Hey there. Something to celebrate: The weekend is here.
I’m writing this newsletter from a lounge in O’Hare on my way to visit family. The airport is packed, the lounge—as domestic airport lounges tend to do—have machines that make lovely lattes. Business travelers are headed home for the weekend. The old routine’s returning.
Here are some of the things I’ve had on my mind this week.
“For decades longer than more orthodox contemporary thinkers, accelerationists have been focused on many of the central questions of the late 20th and early 21st centuries: the rise of China; the rise of artificial intelligence; what it means to be human in an era of addictive, intrusive electronic devices; the seemingly uncontrollable flows of global markets; the power of capitalism as a network of desires; the increasingly blurred boundary between the imaginary and the factual; the resetting of our minds and bodies by ever-faster music and films; and the complicity, revulsion and excitement so many of us feel about the speed of modern life.”
“I know many of you like to say “No worse than the common cold!” Well, the thing is…the common cold imposes considerable costs on the world. Imagine a new common cold, which you catch a few times a year, with some sliver of the population getting some form of Long Covid. One 2003 estimate suggested that the common cold costs us $40 billion a year, and in a typical year I don’t get a cold even once. That 2003 estimate also does not include the sheer discomfort of having a cold. […] Even under mild conceptions of current Covid, it is entirely plausible to believe that the costs of Covid will run into the trillions over the next ten years.”
“Congress held its first public hearing on unidentified flying objects in decades on Tuesday, centering on investigations about reported military encounters with unexplained objects. A database tracking unidentified object sightings has grown to roughly 400 reports. Sightings "are frequent and are continuing," witnesses said.”
“Far more disturbing, though, is the complete movement beyond all cash. More and more restaurants and cultural venues don’t want it at all. For the working-class and poor, the very poor in particular, this is the final marker of where they stand in the new age. If they can’t be properly surveilled—QR codes are popular for businesses because they store digital information on customers, allowing for the sort of sophisticated tracking that would unnerve many average Americans if they really considered it—they can’t partake in the public square. Others less comfortable with technology are also locked out. There are elderly people who would prefer not to use smartphones or, if they own them, may struggle to toggle through apps and tabs.”
Why Gas Got So Expensive (It’s Not The War)
Super hedge funder Ray Dalio on the threat of China invading Taiwan and why American politics will continue to polarize into further-right and further-left.
“Back in 2010, I helped publish a decisive U.S. Senate report on medical ghostwriting, a process by which pharmaceutical companies draft a study and then publish it in a peer-reviewed journal, but with physicians signing on as authors—even if they may not be intimately familiar with the research and only lightly edited the text. Ghostwritten articles pollute medicine with corporate marketing designed to look like independent science. Despite our efforts, medical ghostwriting continues, and universities rarely punish professors.”
Starbucks is in the gift card business, not the coffee business.
“The most commonly cited anonymous sources in the news t
oday are the official, on-the-record spokespeople for corporations. And the anonymous speech that is protected by the journalists who quote them is the most bland, anodyne stuff you can imagine.”
“What started in 2010 as a quirky street-photography project has morphed into an uplifting social-media empire with nearly 30 million followers on Facebook and Instagram combined who visit to affirm, relate to, and weep for the ordinary people on display.”
Even more Netflix layoffs.
“Meta freezes hiring for shopping team, Messenger Kids, and other products.”
“One of the most prominent moves is Bill Simmons, the founder of the Ringer sports and culture website and podcast network, is assuming the title of global head of sports content and managing director for the Ringer. He will continue to oversee the Ringer, which Spotify Chief Executive Officer Daniel Ek has said could become the next ESPN.”
“The Economist's Podcasts Have Fetched Over a Billion Downloads Since Launch.”
TikTok launches TikTok insights.
Tips on making a career in films and TV.
Culture war kayfabe and copyright law.
Inside Airbnb’s redesign.
“Last week Meta, the social media company formerly known as Facebook, removed some of its augmented reality effects and applications, such as avatars and filters, from Facebook and Instagram in Illinois.”
“Morry Kolman and Alex Petros, the geniuses behind the Super Fungible Token, are back with Are You The Asshole, which is an AI that simulates Reddit’s r/AmItheAsshole subreddit.”
Reverse social engineering the Instagram ban process.
Does every state have its own pizza style now? A very tasty investigation.
Jon Ronson x Louis Theroux.
Amazing podcast on the end of the Aztec Empire.
Professional language creator David Peterson explains his work.
Byzantine coin time.
Don’t Twitch like this.
Subway pizza misadventures.
