The New Atlantis
@tnajournal
A magazine defending science and tech for, not on, human beings. What that means ~ http://bit.ly/2Sn51V9 Newsletter ~ http://bit.ly/40J8Vfi Subscribe ~ http://bit.ly/3jultyy
How the government built the American dream house • What keeps the lights on around here • tech & the family's shotgun wedding • eat your AI slop or China wins • puberty blocks vs. hearing aids The Summer 2025 issue is here:
Reupping because I guess I'm on a mission. One reason for writing this series is that during the past few years I’ve seen lots of people reacting to portrayals of dystopian societies w/o working infrastructure by thinking the wreckage looks kind of cool…
Today, the folks @tnajournal have lifted the paywall on the new installment in "How the System Works"--my series about the systems that undergird our days, that have vastly improved life for billions of people, and that--arrgh!--we seem to be forgetting about paying attention to.
Curious about the fate of marriage? And how technology is reshaping it? Here’s my new piece with Aryanna Garber
Ultimately the underlying force that is rearranging the contours of marriage is technology. Debora L. Spar (@deboraspar) and Aryanna Garber on whether marriage has a future: thenewatlantis.com/publications/d…
Something more and more people are saying:
Great series of articles! The first one made me subscribe to @tnajournal so I could appreciate them in print. :-)
You would think that the power system can't possibly require a bunch of people sitting in control rooms making X electricity get to Y spot at exactly Z time. It must be more self-sustaining than that, right? Wrong. The great @CharlesCMann strikes again...
It's part of our duty as citizens to have some grasp of the systems our forebears built, because we have to maintain them for the next generations, and all of these systems are always one generation from collapse. thenewatlantis.com/publications/h…
Anyway, end of sermon. The fantastic, irresistable illustrations are by Julie Wallace, whom I don't think is On Here.
Today, the folks @tnajournal have lifted the paywall on the new installment in "How the System Works"--my series about the systems that undergird our days, that have vastly improved life for billions of people, and that--arrgh!--we seem to be forgetting about paying attention to.
Speaking of Colbert, it’s never a bad day to reread this piece by @JonAskonas, one of the best essays we’ve ever published at @tnajournal, but today is an especially good one: thenewatlantis.com/publications/h…
Hello yes I regret to inform you that the former paperclip maximizer alarmists have crunched the numbers and are now shrimp maximizers. Please report promptly to the designated sentience relinquishment facility in order to expediate the beneficence of 10^100 shrimp.
Speaking of 10^100 shrimp, I argue here that the absurd, dehumanizing conclusions of EA are a feature, not a bug. It's a game that defines reason as that which shocks folk morality, and then competes to score the showiest soul-evacuating points: thenewatlantis.com/publications/o…
Fascinating article about the state and future of marriage by my @HarvardHBS colleague @deboraspar thenewatlantis.com/publications/d…
A clarifying and unsettling new essay at @TNAjournal on the steady march of technology unbundling the package of goods that once came with marriage: