Brandon Sanderson Is Your God
Most will hear this and think: At that rate, none of the words could possibly be any good. They’d be right, in a way, and that’s what Sanderson agrees with.…
I Saw the Face of God in a Semiconductor Factory
Savary strongly believed that international trade would be the antidote to war. Humans can’t conduct polyglot commerce across borders without cultivating an understanding of foreign laws, customs, and cultures. Savary…
Jenny Odell Can Stretch Time and So Can You
How did we arrive at the present moment of obsession with productivity and self-optimization? First, I want to say that someone whose productivity is being measured on the job or…
On the Trail of the Fentanyl King
Just a few days later, the DEA moved to apprehend Allawi’s team in simultaneous takedowns across Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston; Uno, Robinson, Al Salihi, and Goss were all arrested.…
This Is a Philosopher on Drugs
My undrugged mind, to borrow a witticism from J. L. Austin, delivers to me a world of “medium-sized dry goods” and little else. My drugged mind delivers to me spirits…
The Mining Industry’s Next Frontier Is Deep, Deep Under the Sea
The nodules have been growing, in utter blackness and near-total silence, for millions of years. Each one started as a fragment of something else—a tiny fossil, a scrap of basalt,…
The Battle for the Soul of Buy Nothing
At the one-year anniversary of its launch, the Buy Nothing app had been downloaded 600,000 times, but only 91,000 people were regularly using it, not many more than at the…
Meet the Superusers Behind IMDb, the Internet’s Favorite Movie Site
Brumburgh’s botched book project and five-hour-a-day habit may be unique, but his explanation for what motivates him is not. Like other so-called supercontributors, he believes he’s working in service to…
We’re All Living Under Gravity’s Rainbow
Black curtains hang in the windows of a dinky suburban LA apartment, two blocks from the Pacific, blotting out the light. Inside, Thomas Pynchon—early thirties, awkward, with a Zappa ’stache—scribbles…
Keanu Reeves Will Never Surrender to the Machines
Do you guys love science fiction? Stahelski: I’m always big on sci-fi. Like, John Wick is hyperreal. But it’s also got this analog sense. Old computers, old suits, old stuff.…