D on side effects of autonomous vehicles, and Apple launching new AirPods.
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A Resurgence of Email
February 27, 2019 • #Email has seen a comeback as a tool for staying more closely connected with audiences.
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Weekend Reading: Private DNS, Opportunity, and Millennial Socialism
February 23, 2019 • #Cloudflare's private DNS system, the Mars rover Opportunity is no more, and the rise of millennial socialism.
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A New Approach to Understanding How Machines Think
January 22, 2019 • #An interview with Been Kim on developing deep learning 'translators' for humans.
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The End of the Beginning
November 25, 2018 • #Benedict Evans's latest talk from the a16z Summit on the state of tech.
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A Week with the iPad
October 11, 2018 • #Notes on 7 days of working on the iPad as a replacement for the Mac.
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High Security, High Usability
October 4, 2018 • #Maintaining high security of your accounts gets easier with modern tools.
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A Product Origin Story
September 11, 2018 • #We started building Fulcrum in 2011. 7 years in I look back at how we started and what's changed.
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Weekly Links: Ambient Computers, Drones, and Focus
June 1, 2017 • #✦
Kindle
April 4, 2017 • #✦
Voice and the uncanny valley of AI
March 14, 2017 • #Benedict Evans on voice as the next big computing platform
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Melton + Ray on Safari, standards, and ad blocking
September 12, 2015 • #The latest episode of Debug had a great discussion with Don Melton and Jim Ray on Safari's development, web standards, and the state of web advertising.
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