Science & Technology

"The nineteenth century believed in science but the twentieth century does not." — Gertrude Stein

Ask Not What Your Robot Can Do for You, but What You Can Do for Your Robot
Jerrine Tan visits a LOVOT robotics lab and is unexpectedly enchanted.
Jerrine TanOct 4, 2023
A Fireball in the Marshall Islands: How a Nuclear Test Changed the World
Émile P. Torres describes how it was not the dropping of the atom bombs in 1945 but the testing of a nuclear bomb is the Marshall Islands in 1954 that marked the moment when people became preoccupied with human extinction.
Émile P. TorresSep 20, 2023
Weaponized Plumbing: On Henry Farrell and Abraham L. Newman’s “Underground Empire”
Krzysztof Pelc mostly agrees with Henry Farrell and Abraham L. Newman’s “Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy” but quibbles that it’s hard to draw the line between the peculiarly 21st-century type of influence they describe—which flows from fiber-optic cables, data centers, and dollar clearinghouses—and more conventional types of power.
Krzysztof PelcSep 13, 2023
Perma-noon: On Light Pollution and the Way We Talk About the Natural World
In a preview of LARB Quarterly no. 39: “Air,” Lauren Collee explores the history of light pollution.
Lauren ColleeSep 4, 2023
- LARB Lit
- Science & Technology
Fact, Fiction, and the Father of the Bomb: On Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer”
Alex Wellerstein assesses the depiction of J. Robert Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan’s 2023 film.
Alex WellersteinAug 30, 2023
Comment for Comment: On Michael Tedder’s “Top Eight”
Grant Sharples reviews Michael Tedder’s “Top Eight: How MySpace Changed Music.”
Grant SharplesAug 20, 2023
- Music
- Science & Technology
Withering Green Rush: California Cannabis Breeding at a Crossroads
In a preview of LARB Quarterly no. 38: Earth, Ali Bektaş examines one of the state’s most contentious and consequential industries.
Ali BektaşAug 5, 2023
- LARB Lit
- Science & Technology
Nothing “Proto” About It: More on MIT Press’s New Radium Age Series
The pleasures of reading the titles from MIT Press’s new Radium Age series, writes historian of science Michael Gordin, lies in the science fiction genre not yet having congealed.
Michael D. GordinJul 27, 2023
Red and Green Make … Degrowth: On Kohei Saito’s “Marx in the Anthropocene”
Andrew Ahern reviews Kohei Saito’s “Marx in the Anthropocene: Towards the Idea of Degrowth Communism.”
Andrew AhernJul 23, 2023
- Politics
- Science & Technology
From Robots to iBots: The Iconology of Artificial Intelligence
W. J. T. Mitchell asks, What kind of intelligence does AI actually represent?
W. J. T. MitchellJul 22, 2023
- Philosophy & Religion
- Science & Technology
Machine Voice: Programmer Fiction
Many decades before generative AI, the writer J. M. Coetzee actively engaged with machine voices, says Andrew Dean, and also grappled with the perils of “automatism,” as he called it, the tendency of language to reproduce itself.
Andrew DeanJul 19, 2023
- Fiction
- Science & Technology
L.A. and the Birth of Car Culture: On Darryl Holter and Stephen Gee’s “Driving Force”
Gary Cross reviews Darryl Holter and Stephen Gee’s “Driving Force: Automobiles and the New American City, 1900–1930.”
Gary CrossJul 15, 2023
- History
- Science & Technology