In 2002, still reeling from the dot-com crash, Google realized they’d been harvesting a very valuable raw material — your behavior.
Business & Tech
Posted inNonfiction
Paul Clarke Wants to Live
When a promising student left a neighborhood full of heroin for the University of Pennsylvania, it should have been a moving story. But what does an at-risk student actually need to thrive — or even just to survive?
Posted inBusiness, Business & Tech, Commentary, Essays & Criticism, Feature, Story
Pot Luck
Searching for justice in the newly legal weed economy
Posted inBooks, Business & Tech, Nonfiction, Story, Technology
We Could Have Had Electric Cars from the Very Beginning
Early electric cars performed better in cities than internal combustion vehicles, but didn’t give riders the same illusion of freedom and masculine derring-do.
Posted inBusiness & Tech, Highlight, Nonfiction, Quote Posts, Quotes, Science & Nature
Why the Moon Is Suddenly a Hot Commodity
The next space race is on.
Posted inBusiness, Business & Tech, Commentary, Culture, Story, Uncategorized
We All Work for Facebook
Digital labor is valuable even when we do it for free. Should we get paid?
Posted inStory
The Man Who’s Going to Save Your Neighborhood Grocery Store
American food supplies are increasingly channeled through a handful of big companies: Amazon, Walmart, FreshDirect, Blue Apron. What do we lose when local supermarkets go under? A lot — and Kevin Kelley wants to stop that.
Posted inBusiness & Tech, Highlight, Quotes, Technology
This Is Why No One Answers the Phone Anymore
Robocalls are a scourge, and it’s only a matter of time before the technology learns to spoof your mother’s voice.
Posted inBusiness & Tech, Culture, Highlight, Nonfiction, Quote Posts, Quotes
Zuckerberg’s Trash Is a Subculture’s Treasure
An entire subculture of Bay Area residents survives by reselling wealthy residents’ trash.
Posted inBusiness & Tech, education, Highlight, Nonfiction, Quote Posts, Quotes
‘Intelligent Education’ and China’s Grand AI Experiment
Seven schools in China have installed facial recognition technology in classrooms to monitor — and score — their students. At The Disconnect, Yujie Xue reports on this “intelligent education” initiative.