181
Japan's book scene is moving from bookstores to libraries
Small local libraries are now becoming travel destinations
New
The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 1,045 posts.
182
P(doom)
Are we all going to die?
183
An open letter to Dario: if you mean it, open the weights
Dear Dario, You published We Must Pace the Frontier today, which committed Anthropic to embedded third-party evaluators and asked governments to require every other frontier company to match. Sam Altman agreed within hours.1 The stated goal is to slow down the pace of AI progress. I believe you’re being sincere, so…
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We must pace the frontier
I have worked on AI for the last twelve years because I believe it could dramatically raise the quality of human life. I’ve written often about these incredible benefits: I believe that AI could cure most major diseases in the next 5–10 years, greatly accelerate economic growth rates, create a world of abundance and…
185
The GDR and Vietnam: From Fake Coffee to Coffee Empire
New stories from the East German specialists behind this Cold War project
186
I have a theory that software drives people insane
I have a little pet theory that software drives people insane. Not in the "wash your hands every thirty minutes like Howard Hughes" kind of way, but more ...
187
Silicon Valley is transforming the military-industrial complex? (2024)
Anthropologist Roberto González (Professor, San José State University) examines how America’s military-industrial complex has been rapidly expanding from the Capital Beltway to Silicon Valley. Although much of the Pentagon’s budget is spent on conventional weapons systems, the Defense Department has increasingly…
188
AI Is Breaking This Thing We Call Trust
AI-generated work can look finished without being understood. That uncertainty erodes trust, slows reviews, and leaves colleagues doing the missing work.
189
I think I hate the internet
I’ve just finished reading Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams and was equally parts shocked and unsurprised by the events she witnessed at Facebook / Met...
190
The UN challenges five centuries of cartography
Have you heard? There's map news!
191
What will our economic future look like?
The Anthropic Economics Team models the effects of AI on the economy of 2030.
192
“Tweet” and the bird logo apparently enter the public domain
This case involves Project Bluebird, a social media service previously named “twitter.new” and renamed to tweet.app immediately after this ruling (for reasons this post makes obvious). Project Bluebird’s service is designed to reimagine the Twitter service that Musk imploded when...
193
Harvard study predicts most suicide attempts a week in advance
Researcher Matthew Nock pioneered the technique of using smartphone technology to survey high-risk adults and adolescents in real time. In a new study, Nock and his team report using the technology to predict 75 percent of suicide attempts in the week before they occurred.
194
What do Visa and Mastercard do? An intro to card networks
tautology.town is a blog that contains tautologies.
195
The two Christian saints who are the Buddha
Let me tell you the story of saints Barlaam and Josaphat of India. A king named Abenner, who persecutes Christians, hears from his court astrologers that his son will attain great power and rule ov…
196
How the Chorleywood Bread Process transformed British bread
How a Hertfordshire research lab quietly transformed an iconic British staple food, and the complexion of the countryside - without anyone actually noticing
197
PISA 2025 Students' reading and mathematics performance declined across the OECD
Student performance across OECD countries has continued to decline, reaching the lowest average ever recorded by the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in mathematics and reading. Across the OECD, one in five 15-year-old students is now a low performer in science, mathematics and reading, up…
198
We have a year to fix security everywhere
consumer-grade hardware can run an LLM that hacks the planet. we can stop it, but we don't have much time.
199
There's a new "Google Jail" for independent wikis
Big week! We just finished moving the Overwatch and Fortnite wikis off of Fandom. It’s still my favorite thing in the world to help wiki editors grab control of their projects and make them awesome (and not covered with a dozen auto-playing video ads!)
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Keep Our Servers Running
“Universal access to all human knowledge is within our grasp. Our job is to put the best our world has to offer within the reach of our children.” —Brewster Kahle, Internet Archive Digital Librarian Every time you search the Wayback Machine or explore a collection at the Internet Archive, you are accessing a global…
201
The car industry A/B tested selling a car with and without CarPlay
A couple years ago, GM made waves by saying that soon, all their new cars would be completely free of Apple's CarPlay and Android Auto support, instead opting for the "Android Automotive OS" in their cars. Admittedly, I'm a huge fan of CarPlay for basic safety reasons and
202
An Alien Mind
Jakub Pachocki reflects on increasingly capable AI and the challenge of keeping it aligned. He calls for stronger safeguards and international coordination.
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How I feel about AI
It's complicated
204
A/I shuts down
The day we discovered we had been designated a global terrorist organization, we promised that we would try to resist as long as this was possible, that we would not back down as long as we could see options to stand our ground. For years, we have proudly maintained and defended a free, privacy-friendly, autonomous…
205
Doomscrolling ourselves to death
James Marriott’s The New Dark Ages
206
The revolt of the reader
Reading is important to me. While I’m not a quick reader nor an especially voracious one, I have found that long-form reading has had a profound influence on me over my life.
207
The Real Luxuries In Life
Labor Day weekend has always been the back to school marker for me. I'm 60, closing in on 61, and thinking a lot more about what I actually care about. Amy texted me a list yesterday.
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How the Tobacco Industry Drove the Rise of Ultra-Processed Foods (2025)
Public Health professor discusses how ultra-processed foods are a direct legacy of the tobacco industry, and are responsible for a dramatic rise in obesity, diabetes and other chronic diseases across the country.
209
Record-High 89% in U.S. Say Government Corruption Widespread
Perceptions of government corruption in the U.S. hit a record high in 2026, with broad agreement across partisan lines.
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120 days until Google restricts side-loading, declaring war on Android freedom
Starting 2027, Google will block apps on Android devices whose developers have not registered with Google, paid, and given their ID. It’s fair to say that Google is becoming Apple: Your device, their rules.