This week, Gold medal swimmer Ryan Lochte saw his public image take a slight turn for the worse.

• Michael Wolff found two Americans more unlikable than him-–Trump and Clinton.

• Trump, Georges Steinbrenner and George Wallace, reboots his campaign.

• Carey Purcell recalls the misfortune of having worked at Trump magazine.

• Even if we avoid Trump, manufacturing jobs won’t thrive again in America.

• The Hollywood Reporter has an offensive take on the Nate Parker case.

• As Jeffrey Toobin releases American Heiress, a few pieces about Patty Hearst.

• Amusingly, Bill Walton was a person of interest in the Hearst case.

• The FT profiles Larry Harvey, founder of Burning Man, that mixed blessing.

• In Vice, Eve Herold presents the opening of her book Beyond Human.

• Gerd Leonhard worries that “technology will soon impact our own biology.”

• Robin Chase says driverless necessitates a radical reworking of capitalism.

• A pair of updates on progress in the race to driverless vehicles.

• Seattle millennials fear the future. Imagine how Syria millennials feel.

• Anatole Konstantin, who escaped Stalin’s Soviet Union, conducted an AMA.

• A.O. Scott analyzes Werner Herzog’s exploration of the Digital Revolution.

• Some feared blogs would kill off newspapers. In retrospect, that was hopeful.

• Old Print Article: Bruno Hauptmann’s executioner grows nervous. (1936)

• Old Print Article: William Eddy’s scientific kite flying. (1900)

• A brief note from 1903 about an astronomer who had a metal nose.

• This week’s Afflictor keyphrase searches: King Tut, Aga Khan, AI, etc.

10 search-engine keyphrases bringing traffic to Afflictor this week:

1. demis hassabis future of ai
2. technological, coputerized nightmare
3. king tut tomb howard carter
4. replicating einstein’s genome
5. rich chinese kids in vancouver
6. the future of capitalism
7. nena von schlebrugge married to timothy leary
8. john hulbert executioner
9. stories about the aga khan
10. what was the first wearable computer?

This week, the combination of sweltering heat and piles of trash caused giant flying cockroaches to be spotted in NYC.

• Donald Trump, Bernie Goetz as a business mogul, is floundering.

• Apollo astronaut Al Worden speaks well of Trump and Wernher von Braun.

• In this odd election year, Jim Rutenberg questions usual journalistic standards.

• Paywalls have not proved a panacea for ailing newspaper companies.

• Our technological future is arriving soon. How much can we shape it?

• Sarah Ellison takes the temperature at Fox News after the Ailes ouster.

• Tyler Cowen explores the “contagion of mood” upsetting global politics.

• Universal Basic Income could be used to devastate the poor.

• Steve Hsu writes of the impact genetic engineering will have on sports.

• DNA may de-extinct woolly mammoths and preserve old films.

• The Economist thinks about the pros and cons of the end of aging.

• With Electric Vehicles, Elon Musk could win and lose simultaneously.

• The Hyperloop One team conducted an AMA about the new transportation.

• Commentary on H.G. Wells’ futurism by John Higgs and Jaron Lanier.

• An aspect of Space Race 2.0 is a competition to establish a moon habitat.

• Old Print Article: “Sun scientists” predicted the end of scarcity. (1955)

• A brief note from 1898 about a one-armed man walking ’round the world.

• A brief note from 1904 about alligator hunters in Venezuela.

• This week’s Afflictor keyphrase searches: Indira Gandhi, Erkki Kurenniemi, etc.

10 search-engine keyphrases bringing traffic to Afflictor this week:

1. fthe future is not what it used to be erkki kurenniemi
2. hetty green millionaire miser
3. harpo marx interviewed on tv
4. marcel marceau interview
5. 1972 interview with indira gandhi
6. laws (lethal autonomous weapons systems
7. uber drivers can’t afford to be ft employees
8. robots terraforming the moon
9. alfred hitchcock death
10. british scientist w.d. verschoyle

10 search-engine keyphrases bringing traffic to Afflictor this week:

1. james jameson cannibal affair
2. article from 1960s about driverless cars
3. marlon brando taught weird acting class
4. dorothy stratten on the tonight show prior to her murder
5. children of light commune
6. max factor jr. 1939
7. mary todd lincoln adjudged insane
8. jay j armes detective
9. jackie collins writer sexual revolution
10. mollie fancher the “fasting girl”

This week, Donald Trump answered Khizr Khan’s charges that the GOP nominee hadn’t made any sacrifices for America, saying he’s repeatedly seen action in bunkers.

• It takes a village to enable a Fascist, and Julian Assange joined Team Trump.

• For any Kremlin interference, Donald Trump’s odious rise was made in America.

• Electing Trump, Mussolini with moobs, would seriously alter the U.S. character.

• The “prosperity gospel” movement had a moment at the RNC.

• Ray Kurzweil thinks better tools are making the world seem worse than it is.

• Calum Chace conducted an AMA about The Economic Singularity.

• China’s is reportedly making progress in robotizing its factories.

• The Economist explains why Cleveland, Silicon Valley 1.0, foundered.

• Paddy Chayefsky thought our best-case future was globalized technocracy.

• For better or worse, the Maasai tribe is connected to the Internet.

• Marshall McLuhan did NOT want to live in a Global Village.

• Pokémon Go is explained to Werner Herzog. Couldn’t have gone better.

• Understanding consciousness has proved elusive to humans and AI alike.

• Brain chips may soon make us smarter but perhaps not morally superior.

• Smartphones are essentially slot machines in our pockets.

• Rob Rhinehart, Soylent beverage creator, is living off the grid in L.A.

• The VCR, which helped the masses become programmers, is no more.

• Miss Cleo, the Ron Popeil of psychic powers, just died

• Old Print Article: Charles R. Knight brings prehistoric creatures to life. (1927)

• A brief note from 1856 about camels delivering mail in America.

• This week’s Afflictor keyphrase searches: Electronic baseball umps, Jerry Stahl.

10 search-engine keyphrases bringing traffic to Afflictor this week:

1. edwin frank new york review books imprint
2. electronic baseball umpires 1950
3. obituary of philip kives of k tel
4. jodorowsky film based on rené daumal
5. edward o. thorp first wearable computer
6. jerry stahl thoughts on literature
7. luciano floridi ai existential threat
8. facebook news department
9. recent news about john mcafee
10. ben howe on tea party republicans

This week, those Americans who enabled Donald Trump descended upon Cleveland for the GOP Convention.

• The GOP convention was political torture porn. Ezra Klein was frightened by the horror.

• Carl Bernstein blames Matt Drudge for Donald Trump. Jeffrey Goldberg faults GOP pols. I disagree with both contentions.

• Gen. Mike Flynn supports Trump, as do Chachi and the underwear model.

• It’s possible Peter Thiel is supporting Trump to troll democracy itself.

• Does it matter that we might be living in a simulation? Well, sure.

• Is there a difference between human and computer art?

• Immortalist Aubrey de Grey conducted a Reddit AMA.

• A disconnect exists between age-defying medicine and its distribution.

• Steven Wolfram argues for the lone genius over the collective mind.

• An ignored piece of Elon MUsk’s vision has world-changing implications.

• John Markoff says Silicon Valley is swarming around A.I. investment.

• A space economy might differ from Earth’s, or perhaps not.

• If you don’t count money, J. Paul Getty wasn’t a very rich man.

• Gay Talese’s dodgy new book about a Colorado voyeur has arrived.

• Old Print Article: Blindfolded autoist drives cross-country. (1928)

• A brief note from 1902 about a medicine man who was sacrificed.

• A brief note from 1925 about a plastic surgeon who “created” a spouse.

• This week’s Afflictor keyphrase searches: Al Goldstein, Margaret Atwood, etc.

10 search-engine keyphrases bringing traffic to Afflictor this week:

1. anders sandberg futurist
2. hugh hefner young
3. al goldstein technology newsletter
4. 1896 olympics
5. philip k dick how to build a universe that doesn’t fall apart
6. mike tyson with jake lamotta
7. robert mitchum jail
8. howard hughes fingernails
9. chicken george from roots
10. what is margaret atwood most afraid of?

Despite having a dissolute manwhore atop the ticket, the GOP has faith ultraconservative Mike Pence can help realize its vision for America.

• Donald Trump is like an audiobook of “The Turner Diaries” narrated by Andrew Dice Clay.

• Jesse Ventura is weary of stupid Americans, but who else is buying his conspiracy horseshit?

• Exile Mikhail Khodorkovsky is planning for a post-Putin Russia.

• Werner Herzog talks technology and other things that can help or ruin us.

• Michael Graziano works through the steps required to upload consciousness.

• Nick Bostrom is very concerns about superintelligence. Not everyone agrees.

• Despite what some futurists think, “indefinite lifespans” are not likely close.

• Zoltan Istvan talks immortality, biohacking and anti-doughnut laws.

• The Economist imagines how autonomous cars may remake the world.

• Futurism is fascinating, but we should still invest in the present.

• Nick Bilton believes Pokémon Go a symptom of technological stagnation.

• It may soon be possible for hackers to turn cars into hostage situations.

• LA Weekly looks inside the troubled news company they now call “tronc.”

• It’s not surprising that eSports are plagued by doping and match fixing.

• Old Print Article: Dejected Sergei Eisenstein leaves Hollywood. (1932)

• Old Print Article: Blindfold Chess is dangerous. (1906)

• A note from 1900 about a flexible salesman.

• This week’s Afflictor keyphrase searches: F.T. Marinetti, nanobots, etc.

10 search-engine keyphrases bringing traffic to Afflictor this week:

1. f.t. mainetti and the futurists
2. harold robbins hated philip roth
3. what is a nanobot?
4. ta-nehisi coates playboy interview
5. claus von bulow with barbara walters
6. harry reems obituary
7. mazie gordon of the bowery
8. faith healer francis schlatter
9. johnny carson ayn rand
10. rudolph valentino funeral

This week, Gretchen Carlson filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against loathsome Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, but even if he’s fired, there’s a job for him at Home & Garden TV.

If you want to work in this industry, baby, you’re going to have to be nice to me.

I’ll show you my penis now.

• Donald Trump has long had a fascination with suspect Russian businesspeople.

• Gloria Steinem is profiled, as Hillary Clinton aims for the White House.

• My Fellow Americans: Happy 4th Of July!

• Foreign Affairs looks at what’s right and wrong with the U.S economy.

• Douglas Rushkoff comments on the factious “digital media environment.”

• Democracy is great, but we shouldn’t vote on everything.

• Dallas police used a “robot bomb,” an unprecedented tactic domestically.

• David Remnick responded to the Gay Talese controversy.

• Jonah Lehrer is publishing again, which is probably a bad idea.

• Farhad Manjoo explores futurism in a post-Toffler world.

• Living world on other planets may be completely alien.

• Some countries have too much food, so now there’s VR dining.

• A brief note from 1903 about Parisian dog barbers.

• This week’s Afflictor keyphrase searches.

10 search-engine keyphrases bringing traffic to Afflictor this week:

1. cheap brain emulations
2. form of government on mars
3. it’s time to turn off the dog
4. gay talese at plato’s retreat
5. david petraeus interview
6. alec ross work in the future
7. isadora duncan killed
8. french surrealist writer rené daumal
9. wealthy young chinese in vancouver
10. nat hentoff’s merle haggard article

This week, Trump’s most ardent supporters took a break from the campaign to take advantage of July 4th white sales.

• If Donald Trump loses, America, as during the Revolutionary War, will prove to be slightly less incompetent than Britain.

• The great New Yorker writer Mark Singer talks his 1997 Trump profile.

• Does Brexit hold lessons for the U.S. Presidential election?

• Russ Roberts & Kevin Kelly talk the latter’s new book, The Inevitable.

• Sociological salesman Alvin Toffler died. Read his obit + a few posts on him.

• Douglas Rushkoff talks corporatocracy, technology’s mixed blessing, etc.

• America’s perplexing war on information has intensified in the Digital Age.

• Enabled by technology, Edward Snowden is now a disembodied dissenter.

• Can machines cause mass unemployment? Maybe that’s not the right question.

• A work-free society wouldn’t necessarily succumb to ennui.

• Baidu’s Andrew Ng suggests AI might necessitate a new New Deal.

• Tech is removing bureaucracy–and jobs–from the legal system.

• The NYT business plan is changing again in this fraught media age.

• “Fully Automated Luxury Communism” is a possible economic future.

• An MIT algorithm binge-watches TV to learn human body language.

• Gay Talese’s book on a motel-owning voyeur is now even more troubling.

• Water economist David Zetland conducted a Reddit AMA about H2O.

• A tech-friendly Texas House of Worship 2.0 is disrupting Big Church.

• Old Print Article: Ben Purnell, Not An Immortal. (1927)

• Old Print Article: Jeannette Piccard’s Space Odyssey. (1934)

• A brief note from 1929 about a widower.

• This week’s Afflictor keyphrase searches: Ron Popeil, Andy Warhol, etc.

10 search-engine keyphrases bringing traffic to Afflictor this week:

1. what would andy warhol do if he was president?
2. julian wasser roman polanski
3. alfred hitchcock as a gravedigger
4. oriana fallaci intervista cassius clay
5. was one of donald trump’s parents an orangutan?
6. deborah friedell writing about trump
7. malcolm gladwell on ron popeil
8. doukhobor nude protests
9. 19th century free-love commune
10. chinese cloning factory

This week, a dishonest, divisive man with bizarre hair enjoyed a political victory, and it actually wasn’t Donald Trump.

• Donald rump is a tin-pot dictator with verbal diarrhea, and, most likely, the non-verbal kind.

• No shock Donald Rumsfeld endorsed Donald Trump, Daddy Warbucks as an aspiring war criminal.

• Tyler Cowen worries about the state of men in America (and elsewhere).

• In 1992, Carl Bernstein believed “weird, stupid and coarse” the new normal.

• Evan Osnos turned out an article and Reddit AMA on guns in the U.S.

• In Playboy, Ta-Nehisi Coates discussed race, success and his life in Paris.

• Andrew Brown’s essay explained the meaning beneath the perplexing Brexit.

• Clive Crook’s smart Reddit AMA explores Brexit and its aftermath.

• Disney’s foray into Shanghai has been met with mixed emotions.

• Vivek Wadhwa predicts AI will soon be ubiquitous and every object smart.

• My hunch is the advent of driverless cars won’t lead to Suburbia 2.0.

• Like Edison and Marconi before him, Elon Musk “succumbs to delusion.”

• Musk believes we’re just video-game characters. Most likely not.

• Nick Denton believes Facebook will soon be the “only general news brand.”

• In 1975, John McPhee reported on the NYT computerizing its newsroom.

• “Radical Insourcing” is even more troubling for developing nations.

• Despite what the ridesharer says, Uber’s true impact on Labor is harsh.

• Sustainability isn’t about recreating the past but learning from it.

• Mikko Annala argues against the building of so-called smart insta-cities.

• Old Print Article: Confessions of a grave robber. (1878)

• A brief note from 1899 about childish fanatics.

• A brief note from 1895 about a perpetual-motion machine.

• This week’s Afflictor keyphrase searches.

10 search-engine keyphrases bringing traffic to Afflictor this week: 

1. ian frazier we live in a craven time
2. financial times article about buchanan county by edward luce
3. donald trump campaigning in coal country
4. unu next president
5. daniel kahneman and noah yuval harari 21st century economics
6. russian wedding party killed by wolves
7. we’re always online
8. vidal-buckley feud
9. the man who fell to earth alien
10. some of us who live in arid parts of the world think about water with a reverence others might find excessive

This week, Donald Trump revealed his plans for safeguarding American water parks during Summer 2016.

• I’m not a psychiatrist, so I can’t say for sure Donald Trump is mentally ill.

• Dave Eggers reports on a Trump rally at a Sacramento airplane hangar.

• On Robin Hanson’s brain-emulation idea: 2 new articles & a few questions.

• UNU, the hive-mind intelligence system, conducted an AMA about futurism.

• Jacque Fresco predicts revolution followed by computer-governed utopia.

• The Guardian profiled philosopher/Silicon Valley muse Nick Bostrom.

• Nick Bilton writes of Silicon Valley’s vast wealth and even greater hubris.

• Elon Musk, who hopes to create Martians, shares details with WaPo.

• Flying cars are silly. Larry Page is working on something else.

• Edward Mendelson thinks our gadgets reduce us to video-game characters.

• Big Auto faces more existential risks beyond driverless cars.

• A counterintuitive idea: Driverless may increase the need for public transit.

• Uber and Lyft want to not only destroy taxis but also each other.

• Liberland, a planned micronation, aims to be a green tax haven.

• A Paris bookstore is reinventing itself as a stockless, on-demand shop.

• Old Print Article: Mussolini is a “fascinating character.” (1925)

• Old Print Article: Russia dissects Vladimir Lenin’s brain. (1929)

• This week’s Afflictor keyphrase searches.

10 search-engine keyphrases bringing traffic to Afflictor this week:

1. freeman dyson on wealth inequality
2. richard feynman talking about manhattan project
3. why does don lemon have a job?
4. john lennon yoko ono bed in
5. stewart brand on the sixth extinction
6. can computers replace ceos?
7. laszlo toth attacked the pieta
8. edith vonnegut geraldo rivera
9. the truth about bridey murphy
10. when baseball wanted to bar radio broadcasts

This week, the New York Times reported Donald Trump’s casinos were a “protracted failure.” Undeterred, he vowed to being some of his “best” Atlantic City managers to D.C., including Mr. Pickles.

Pickles be Secretary of State!

• Donald Trump isn’t familiar with the term “Brexit,” but he has measured his penis. 

• Trump, America’s Dumpster fire, was the subject of an AMA by Michael D’Antonio.

• James Baker isn’t concerned about Trump’s horrid, dangerous behavior.

• Spiegel asks Jake Tapper about this “nasty, ugly, horrible” election season.

• Charles Murray has a really bad Basic Income plan that would harm seniors.

• McDonald’s has become a community center for struggling Americans.

• Mental illness plus social media has led to the rise of “Targeted Individuals.”

• Elon Musk decided what type of government Mars will have. How nice for him.

• See a dozen of the Afflictor Muhammad Ali posts.

• Musk continues his Nick Bostrom bender, thinking we’re videogame characters.

• Michael Graziano examines the evolutionary development of consciousness.

• In 1990, Fred Hapgood had Venter-esque visions of designer micro-organisms.

• In 2003, Hapgood believed a “world subway” would soon be possible.

• Motherboard explores why underground cities never took root in America.

• Annalee Newitz reports on an AI that wrote a sci-fi screenplay.

• Brian Fung tries to separate the real AI challenges from the hype.

• When it comes to robotics, China is developing a yawning credibility gap.

• Tom Carson penned a great piece on Hollywood’s “fake movie architecture.”

• It’s possible human workers could be replaced like horses were.

• The job losses in the newspaper biz over the last 25 years are beyond grim.

• Jason Gay ponders the future of sports in volatile cultural & TV landscapes.

• Surgery prior to the advent of general anesthesia was, of course, brutal.

• Old Print Article: The fall of May Otis Blackburn’s Los Angeles cult. (1929)

• A brief note from 1942 about an amateur dentist making a house call.

Have had almost no Internet connection this weekend and can’t go anywhere else to work today with the impending storm in NYC. Will get back to business tomorrow.–Darren

10 search-engine keyphrases bringing traffic to Afflictor this week:

1. documentary about aubrey de grey
2. a missed opportunity to rebuild american infrastructure
3. early oliver sacks writing
4. school for spacex employees kids
5. david christian big history
6. what was project cybersyn?
7. oriana fallaci article about walter cronkite
8. madalyn murray o’hair interview
9. the final hours of howard hughes
10. laika astrodog sputnik 2

This week, Bernie Sanders, who trails by 3 million votes, complained the nomination was being stolen from him. He also pointed out other things that should be his.

I want that kitty cat. Give it to me.

No.

Give me that cat or I will punch its little face.

No.

It’s almost cat-punching time.

• Andrew McAfee sees technology arriving even more quickly than anticipated.

• Henry Blodget dissects the news biz in a Spiegel interview.

• Look inside Sheldon Adelson’s embattled Las Vegas Review-Journal.

• Donald Trump, Mao with a Big Mac, is still running a stumblefuck campaign.

• Robin Hanson speculates on AIs, Ems and more WTF stuff.

• Technology may be driving Trump’s rise and other mishegoss.

• Despiy the popular metaphor, brains really aren’t like computers.

• In an AMA, Richard Dawkins talks a little science and lots of religion.

• Zoltan Istvan considers the limits of Christian relativism in the Digital Age.

• America had secular roots, which were pulled from the ground.

• Perhaps our economic system won’t survive robots, automation, etc.

• A $5 billion software company is operating sans sales staff.

• More than livable, future cities will have to be survivable.

• Wuhu in China wants to be the first city to fully embrace driverless cars.

• Drivers cause most road deaths, so some want to junk the term “accident.”

• Apple invested $1 billion in a Chinese ride-hailing company for myriad reasons.

• MOOCs try to recover from their 1.0 stumbles.

• St. Louis has become chess capital due to polarizing Rex Sinquefield.

• Old Print Article: Leon Theremin, “Russian Edison,” wows NYC. (1928)

• Old Print Article: Willy Ley encourages the use mail rockets. (1935)

• A brief note from 1850 about an entrepreneur.

• A brief note from 1932 about cold prevention.

• This week’s Afflictor keyphrase searches: Mike Tyson, Joyce Carol Oates, etc.

10 search-engine keyphrases bringing traffic to Afflictor this week:

1. joyce carol oates mike tyson
2. grantland article about don king
3. old time boxing promoter tex rickard
4. evel knievel with johnny carson
5. why is charlie rose like that?
6. famous fat man putty philpotts
7. life magazine editor ralph graves
8. chief red fox 100 years old
9. u.s. military robotization
10. how do people get new ideas? asimov