Predictive AI is everywhere, and it doesn't work
A common type of AI is quietly influencing millions of lives every day, and not for the better. This is predictive AI, the software automating decision-...
A time to listen to customers
You have to wonder who approved the "anesthesia timer." As Futurism writes (Dec 5, 2024): One of the country’s largest health insurance companies, Anthem...
Why we're thankful for tech
This is a week to be thankful, and I’d like to share a few reasons for hope. I asked Techtonic listeners what tech they’re thankful for, and they said: Sony...
Musk's space junk is a threat to us all
Pieces of space junk are falling to earth on a regular basis. On Techtonic this week I spoke with astronomer Samantha Lawler, who has been raising the alarm...
A gleam of hope: meet the Luddite Club
I don’t need to tell you why this moment is so challenging. But permit me just one example: The tech billionaire who, it was recently revealed, is in...
A happy day for Big Tech
The results are in, and the winners are not primarily the various Republican candidates – president, senators, and others – who won their respective tickets....
Chris Brown's new book: walking through dystopia
I welcomed Christopher Brown onto Techtonic this week to discuss, among other things, the house he built in the edgelands of Austin, Texas. The custom-...
Drones, Starlink, and the Ukraine war
The war in Ukraine deserves more attention. I say this knowing that other conflicts also merit coverage – the Middle East and Sudan foremost among them – but...
Ditch the spy glasses and shun the Zuckholes
About a year ago I spoke with Kashmir Hill on Techtonic about her book Your Face Belongs to Us, which tells the history of facial recognition. The latest...
Examining Bill Gates
On the new Techtonic I interviewed journalist and author Tim Schwab about his book The Bill Gates Problem: Reckoning with the Myth of the Good Billionaire,...
Full of slop until the bubble pops
There are growing warnings about the imminent end of the AI bubble. Brian Merchant (who I've written about) posted about "the beginning of the end of the...
A dystopian novel praising human connection
I don’t think I’ve ever read a novel that finished with an End Notes section, followed by Other Works Read. And yet that’s what Helen Phillips does at the...
Surveillance never sits still
To mark the seventh anniversary of my WFMU show Techtonic, I built this week’s episode around a simple reminder: Even more devices are spying on you. I say...
Our human legacy is... Facebook?
“Never before have so few had so much control over so much information about the past, and with it, the power to shape the present.” So says Carl Öhman in...