Democracy and technology
February 10, 2018
This past February, the University of California Irvine's Forum for the Academy and the Public hosted a symposium called, "Who Do We Think We Are? American Identity and the Ideal of Democracy in the 21st Century." I was invited to speak on a panel on "Democracy and Technology", and it's now online and linked above. I took the opportunity to talk about infrastructure and other systems, building on what I wrote in this piece for the Atlantic in 2017.
#democracy #technology #culture #techcultureMalice and neglect
July 12, 2017
Andrew Sempere
My friend Natalie Kane quoted me on stage last year: "Any sufficiently advanced neglect [or negligence] is indistinguishable from malice." I'm regularly saddened by how apropos this quote is. Photo by Andrew Sempere.
#culture #technology #ArthurCClarke #quoteThe systems that underpin the modern world
May 18, 2017
I was invited by The Atlantic to contribute a piece to their series, "Can Technology Rescue Democracy?" I decided to write about infrastructure and our large-scale systems, like the Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Aviation Authority, GPS, and more.
When we think about caring for our neighbors, we think about local churches, and charities—systems embedded in our communities. But I see these technological systems as one of the main ways that we take care of each other at scale. It’s how Americans care for all three hundred million of our neighbors, rich or poor, spread over four million square miles, embedded in global supply chains.
Gratitude for Invisible Systems
#technology #culture #writing #infrastructure #systemsWhy were 17th-century pies so bizarrely shaped?
May 6, 2015
My friend Tom Nealon, bookseller and food and cookbook historian, came to me with an intriguing question: could I think of any reason why mid-17th century pies were so oddly shaped? I asked him a number of questions and gave it some thought, but a possible answer hit me while I was loading paper into a photocopier, and it reminded me of something visible on my daily commute through Boston.
[Stuffed (7): An Investigation Into Pie Shapes]
#food #culture #engineering #piesOn 'making' and caregiving
January 23, 2015
I wrote about how we overvalue making and undervalue caregiving for my newsletter, and The Atlantic asked permission to publish a version at their site. I'm really delighted at how strongly this piece has resonated with people all over the world.
#culture #technology #writingTags