“The internet has become an extractive and fragile monoculture. But we can revitalize it using lessons learned by ecologists.”
Internet
Posted inCuration
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Featuring stories from Josh Dzieza, Mark Krotov, Wendy Brenner, Paul Brown, and Andrew Normal Wilson.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Cloud Under the Sea
“The Ocean Link was one of a small number of ships that maintain the subsea cables that carry 99 percent of the world’s data.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Meet Me in the Eternal City
“Silicon Valley has always dreamed of building its own utopias. Who’s ready to move in?”
Posted inTop 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Featuring standout stories by Michael Hall, Sarah Aziza, Ferris Jabr, Adrian Nathan West, and Kyle Chayka.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Coming of Age at the Dawn of the Social Internet
“Online platforms allowed me to cultivate a freer version of myself. Then the digital world began to close off.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Perfect Webpage
“How the internet reshaped itself around Google’s search algorithms — and into a world where websites look the same.”
Posted inEssays & Criticism
Poets in the Machine
Why does the literary world still hold online writing at arm’s length?
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Secret Life of the 500+ Cables That Run the Internet
“Laced across the cold depths of the world’s oceans is a network of multimillion-dollar cables, which have become the vital connections of our online lives.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
What Was Twitter, Anyway?
“Whether the platform is dying or not, it’s time to reckon with how exactly it broke our brains.”