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The Character of Chinese Computing
Maura Elizabeth Cunningham reviews Thomas S. Mullaney’s “The Chinese Computer: A Global History of the Information Age.”
Science & Technology
"The nineteenth century believed in science but the twentieth century does not." — Gertrude Stein
The Politics of Pigmentation
In the sixth essay of the Legacies of Eugenics series, Suman Seth explores the anti-history of the evolution of whiteness.
Play and the Engine of Creation
Julien Crockett interviews Kelly Clancy about gamification, simulations, and her new book “Playing with Reality: How Games Have Shaped Our World.”
On Melons and Melancholy
Ben Wurgaft demonstrates how Steven Shapin’s “Eating and Being” illuminates the intellectual and cultural dynamics of “dietetics”—the relationship between diet, health, and identity—like no prior work on the subject.
Can “Tech Criticism” Tame Silicon Valley?
Evan Selinger lauds Gary Marcus’s new book for its clarity on how to stop the madness and greed around generative AI. He questions the power of “tech criticism” to translate into actual reform, however.
The New Artificial Intelligentsia
In the fifth essay of the Legacies of Eugenics series, Ruha Benjamin explores how AI evangelists wrap their self-interest in a cloak of humanistic concern.
Seeing Like a Simulation
Reviewing Chaim Gingold’s “Building SimCity,” Celine Nguyen finds similarities between tech billionaires’ attempts to build a utopian city in Solano, California, and being a godlike player in “SimCity.”
The Most Moral Army
Mary Turfah examines Israeli officials’ weaponization of language, particularly that of medicine, in an attempt to reframe their genocide in Gaza.
The DNA Dreams of the New Eugenics
In the fourth essay of the Legacies of Eugenics series, Patricia Williams explores how “new-genics” projects encode social bias.
Breeding for IQ
Emily R. Klancher Merchant examines the growing enthusiasm among tech elites for genetically engineering their children, in the third essay of the Legacies of Eugenics series.
The “Twaddle” in Finance
In his review of “Poor Charlie's Almanack,” Dave Mandl delights in Charles T. Munger’s skewering of contemporary investing and business practices.
Commendable Snitches
Gordon Marino considers “The Occasional Human Sacrifice: Medical Experimentation and the Price of Saying No” by Carl Elliott.
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