Category Archives: Technology

Nothing Is Evenly Distributed, Ever

Posted on Monday 27 July 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

The great science fiction writer William Gibson famously said: “The future is already here – it’s just not evenly distributed.” Thought for today: The same could be said of the Enlightenment, and the Scientific Revolution. Not only do many people … Continue reading →

Posted in Human Nature, Technology | Comments Off on Nothing Is Evenly Distributed, Ever

Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson: ABUNDANCE

Posted on Tuesday 21 July 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

(Avid Reader Press, March 2025, 288pp, including 66pp of acknowledgements, notes, and index.) This book takes the optimistic stance that we are capable of building what we need, and that we can solve many of the problems we perceive today. … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Politics, Technology | Comments Off on Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson: ABUNDANCE

The End of Reading?

Posted on Wednesday 8 July 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

The decline of reading, and all that that means; And how MAGA folk don’t understand why the rest of us aren’t pretending anymore. It’s about conscience. – – – Things that generations take for granted can change and be gone. … Continue reading →

Posted in conservatives, Politics, Technology | Comments Off on The End of Reading?

Looking Up and Looking Down

Posted on Wednesday 10 June 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Looking Up: Fareed Zakaria on human intelligence and artificial intelligence; Kevin Kelly thinks his 1994 book Out of Control is still mostly right; perhaps technology reached a kind of plateau 30 years ago; Ranked voting works, and people like it; … Continue reading →

Posted in Religion, Technology | Comments Off on Looking Up and Looking Down

Sunday’s Post

Posted on Monday 25 May 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

How smartphones are implicated in the decline of fertility; How the latest Star Wars film waters down its franchise, as happens with much popular culture; Crime in LA in the lowest in decades, but voters are still very concerned about … Continue reading →

Posted in conservatives, Decline, Politics, Technology | Comments Off on Sunday’s Post

Yuval Noah Harari: NEXUS

Posted on Friday 3 April 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI (Random House, Sept. 2024, xxxii + 492pp, including 88pp of acknowledgements, notes, and index; but no bibliography) This is Harari’s fourth big book, following SAPIENS, HOMO DEUS, … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, History, Human Nature, Technology | Comments Off on Yuval Noah Harari: NEXUS

David Brin, THE TRANSPARENT SOCIETY

Posted on Saturday 28 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between Privacy and Freedom? (Addison Wesley, April 1998, 378pp, including 42pp of notes, follow-up, acknowledgements, index, and about the author.) Here is a book that has sat my shelves for over a quarter … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Human Nature, Human Progress, Technology | Comments Off on David Brin, THE TRANSPARENT SOCIETY

Retreat and Hypocrisy

Posted on Monday 8 December 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Why does Trump promote AI, while cutting funding for science and medicine? Why does Trump pardon drug traffickers, while shooting boats in the Caribbean that are supposedly, without evidence, trafficking drugs? Paul Krugman on the end of the free world; … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Science, Technology | Comments Off on Retreat and Hypocrisy

Slop

Posted on Tuesday 21 October 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Essays about AI slop, and how this endangers objective truth; Trump is tearing down the East Wing of the White House, after he said he wouldn’t; Responses to Trump’s poop video; Paul Krugman on Trump’s loss of touch with reality; … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Politics, Religion, Technology | Comments Off on Slop

AI Is Telling People What They Want to Hear?

Posted on Saturday 16 August 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Tom Tomorrow on “defunding the police”; The unreliability of AI, with an example of John Scalzi; An essay about how the future will be mundane; Several links on Trump’s meeting with Putin in Alaska; Slate’s handy summary of people in … Continue reading →

Posted in authoritarianism, Politics, Technology | Comments Off on AI Is Telling People What They Want to Hear?