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Selected writing by Mark DeLong

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A whiteboard with the heading "Poll" and beneath that heading three names: Smith, Marx, and Wendell Berry. Smith has two stricks (votes), Marx has three, Wendell Berry has one.
Posted inLiving Technology

Wendell Berry on scale and limits

"No doubt there always will be some people willing to do anything at all that is economically or technologically possible..."
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September 17, 2026
An ancient gold coin with a female figure whose arm is extend. She is Venus, goddess of love and beauty. She is holding an apple, given to her (fatefully) by Paris, whose choice brought about the Trojan War. Around the edge of the coin is stamped "VENVS"
Posted inBook Review History Technology

Beauty and “no-thingness”

A meditation on beauty and a book review of Patrick Bringley's All the Beauty in the World. Beauty could save us from AI.
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September 14, 2026
A very old and heavily rusted gear is nearly completely covered by fine sand, It is part of a long abandoned machine.
Posted inHistory Technology

The research paper is dead. Research record and provenance, too?

When it comes to AI, just saying no isn't an option anymore.…
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September 4, 2026
Marc Ribot leans over his guitar in his performance at INNtöne Jazzfestival 2024. His white hair os frizzy and he looks at a fellow musician over his glasses.
Posted inCommentary Poetry Technology

Noise, art, and AI. A musician considers the function of art

Marc Ribot responds to a question on whether AI can create. So,…
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May 18, 2026
Posted inTechnology

Two kinds of beauty. Brief excerpt from The Score

"Object beauty" and "process beauty": brief excerpt from C. Thi Nguyen's The Score
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February 23, 2026
Posted inLiving Poetry Technology

Fiat ars, pereat mundus

Can one use art in times when it feels so useless? Should one do art at all?
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January 30, 2026
The fate of letters
Posted inCommentary History Technology

The fate of letters

There's a difference between paper and bytes. Handwriting power. A prelude: BINGO resolutions!
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January 24, 2025
CES “booth babes” before 1967?
Posted inAutomobiles History Technology

CES “booth babes” before 1967?

It’s CES time. Organizers and attendees have argued about the ladies since 1967, sometimes just about their label. Their marketing services date back much longer.
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January 13, 2025
A closeup of a Laugenbrötchen, which is a dark brown roll, with a croscut on top and covered with coarsely ground salt.
Posted inLiving

Delightful little breads: Laugenbrötchen

A bit like a pretzel, I suppose, but perfect for breakfast and fairly quick to make
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December 9, 2024
Needs a bit more of The Onion, I think…
Posted inCommentary

Needs a bit more of The Onion, I think…

A surprise acquisition. A hilarious court brief. Parody might come in very handy in the coming years.
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November 18, 2024
Four photographs and their “truths”
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.
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October 27, 2024
Things work very, very well in this country
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.
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September 22, 2024
How The American Way traveled by car
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.
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August 13, 2024
Mostly fake people, dead ones
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.
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July 31, 2024
Separated by more than a century, two musicians share a complaint
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.
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July 15, 2024
I got a new “job” and other stories
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.
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July 13, 2024

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You May Have Missed
A small flyer affixed to a downspout in central Moscow reads “Peace to Ukraine Freedom to Russia.”

Novels verboten? Music, maybe okay.

Marc Ribot leans over his guitar in his performance at INNtöne Jazzfestival 2024. His white hair os frizzy and he looks at a fellow musician over his glasses.

Noise, art, and AI. A musician considers the function of art

Jame Mustich sits behind a microphone in a blue Oxford shirt. A water bottle sits in front of him. He has his hands folded as he talks, probably at a conference or a meeting.

Sense and GPT-ability

A distant mirror

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