798 tacks
We Didn’t Ask for This Internet
Ragebait, sponcon, A.I. slop — the internet of 2026 makes a lot of us nostalgic for the internet of 10 or 15 years ago. What exactly went wrong here? How did the early promise of the internet get so twisted? And what exactly is wrong here? What kinds of policies could actually make our digital lives meaningfully better? Cory Doctorow and Tim Wu have two different theories of the case, which I thought would be interesting to put in conversation together. Doctorow is a science fiction writer, an activist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the author of “Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It.” Wu is a law professor who worked on technology policy in the Biden White House; his latest book is “The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity.”
What Do the People Building AI Believe?
The Atlantic's Galaxy Brain explores the culture of this boom with the writer Jasmine Sun, who’s been chronicling San Francisco’s AI scene. Sun describes what this moment feels like on the ground, including a subculture of massive salaries, and a weird pride in leaning into tech’s strangeness. Together, Warzel and Sun unpack two major factions shaping the industry: the AI “doomers,” and the accelerationists. The conversation also traces Silicon Valley’s rightward drift—the “founder mode” backlash against regulation and employee activism and the rise of “Trump style” provocation-first tech marketing. Finally, Sun and Warzel address the jagged reality of today’s models, which are brilliant at some tasks and weak at others.
Tech Billionaires Want Us Dead
Taylor Lorenz argues that a strand of Silicon Valley ideology treats biological humanity as temporary and sees AI or digital beings as our “successors.” She traces this worldview from early cyber-utopianism through transhumanism, long-termism, and accelerationism, claiming billionaires are funding AI, bunkers, life-extension, and escape plans while accepting human harm as collateral. Her conclusion is that this future is not inevitable: society should regulate big tech, challenge billionaire power, and defend a human-centred technological future.
The dangerous trend ruining modern television
Modern TV is being hurt by long gaps between seasons and shorter episode orders, unlike older shows with 20+ weekly episodes. These changes disrupt audience engagement and storytelling rhythm, weakening series’ cultural impact and fan loyalty. The trend toward irregular schedules and fewer episodes is presented as a key factor undermining television’s traditional strengths.
Why are people starting to sound like ChatGPT?
Through feedback loops, AI systems influence how people think and communicate.
Let’s talk about zines and why you should make one
In this video, the creator explains their enthusiasm for zines as small, self-published explorations of personal interests. They frame the video as an introduction to the world of zines and zine-makers, noting that there is much more to explore and that further content will follow. The video closes with an open invitation for viewers to try making a zine themselves, if they choose.
Cory Doctorow - Rescuing the internet from enshittification
Cory Doctorow explains how the internet has gotten worse due to “enshittification,” a term he coined for the way platforms degrade over time by prioritising profit over user experience. He discusses how tech giants lock in users, shift value from users to advertisers and shareholders, and argues for stronger antitrust laws, interoperability, and policy changes to rescue the internet.
The Ensh*ttification of Everything with Cory Doctorow
The internet is getting shittier. Hell, the whole world is getting shittier. The thing is, it’s no accident—it’s by design. The tech giants who run the internet have figured out how to make bank off of making our everyday experience with the internet worse, and this process is bleeding over into the physical world. This process is called “enshittification”, a term coined by the massively influential tech writer Cory Doctorow. In this episode, Adam sits with Cory to discuss where everything went so wrong as well as Cory’s new book, Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It.
Sofia Coppola: The Politics of Pretty
Accessible and nuanced film analysis by Broey Deschanel, looking at three Sofia Coppola films. YouTube description: "In this video we examine Sofia Coppola’s bad faith critics and tell you why we think she’s an auteur!"
Why everyone is quitting social media
Over the past five years, social media has shifted from fostering connection to maximizing profit by exploiting user attention. Features like infinite scroll and algorithmic feeds—pioneered and perfected by TikTok—prioritize virality and outrage over genuine relationships, fueling anxiety and social comparison. Once user-centered, platforms now serve advertisers, converting attention into revenue. This has sparked rising backlash, digital detox movements, and calls for balance. Though social media remains dominant, growing disillusionment suggests people are beginning to push back.
Showing 11 to 20 of 798 results