Staring into the mysterious depths of a sacred water-filled cup. Lighting a match in front of a mirror round' midnight. Pondering an orb at the top of a sweet-looking tower. These atmospheric activities all involve objects that humans have, at some point, believed could be used by certain magically-talented
There is something creepy about mirrors, an otherworldly and fascinating quality that writers and thinkers have returned to repeatedly throughout the ages. When I was about four, my grandmother, a scientifically-minded type, took me into their master bathroom and directed my attention to the mirrors on the closet, which reflected
Humanity has long dreamed of being able to see everything around us. From the perspective of a bird. From the perspective of a god. From the perspective of a vast network of god-like eyes. Today, we have constructed tools, like drones and satellites and airplanes, that allow us to do
Back in the 1990s and early 2000s, back when I was a mere dweeby child, there existed a tween-driven online social movement against the cruel practice of abusing pets. This movement was not about the abuse of living, flesh and blood pets (although I'm sure its proponents weren&
Whenever drones pop up in the news, whenever they buzz unnervingly again into popular perception, people ask me what I think about these latest developments on social media. Most of the time, and regardless of the precipitating drone-related event in the news, they're about the same questions, revolving
In modern times, we have democratized the formerly inhuman god's eye view. We have extended to everyone the steely gaze of a god peering down upon the activities of mortals from a celestial perch, or the exalted viewpoint of an emperor regarding his holdings from the vertical fastness
In the early morning hours of July 4th, as the Guadalupe River reached catastrophic heights, city officials in Kerr County, Texas turned to an all-too familiar mechanism for getting the word out to area residents: Facebook. While the National Weather Service had been issuing warnings across multiple platforms about the
We have a body. We have a soul. It is possible to separate the two. Usually, this happens when we die. But not always. Sometimes, the soul, and the ability to perceive that accompanies it, separates from our bodies for other, stranger reasons. Throughout history and across cultures, humans have,
Data is real, and it can hurt you. Conversely, data cannot hurt you if you do not pluck it from the ether and rudely force it into existence in the first place. Let's talk, briefly, about data minimization. Data minimization is a term that describes what is, on
Ukraine took out a bunch of Russian nuclear-capable strategic bomber aircraft last weekend, and they did it with small, cheap drones. As well as with over a year of intricate and incredibly stealthy planning, which is, if you ask me, the really important part. Keeping in mind that information on
To build new technology, we must imagine it first. Every technological marvel that humanity has ever come up with came into being by this process of imagination, of both individual and collective musing about things we’d like to do, and the tools we might be able to build to
When the pandemic began, back in those flopsweat days of March 2020, I came to a horrible realization. Due to necessary quarantines, lockdowns, travel restrictions, and general social disruption, the human race was going to be forced into a state of collective and sudden Onlineness totally unprecedented in history. Billions