Posted inHistory Technology
Four photographs and their “truths”
Photos from the nineteenth century and from 2023 helped my fall seminar students explore truth, the fake, and fiction.
Posted inCommentary Technology
Things work very, very well in this country
New "personal technology" products are developing a special kind of "ownership" that didn't exist a generation ago.
Posted inAutomobiles History Technology
How The American Way traveled by car
Photography from the 1930s shows the interplay of cars, hopes for the future, and The American Way of life.
Posted inCommentary Living Technology
Mostly fake people, dead ones
Even the separation of life and death can be bridged with simulations—a kind of undying deep fake of real humans that aligns with fake influencers.
Posted inHistory Technology
Separated by more than a century, two musicians share a complaint
Rick Beato and John Philip Sousa agree on a "menace" to music and to human creativity even though they never met.
Posted inCommentary
I got a new “job” and other stories
I'm a new contributor to "3QD." Assessing the post-pace of 'Stackers. Procrastination, or not. A gathering of writerly news and thought.
Posted inCommentary Technology
Apple left its fingers in the press
Some thoughts on thin tablets, a reprise of villainous things, and the weirdly hazy boundaries between things and us.
Posted inCommentary Technology
Almost like a person?
ChatGPT-4o offers a friendly, flirty voice. It's a new dimension to AI, and a very powerful one. It's a call to examine fundamentals in lots of professions.
Posted inLiving
Incidental tourism
Travel's satisfaction emerges between monuments and tourist sites. A first entry recounting episodes and exploits. This one includes Kelpies and boobs.
Posted inCommentary History Technology
The villainy of things
Some 99-year-old tools might scare you. Fantastical creatures I ran into while reading for a chapter I'm writing. And children working with tools.