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The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 490 posts.
[Edit] This post sparked a conversation on Ycombinator ! I am concerned about Apple's move to its own home-grown processors. It's not because I'm worried about the new silicon, or Apple's ability to make high-performance CPUs, or even because I am worried about changing architectures. I survived…
I love science. Not the “space is beautiful” faux-science, but the process of doing science. Hours spent calibrating equipment, cross-checking cites of cites of cites, tedious arguments about p-values and prediction intervals, all the stuff that makes science Go. And, when it does happen, the drama. I also want us to…
Did life on Earth start on Earth, or did it start on Mars and move to Earth?
It’s Time to Watch the Watchmen – The Diversity Report of TechCrunch, Recode, The Information, Business Insider and Protocol. Prelude I have been writing about Diversity in Tech for over a decade now – a long time. However, my self-published posts have never really got the audience it was targeted
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An In-Depth Overview of Key Technical Factors
When I argue that we should bring rents down by building more housing, one kind of response I've gotten is: Why are you trying to move more people into cities? There's lots of housing available in the US, it's just not in the currently trendy cities. Instead of moving people we should be moving jobs. Why couldn't…
You’ve heard of stuff like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Make an account on one, and it only works there. You can’t send a DM to your friend on Twitter from Facebook Messenger. You can’t browse your friend’s Instagram feed from Twitter. Each one is closed off
Ever tried to send a push notification to your phone? How hard can it be? I was surprised when I tried to push a simple push notification without involving a third party. It's not just hard they have made it near impossible to send a simple push notification without subscribing to their service. Moreover it doesn't…
A co-working space for restaurants of the future.
Congress is exactly where discussions about tech and society should be happening. Then, a list of questions for every tech CEO.
Tragedy of the comments
This is a lightly edited version of an article I wrote that first appeared in Jacobite. I had a great conversation about this article and evolutionary psychology more generally (link here) with Joh…
Please try this experiment for me. Try asking this question out loud, in a tone of intellectual interest and engagement: “Are you suggesting that the two have the same effect?”. Now try asking this question out loud, in a tone of hostility and incredulity bordering on sarcasm: “Are you suggesting that the two have the…
The number of people who majored in computer science in the US isn't much higher in 2015 than in 2005. Why do so few students major in computer science?
It's not just passengers refusing to wear personal protection equipment that's a problem at the airline. It seems another problem is passengers who wear too much. So last week American Airlines sent a memo to its customer care agents on "Prohibited Personal Protection Equipment (PPE)."
According to the state authority Statistics Sweden (SCB) data, september 2020 was the least deadly month per capita ever in Swedish history. So far the year 2020 has been the third least deadly year per capita ever in the country, despite the tragic and global Covid-19 pandemic.Deaths in September 1860 - 2020 in…
Preface:I have worked in the United States and England as a researcher for most of my life, I am Italian and a few years ago I became the father of a beautiful daughter. Unfortunately, for reasons …
This post sparked a great conversation on Hacker News! See the comments here. “Quantity has a quality of its own”–Attribution contested A significant factor in the power of states throughout history has been sheer numbers. Spain was able to control an overseas empire to a significantly greater degree than Portugal…
As the Covid-19 crisis progresses, censorship programs advance, amid calls for China-style control of the Internet
What is life? This question keeps many people awake at night and has led to rafts of definitions, some involving features (procreation, metabolism and so forth), some involving chemistry, entropy or energy flux and some are of a more philosophical bent. A BBC article noted there are over 100 definitions of life and it…
By Gabriel and Ernest Oppetit Unforseen shit happens. 9/11, the 2008 crash, Brexit, Trump, COVID-19… you know the story. These events surprised us because our information diets are domi…
