“Matt Rudd has remarkable conversations with three Britons who, after life-changing accidents, have fully active minds but cannot move or speak, and can communicate only via the blink of an eye.”
Technology
Posted inEditor's Pick
I Turned Off My Phone for a Month and Used a Landline
“No texts, no Instagram, no subway Slack.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Building an AI Data Center in Pine Island, Minnesota
“I learned about the data center as soon as the scrappy sign was erected. I was thrilled to see something new; my drive hasn’t changed much in three years. I was less thrilled for Pine Island, which has, like many rural Midwestern towns, become an unlikely microcosm of the AI debate.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Whither the Nerd-Bully?
“Bill Gates was the monopolistic father figure who Silicon Valley’s young founders rebelled against—and, in so rebelling, became.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Chinese Whiz Kids of Silicon Valley
“Chinese-born tech workers have fueled Silicon Valley for decades. In the AI era, they’re superstars.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Reality Check
“AI-generated images have left us questioning what is real. But the godfather of digital forensics, Hany Farid, is not giving up.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
When Your Digital Life Vanishes
“A broken phone or corrupted drive can mean the loss of work, evidence, art, or the last traces of the dead. But sometimes data-recovery experts can summon lost files from the void.”
Posted inQuestionnaire
The Longreads Questionnaire, Featuring Vauhini Vara
The author of Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age and The Immortal King Rao on memorable meals and books about whales.
Posted inEditor's Pick
AI Got the Blame for the Iran School Bombing. The Truth is Far More Worrying
“LLMs-gone-rogue dominated coverage, but had nothing to do with the targeting. Instead, it was choices made by human beings, over many years, that gave us this atrocity.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Limiting Not Just Screen Time, But Screen Space
“The internet has stopped being a place we visit—it’s now an environment we inhabit.”