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Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 8,148 posts.
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What’s interesting about the Florida water system hack is that we heard about it
Stories about computer security tend to go viral when they bridge the vast divide between geeks and luddites, and this week’s news about a hacker who tried to poison a Florida town’s water supply was understandably front-page material. But for security nerds who’ve been warning about this sort of thing for ages, the…
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Google almost convinced me to spend $400 on useless laser treatments
Online health information is terrible. How can we fix it?
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Eigenmorality
This post is about an idea I had around 1997, when I was 16 years old and a freshman computer-science major at Cornell. Back then, I was extremely impressed by a research project called CLEVER, wh…
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The expanding dark forest and generative AI
Proving you're a human on a web flooded with generative AI content
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Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025
So many sci-fi movies, anime, and video games owe a massive debt of gratitude to William Gibson's seminal 1984 novel.
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Why I deleted my Facebook account
After being an early adopter of Facebook and using it for over a decade, I decided to delete my account. Here's why.
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What the Hell Is Going On? Effects of Information Abundance
David shares how the new age of information abundance is transforming commerce, education, and politics. Read here.
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It's Way Too Easy to Get a .gov Domain Name
Many readers probably believe they can trust links and emails coming from U.S. federal government domain names, or else assume there are at least more stringent verification requirements involved in obtaining a .gov domain versus a commercial one ending in .com or .org. But a recent experience suggests this trust may…
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Jwz: Google's pseudonym support "obvious bullshit"
In a shamefully credulous statement, they say: Proponents of pseudonymity scored a major victory today, when Google executive Vic Gundotra revealed at the Web 2.0 Summit that social networking service Google+ will begin supporting pseudonyms and other types of identity. According to Mashable, Google+ will be "adding…
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Quarantine will normalize WFH and recession will denormalize full-time jobs
You know nothing John Snow
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The problem with Bitcoin miners
Disclosure: I hold short positions in companies mentioned in this article. This is not financial advice.
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‘Confirming we are cleared to land?’ Who said what at Austin
Why the Austin airport situation was so dangerous.
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Sci-Hub and Alexandra Basic Information
I decided to make a quick summary of facts about Sci-Hub and myself, because in our times you cannot fully trust articles published in media, Wikipedia pages. Well, they do present facts about Sci-…
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The death of partying in the USA
Young Americans today spend 70 percent less time attending or hosting parties than they did at the beginning of the 21st century. Why?
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iOS 27 is adding a 'Create a Pass' button to Apple Wallet
Apple is letting users build their own Wallet passes in iOS 27. After 14 years of PassKit, the supply-side problem is finally being solved from the demand side.
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The Coming Loop
Loops, harnesses, and why even loop skeptics may end up with them.
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Open Source is one person
The Register recently published a story titled Putin on the code: DoD reportedly relies on utility written by Russian dev. They should be ashamed of this story. This poor open source developer is getting beat up now to score some internet points. It’s very upsetting. But anyway, let’s look at some receipts. If you’re…
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Don't re-elect SOPA supporters on Tuesday
As elections draw near, remember that it's not just about the President. We'll vote on a number of Congressional seats too. If you haven't take a second to get a quick read on your senator and...
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We are drowning in information while starving for wisdom (2021)
The title of this post is a quote from Edward O. Wilson’s book ‘Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge’. For example, if you search for scientific papers about “Entropy” …
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LA Times and ads
The LA Times is a good newspaper and is currently doing the best political coverage in California. They are also the most aggressive ad shoveling website I have ever seen. Their ad blocker blocker …