Encountering the Genius of Alan Turing
It is a rare experience to meet an authentic genius. Those of us privileged to inhabit the world of scholarship are familiar with the intellectual… Read More »Encountering the Genius of Alan Turing
Shooting Stars
Dedicated (with apologies) to email subscribers who received a three word “Constellation” a few hours ago… …the Seriph, in his bijou wildernessette, has just riffled… Read More »Shooting Stars
Our World in Data is Great and Getting Better; or, How I Destroyed Several Billion Medieval Manuscripts
Revisionist History Thursday, 20:02 hrs I report an error on an OWID graph in their preliminary collection of information about books. Some of the numbers… Read More »Our World in Data is Great and Getting Better; or, How I Destroyed Several Billion Medieval Manuscripts
Technological Solutions
“This problem can’t be solved with technology.” In one sense, there are lots of problems that aren’t amenable to technological solutions – particularly problems caused… Read More »Technological Solutions
Writing and Reading as Technology (6): Stop Press. Who invented moveable type?
Not Gutenberg Gutenberg put several important pieces together in a new way in 1439(ish) when he built what most of us probably think of as… Read More »Writing and Reading as Technology (6): Stop Press. Who invented moveable type?
Sam Altman on Public Sector AI, ownership and incentives
Ezra Klein: How should I feel about the idea these [artificial intelligences] will be privately owned, if they’re going to be this powerful? Sam Altman:… Read More »Sam Altman on Public Sector AI, ownership and incentives
Technology (16): Clustering Technologies, Clustering People (v2)
Sorry to email subscribers receiving this twice due to a scheduling error. The extra bit at the bottom is interesting! The previous post in this… Read More »Technology (16): Clustering Technologies, Clustering People (v2)
Aeroplane; or, Business and Pleasure
I like pleasure spiked with painAnd music is my aeroplaneIt’s my aeroplaneSongbird sweet and sour JaneAnd music is my aeroplaneIt’s my aeroplane Red Hot Chili… Read More »Aeroplane; or, Business and Pleasure
Technology (15): Jerry Neumann on technological systems and constellations of innovations
This extract comes from a much longer piece on Jerry Neumann’s blog, Reaction Wheel. Highly recommended. A Technological System is a set of technologies that… Read More »Technology (15): Jerry Neumann on technological systems and constellations of innovations
Writing and Reading as Technology (5): Literacy as Infrastructure for Thought
The development of spoken language was humankind’s first great networking technology.* Speech allows us to communicate thought and to think far better than we could… Read More »Writing and Reading as Technology (5): Literacy as Infrastructure for Thought