The End of Social Media and the Rise of Recommendation Media
Last week, Meta announced that the Facebook newsfeed would be shifting towards an algorithmic, recommendation-based model of content distribution. This announcement marked the most recent example of a major platform to formally make this shift, while other major platforms, including Meta’s Instagram, have been headed in this direction for a while. Given Facebook’s relevance as the world’s largest social network, this change signals the end of social media as we’ve known it for the past decade...
The End of Social Media and the Rise of Recommendation Media
Last week, Meta announced that the Facebook newsfeed would be shifting towards an algorithmic, recommendation-based model of content distribution. This announcement marked the most recent example of a major platform to formally make this shift, while other major platforms, including Meta’s Instagram, have been headed in this direction for a while. Given Facebook’s relevance as the world’s largest social network, this change signals the end of social media as we’ve known it for the past decade...
Freewriting on God’s Olivetti
Let me begin with a disclaimer: I don’t think God needs a typewriter. Additionally, I don’t think I need God. Yet I’m more than glad that God has a typewriter, and that we have been permitted a glimpse of it. This satisfies a deep obscure need. I don’t think I’m alone in this. As an aside, I feel certain that God’s typewriter is an early Olivetti. Olivetti captured on the internet and brought here For as long as I’ve been a person, I’ve imagined transformations of scale in relation to everyda...
Freewriting on God’s Olivetti
Let me begin with a disclaimer: I don’t think God needs a typewriter. Additionally, I don’t think I need God. Yet I’m more than glad that God has a typewriter, and that we have been permitted a glimpse of it. This satisfies a deep obscure need. I don’t think I’m alone in this. As an aside, I feel certain that God’s typewriter is an early Olivetti. Olivetti captured on the internet and brought here For as long as I’ve been a person, I’ve imagined transformations of scale in relation to everyda...
Saving 1.5C Requires the U.S. to Quickly and Fundamentally Rethink Work, Debt, and Fiscal Spending
While this week’s modest breakthrough in U.S. climate spending negotiations is a sign of hope, the reality of the situation demands that we push our government into taking action on climate change that meets the moment. If we are to save our planet from becoming uninhabitable and prevent the current onslaught of climate-related disasters from getting worse in the short term, a lot more things have to go right — and right now. “To avert climate catastrophe,” the UN Secretary-General Antonio Gu...
Saving 1.5C Requires the U.S. to Quickly and Fundamentally Rethink Work, Debt, and Fiscal Spending
While this week’s modest breakthrough in U.S. climate spending negotiations is a sign of hope, the reality of the situation demands that we push our government into taking action on climate change that meets the moment. If we are to save our planet from becoming uninhabitable and prevent the current onslaught of climate-related disasters from getting worse in the short term, a lot more things have to go right — and right now. “To avert climate catastrophe,” the UN Secretary-General Antonio Gu...
Insignificance
The recent photographs taken from space with the James Webb telescope — of galaxies and individual stars light years away from us, appearing as they were 13 billion years ago and providing insights into the origins of the universe — are truly awe-inspiring. What they suggest about the reach of space is difficult to comprehend. Never have I wanted more to visit a planetarium so as to see these images three-dimensionally. I find these images comforting for the way the remind me of human insigni...
Insignificance
The recent photographs taken from space with the James Webb telescope — of galaxies and individual stars light years away from us, appearing as they were 13 billion years ago and providing insights into the origins of the universe — are truly awe-inspiring. What they suggest about the reach of space is difficult to comprehend. Never have I wanted more to visit a planetarium so as to see these images three-dimensionally. I find these images comforting for the way the remind me of human insigni...
Prime Health
The U.S. healthcare industry is a wounded 7-ton seal, drifting aimlessly, bleeding into the sea. Predators are circling. The blood in the water is unearned margin: price increases, relative to inflation, without a concomitant improvement in quality. Amazon is the lurking megalodon, its 11-foot jaws and 7-inch teeth the largest in history. With the acquisition of One Medical, Amazon is no longer circling … but attacking. Per capita U.S. healthcare spending went from $2,968 in 1980 to $12,531 i...
Prime Health
The U.S. healthcare industry is a wounded 7-ton seal, drifting aimlessly, bleeding into the sea. Predators are circling. The blood in the water is unearned margin: price increases, relative to inflation, without a concomitant improvement in quality. Amazon is the lurking megalodon, its 11-foot jaws and 7-inch teeth the largest in history. With the acquisition of One Medical, Amazon is no longer circling … but attacking. Per capita U.S. healthcare spending went from $2,968 in 1980 to $12,531 i...
