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Let’s be honest with ourselves: if a broadcaster or newspaper had started publishing thousands of non-consensual, sexually explicit images of women or — even worse — of children, politicians and regulators would be out for blood. It would be a front-page, ongoing scandal and the organization responsible would be…

On the morning of January 3, 2026, US President Donald Trump stood at a podium in Palm Beach, Florida. Less than twelve hours earlier, US forces had invaded Caracas in violation of international law and the UN Charter. A series of airstrikes on military targets provided cover for Special Forces…

Greetings machine breakers -

Hope everyone’s holidays have been nice and restful, and that each of your new years are off to a promising start.

With AI companies growing ever closer to the state and a barrage of headlines about labor automation and burst-ready bubbles carrying over from last year,…

Welcome to the Convivial Society, a newsletter about technology, culture and the moral life. And happy New Year. This installment took shape in the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, each associated with waiting, although the seconds we count down to midnight are rather different from the days…

It won’t be much of a surprise to regular readers or listeners of my podcast that digital sovereignty and getting off US tech has been on my mind a lot this year. It actually started in 2024, when I worked on a white paper about digital sovereignty with some European…

Greetings everyone -

The year is drawing to an end, and that means every other link you click is a Best of 2025 list. And you know what, that’s just fine; if you’re at all like me, you just keep on clicking. Give me more of the best stuff, show…

Stanford’s Paul Brest Hall was so packed I had to find a spot to sit on the floor. It was a Monday morning, December 8th, and every last chair was taken; spectators lined the walls and shuffled around in the back. The restless majority were artists, writers, and actors; they…

I can hardly describe the dread that swept over me when I read the news that Netflix might end up buying Warner Bros. Discovery, and particularly the storied film studio at its core. The barbarians were not just at the gates, but had fully broken through the walls, reached…

Welcome to the Convivial Society, a newsletter exploring the intersection of technology, culture, and the moral life. In this installment I return to one of the earliest themes of my writing about technology: the myth of technological inevitability. When I’ve had occasion over the past several months to address…

In this post I'm highlighting some of my writing, artworks and talks from 2025. If you've been following, I hope you find something worth revisiting. If not, I hope you find something worth checking out.

And if you find something of interest, please share it! One thing that's happened this…