- The Ship of State: A Conversation with Dave Eggers Good interview by Tom Lutz of Dave Eggars about his new book, The Captain and the Glory: An Entertainment. It’s a satire about Trump, if you believe such a thing is possible. And I’ve pre-ordered a copy. (It’s out on December 5.)
- The impact of direct air carbon capture on climate change A fascinating, honest, thoughtful, essay on whether Carbon Capture might be a feasible (and affordable) way of mitigating climate change by taking CO2 out of the atmosphere.
- Is Elon Musk preparing for the failure of the state? Interesting macro-interpretation of the projects in which he has major investments. Note also that the new Tesla pickup truck is bulletproof.
Daily Archives: November 24, 2019
Tech commentary and gender
This morning’s Observer column:
Reading the observations of these three women brought to the surface a thought that’s been lurking at the back of my mind for years. It is that the most trenchant and perceptive critiques of digital technology – and particularly of the ways in which it has been exploited by tech companies – have come from female commentators. The thought originated ages ago as a vague impression, then morphed into an intuitive correlation and eventually surfaced as a conjecture that could be examined.
So I spent a few hours going through a decade’s-worth of electronic records – reprints, notes and links. What I found is an impressive history of female commentary and a gallery of more than 20 formidable critics…