Shows
Techs on TextsEpisode #20: Mark Chambers on Jurassic Park by Michael CrichtonMark Chambers – my friend from high school (and former Chief Sustainability Officer of DC and NYC among other things) – joins us to discuss Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park. We talk about the collision between money and science, the illusion of control, dignity, public service, how many humans there should be, why it may or may not be ok to grill, and positive visions for the future.Show notes:Jevons paradox – how technological efficiency can paradoxically increase resource consumptionWhat Michael Crichton Reveals About Big Tech and A.I. - Cal Newport's New Yorker piece about Jurassic ParkThe Weathering Podcas...
2025-10-011h 36Techs on TextsEpisode #19: Matt Price on Piranesi by Susanna ClarkeMatt Price – technology historian and dedicated educator – joins us to discuss Susanna Clarke's Piranesi. We talk about egos, ego death, cults, academia, Christianity, Buddhism, and psychedelics. No insights, only more questions.Show notes:Susanna Clarke's official websitePiranesi on GoodreadsVery Bad Wizards on PiranesiGiovanni Battista Piranesi on WikipediaCarceri d'invenzione, Giovanni Battista Piranesi's "Imaginary Prisons"All Things Shining, the book I refer to as "Everything Shining" in the podcastGene Wolfe, who Ursula K. Le Guin referred to as "our Melville"Aleister CrowleyBodhisattvaNatural historyVarious soundtracks to Piranesi:"Everything Forgotten Flows" by Priori"Prati Bagnati Del Monte Analogo" by Francesco Mess...
2025-08-301h 32Techs on TextsEpisode #10: Mark Coatney on A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le GuinMark Coatney, long-suffering digital media pioneer (Time! Newsweek! Tumblr! Al Jazeera!), gets me to finally read a novel by Ursula K. Le Guin and I loved it. Topics include our changing world, what the world is for, preindustrial longing, why we should maybe recognize that media companies are ephemeral things, the pitfalls of power, lame AI, floating orbs of light, humans imitating machines, why humans like things, leaky boats as a metaphor for a lot of software, and the fact that any human power can be changed by human beings – including, possibly, the power contained within ourselves.Ma...
2024-11-261h 31