Not Quite Democracy: Lucie Greene on the Civic Aspirations of Tech Giants By Bradley Babendir Feature Lucie Greene’s new book “Silicon States” is about the danger of concentrating so much power in so few hands.
The Menace and the Promise of Autonomous Vehicles By Jacob Silverman Feature What does it mean to experiment with technology that we know will kill people, even if it could save lives?
TPS Reports All Day Long By Katie Kosma Highlight Have technological advances left many of us with jobs devoid of meaning? Are we bullshit?
‘I Love What Human Voices Do Together’: An Interview with Neko Case By Will Hermes Feature Neko Case talks about collaboration, women warriors, women inventors, men with excellent falsettos, losing her home to a fire, and feeling lucky in ‘a great sea of loss.’
Meet the New Mormons By Sarah Scoles Feature Is it possible to be queer, lefty, and a Latter-Day Saint? After leaving the church, Sarah Scoles sets out to understand liberal Mormons.
‘They’ve Forked Baby Hitler’ By Michelle Weber Highlight High-stakes time travel adventure from sci-fi writer Jo Lindsay Walton.
Do These Pants Make Me Look Like Everyone Else? Be Honest, Alexa. By Michelle Weber Highlight What happens to taste when machines become the tastemakers? Kyle Chayka meditates on style, algorithms, and our generic yet lullingly unobjectionable future.
Digital Media and the Case of the Missing Archives By Danielle Tcholakian Commentary The more work that journalists create for the internet, the more work is rendered obsolete.
Welcome to the Center of the Universe By Shannon Stirone Feature For the men and women who use the Deep Space Network to talk to the heavens, failure is not an option.
Translation is Messy, Which is Why Google Translate Will Never Be Very Good at It By Ben Huberman Highlight The popular online tool is great at rapid decoding. Extracting meaning? Not so much.
Art in the Age of Blockchain By Michelle Legro Commentary Why a rare Pepe meme is now easier to authenticate than a Leonardo.
Money For Nothing in the Bitcoin Bubble By Michelle Legro Highlight The cryptocurrency gold rush has made millionaires out of those obsessed with changing the world order.
The Encyclopedia of the Missing By Jeremy Lybarger Feature She keeps watch over one of the largest databases of missing persons in the country. For Meaghan Good, the disappeared are still out here, you just have to know where to look.
The Digital Age Won’t Kill Paper By Ben Huberman Highlight Just like handwriting survived long after the introduction of print, paper is still very much part of our internet-era economy.
Longreads Best of 2017: Science, Technology, and Business Writing By Longreads Reading List We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here is the best in business, tech, and science writing.
The Fight to Escape “A World of Anonymous Abuse” By Emily Perper Highlight Online harassment is as serious as offline harassment, and it rarely stays “only” online.
What Happened to eBay? By Emily Perper Highlight I haven’t peeked at eBay in years, and apparently I’m not the only one who’s forgotten it exists.
The Dream of a Perfect Android By Michelle Legro Highlight Hiroshi Ishiguro has spent his career creating robots. But does he know enough about humans to make them lifelike?
The Creator of Bitcoin Comes Clean, Only to Disappear Again By Aaron Gilbreath Feature The mysterious creator of bitcoin asks a journalist to help reveal his identity.
Mark Zuckerberg Would Like the Authority to Rule, Please By Ethan Chiel Commentary The Facebook CEO is in control of his company. He could just use a little more confidence.
‘What Do You Say To People Who Think They Have Nothing to Hide?’ By Longreads Feature Nathan Wessler, a lawyer with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, monitors a government that increasingly monitors its citizens.
My Journey to the Heart of the FOIA Request By Spenser Mestel Feature Fifty years ago, the Freedom of Information Act gave the public access to government secrets — all you had to do was ask. How a simple request became a bureaucratic nightmare.
Two Ex-Googlers Want to Make A Lot of Viral Tweets By Danielle Tcholakian Commentary The internet is not pleased with start-up bros who want to “disrupt” bodegas.
Tech Companies Are (Maybe) Ready to Punch Nazis Now By Danielle Tcholakian Commentary Some tech companies are taking a stand against neo-Nazi users, but claim it’s a still dangerous decision to make.
The Engineers Who Can’t Quit Voyager By Michelle Legro Commentary The nine flight-team engineers of the 1977 mission have been putting off retirement to see through one of NASA’s most successful spacecraft all the way to the end.
Why Don’t We Work Less? By Danielle Tcholakian Commentary Is it because we don’t want to, because we can’t, or is there something else at play?
In Silicon Valley, Transportation Innovation Is a Flat Circle By Danielle Tcholakian Commentary Tech wizards may say they want driverless cars or the hyperloop, but what they really, really want is a bus.
A Sociology of the Smartphone By Longreads Feature Smartphones have altered the texture of everyday life, digesting many longstanding spaces and rituals, and transforming others beyond recognition.
