Category: columns

• Chapter 0

  Whether you make books, music, software, or sandwiches, how you describe what you make is a crucial part of how other people experience it. Some authors submit their manuscript and expect their publisher to handle the rest. But a book’s cover, dust-jacket copy, and marketing materials are promises to the reader about the journey on…

• Imagining new institutions for the internet age

  What constitutes justice in a world ruled by algorithms? I wrote an essay for Medium about the lessons I learned writing novels that extrapolate a future shaped by a ubiquitous digital feed: https://onezero.medium.com/imagining-new-institutions-for-the-internet-age-bf17212063db “In a world awash in information, the curator is king. Behind each digital throne is an algorithm, a specialized artificial intelligence that…

• A reading guide to building the future

  I wrote an essay for TechCrunch that explores the literary culture of Silicon Valley. It digs deep into the feedback loop between books and innovation and turns up weird gems along the way. Think of it as a reading guide to building the future: https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/16/the-best-fiction-for-building-a-startup/ “Every year, Bill Gates goes off-grid, leaves friends and family…

• Kim Stanley Robinson on the crisis of representation, the future of geopolitics, and the power of science fiction

  In my latest column for the Chicago Review of Books, I interview Kim Stanley Robinson about the big ideas in his new novel Red Moon: https://chireviewofbooks.com/2019/01/07/kim-stanley-robinsons-lunar-revolution/ Complement with Malka Older on using science fiction to explore where democracy is headed, how science empowers us by stripping away our delusions of power, and this podcast interview…

• Science empowers us by stripping away our delusions of power

  In my latest column for NEO.LIFE, I explore how science forces us to confront generations of human hubris by revealing the awe-inspiring size and complexity of the universe we are lucky enough to inhabit: https://neo.life/2018/12/the-real-way-science-empowers-us/ Complement with Daniel Suarez on the power and consequences of CRISPR, how to make sense of the future, and how science…

• True maturity requires treating adults like children

  When a toddler throws a tantrum, we assume they must be hungry, tired, bored, or need to poop. We don’t immediately conclude that they are selfish jerks, megalomaniacs, or fundamentally evil. Instead, we offer them comfort, snacks, and naps, and it almost always works. When an adult upsets us with a snarky comment, a thoughtless…

• Robert Jackson Bennett uses magic to make sense of how technology shapes our lives

  In my latest column for Techdirt, I talk to Robert Jackson Bennett about the political consequences of technology, the power of imagination, and his critically-acclaimed new novel, Foundryside: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20181106/17231941000/robert-jackson-bennett-uses-magic-to-make-sense-how-technology-shapes-our-lives.shtml Robert and I were on a panel together last month at New York Comic Con and I featured Foundryside in this edition of my reading recommendations newsletter. Complement with…