6751
Of Wizards and Magical Machines (2012)
People want things to be cheaper and easier and faster than they are. That doesn’t seem very extraordinary, does it? I mean, it’s not really news. In fact, the opposite would be news…
Topics /
Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 8,149 posts.
6752
The Future of Fact-Checking Is Lies, I Guess
Last weekend I was trying to pull together sources for an essay and kept finding “fact check” pages from factually.co . For instance, a Kagi search for “pepper ball Chicago pastor” returned this Factually article as the second result:
6753
The Case Against the Universal Basic Income
On a Universal Basic Income, full employment and avoiding libertarian traps It's the summer of 1986. T...
6754
Why Didn’t Denmark Sell Greenland?
Exercise in pointing out the obvious: Greenland has been, is, and will be indefinitely, a white elephant. Denmark turned down 100m USD from the USA in 1946; I discuss how this was a bad idea—America got what it needed anyway while Denmark kept control of a loser.
6755
Billionaire-Fueled Lobbying Group Behind the State Bills to Ban UBI Experiments
The Foundation for Government Accountability - a Florida-based lobbying group backed by the richest 1% - is working to get basic income experiments banned by state legislators across the U.S. (This article is also available as a YouTube video and as a podcast episode) As a well-known quote often
6756
Twitter, when the wall came down
I, like many people, have a complicated relationship with Twitter. As Adam and I regaled in a recent Twitter Space , it started when debugging the Twitter fail whale in the offices of Obvious in 2007, where I became thoroughly unimpressed with their self-important skipper, Jack Dorsey. In part because I thought he was…
6757
The Quiet Wikideath of BBS History
Folks, I’ve said I’m not a fan of Wikipedia for nearly ten years now. I used to mention it in presentations until I found that eighteen-year-olds would confront me at the end, like I sp…
6758
6759
6760
Giving Up on Element and Matrix.org
The Matrix.org network has great potential, but after years of dealing with glitches, slow performance, poor UX, and one too many failures, I’m done with it.
6761
Hate paywalls? 12ft.io is the answer
After trying many ways to get around paywalls, I've landed on 12ft.io. It's simply awesome.
6762
I'm building a parallel internet, and it's called The Thinnernet
Since 2020, I've taken on a Steve Jobs alter-ego (on a very, very part time basis, and often for humor purposes ). The firs...
6763
6764
I don't know if my job will still exist in ten years
In 2021, being a good software engineer felt great. The world was full of software, with more companies arriving every year who needed to employ engineers to…
6765
Tragically, as many as 9625 out of every 10k individuals may be neurotypical
Neurotypical syndrome is a neurobiological disorder characterized by preoccupation with social concerns, delusions of superiority, and obsession with conformity.
6766
My 2026 Open Social Web Predictions
Predictions for 2026 include growth forecasts for various social media platforms, advancements in federated technologies, and anticipated shifts in how …
6767
6768
New Mexico: Psychologists to dress up as wizards when providing expert testimony
New Mexico’s state senate took up a startling amendment in 1995 — it would have required psychologists to dress up as wizards when providing expert testimony on a defendant’s competency: When a psychologist or psychiatrist testifies during a defendant’s competency hearing, the psychologist or psychiatrist shall wear a…
6769
6770
All His Life Has He Looked Away, to the Future...
It’s one thing to look at today’s Windows 8 on a tablet and say that it has a lot of potential. It’s another thing altogether to look at it and declare victory.
6771
The downfall of National Geographic
When the pages stop turning
6772
“Raiders of the Lost Ark” Story Conference Transcript (1978)
G We’ll just talk general ideas, what the concept of it was. Then I’ll get down to going specifically through the story. Then we will actually get to where we can start talking down scenes, in the end I want to end up with a list of scenes. And the way I work generally is I figure a code, a general measuring stick…
6773
Tesla Gave Me Control of Their Site Forums
Update, 3/6/21: 2.5 years after they gave me a wild ride with admin access to their forums, Tesla announced that they will be killing off the Tesla
6774
UK'S shadow Internet minister says she is "particularly stupid"
I remarked earlier about Helen Goodman MP and her total lack of technical knowledge. An MP being a bit behind the times isn't the greatest shock - but she's Labour's Shadow Minister for Culture, Media, and Sport - that's a big deal! This year, Claire Perry MP produced an "independent" report into online child…
6775
6776
6777
6778
Behind Silicon Valley and the GOP’s campaign to ban state AI laws
Inside the effort to de-democratize AI
6779
Reversing 'France Identité': The New French Digital ID
-------------- Update from 06/10/2023 : following my publication, I’ve been in contact with France Identité CISO and they could provide mo...
6780
Unicode is, in 2012, still “cutting edge.”
Note: These pages make extensive use of the latest XHTML and CSS Standards . They ought to look great in any standards-compliant modern browser. Unfortunately, they will probably look horrible in older browsers, like Netscape 4.x and IE 4.x. Moreover, many posts use MathML, which is, currently only supported in…