This week, the Palin family tried Uber for the first time.
- Old Print Article: Norbert Wiener had a worried vision of an automated America (1950) + The Children of Light awaited a doomsday that never arrived (1951).
- Featured Videos: The Woodlands was on the bleeding edge of Smart Homes (1974) + Francesco Scavullo photographs Gia Carangi (1978) + Carangi discusses her ambition to become a cinematographer four years before her death (1982) + A demonstration of the Kurzweil Reading Machine (1977).
- Recently Posted on NYC’s Craigslist: People won’t give me free drugs even though I’ve mad it clear that what I want is free drugs + It can’t hurt to ask + It’s possible there’s no law against this yet.
- NYT Baghdad Bureau Chief Tim Arango did an Ask Me Anything.
- Michael Ignatieff outlines his fears about ISIS.
- Peter Thiel thinks Uber is America’s most ethically challenged company.
- Thiel also believes that capitalism and competition are opposites.
- Perhaps the first permanent space colony should be on the Moon.
- Facebook seeks to automate the management of human relationships.
- We often act awfully when we’re anonymous online.
- Fear of scarcity drives dystopias. Perhaps fear of no scarcity does as well.
- American culture has regressed to adolescence. Maybe that’s a good thing.
- Even the NFL knows brain damage is endemic to its game.
- Nick Bostrom points out that AI needn’t be human-like.
- Bostrom also believes it will be difficult to opt out of genetic engineering.
- Homo Sapiens were better than Neanderthals at narrative.
- California’s drought has turned L.A. swimming pools into threats.
- Mont Blanc, dangerous as it is, is overrun with climbers.
- Bill Gates wants to change history education in America.
- Smart, connected cars is something we could achieve right now.
- Tesla believes it can achieve fully autonomous cars in 5 or 6 years.
- G.M. is aiming for 2017 to offer semi-autonomous vehicles.
- You can’t be a slave owner and also be a good person. Obvious, right?
- The “Crying Indian” from the famous PSA was actually Italian-American.
- Air Conditioning was initially rejected in America on moral grounds.
- Micro-organisms probably won’t be cleaning our homes by 2029.
- RadioShack is still somehow clinging to life–for now.
- David Lynch is painterly though he never studied paintings.
- Some Google employees save money by living in their cars on campus.
- Tesla Motors already has amazing brand loyalty. Why?
- We should aim to make all municipal buses electric.
- Data Centers demand huge amounts of energy.
- Peter Diamandis thinks longevity may soon be radically extended.
- Werner Herzog discusses the “fever dream” of his youth.
- Predictive traffic lights are becoming a reality.
- In 1916, new women’s swimsuits led to arrest.
- The newest Margaret Atwood story won’t be read for 100 years.
- A brief note from 1911 about higher education.
- A brief note from 1911 about a fashion critic.
- A brief note from 1910 about sweethearts.
- This week’s Afflictor keyphrase searches.