Latest

In this edition of weeknotes: Adam Curtis on the trap of self-hood, USians on their preference for the present over “The Future”, Sherryl Vint on the merging of the two meanings of speculation, and Chris Butler on the necessary friction of the uncertain present...

After the hourglass has been overturned, there is a period during which the sand must resettle itself before the flow of time can become regularised once again. We are living through just such a period.

I’m pleased to announce a new publication: you can read a short story by yours truly in the just-released RISCS anthology! Meanwhile, feel free to hang around and discuss the shaky foundations of the USian technopoly, and the possible fates of the nation-state...

If “AI” is a revolution, as its ideologues would have us believe, then they might want to consider how unpopular revolutions tend to end. Are they sincere in their beliefs? I argue that it doesn’t really matter, but that we should nonetheless treat them as if they are.

The openings of stories, and the titles we give them, have a huge effect on how they land with the audiences—but as always with stories, it’s an art rather than a science. Plus: in praise of living and working at the edges.

Games and prose fiction are very different media, but worldbuilding works basically the same across both of them—which is why you can learn a lot about fiction for futures from the better sort of game dev. Plus: why does music in science fiction sound like it does?