Some tech companies are taking a stand against neo-Nazi users, but claim it’s a still dangerous decision to make.
Posted inBooks, Business & Tech, Nonfiction, Quotes
Rolling Down the Highway with the Sum Total of Human Knowledge
Google had a plan to scan every book in the world. 25 million books later, the project lost its way.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Torching the Modern-Day Library of Alexandria
“Somewhere at Google there is a database containing 25 million books and nobody is allowed to read them.”
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
When a YouTube Video Almost Made the Modular Smartphone Happen
The story of Google’s groundbreaking, buzz-generating modular smartphone — aka Project Ara — from bang to whimper.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Dream of Ara: Inside the Rise and Fall of the World’s Most Revolutionary Phone
After generating incredible buzz among designers and gadget geeks, Project Ara — Google’s groundbreaking modular smartphone — was suspended in 2016, concluding a three-year, bang-to-whimper arc.
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction, Story
Your Inner Drone: The Politics of the Automated Future
“As we grow more reliant on applications and algorithms, we become less capable of acting without their aid.”
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction
Your Inner Drone: The Politics of the Automated Future
“As we grow more reliant on applications and algorithms, we become less capable of acting without their aid.”
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
‘The Library Is One of the Few Civic Spaces We Have Left’
I have a dear friend who’s working at the library in Chattanooga, which is one of the rare states where the budget is increasing, and she’s doing all of this neat stuff with technology: bringing in 3-D printers, teaching web-use skills, all of these public services that are really necessary beyond making books available for […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Why Microsoft, Google, and Apple Are Working With Science Fiction Writers
Science fiction writer Eileen Gunn recently wrote in Smithsonian magazine about how the science fiction genre informs the way we think about the real world. Here, Gunn writes that big tech companies like Microsoft have hired science fiction writers to do “design fiction”—coming up with new technology ideas through imaginative works: Microsoft, Google, Apple and […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Before Google: Larry Page’s Early Ideas for Changing the World
Even in Google’s earliest days, Page had always wanted the company to do more than just basic Web search. Since he was a kid, he’d been dreaming up world-changing schemes. As an undergrad at the University of Michigan, he’d proposed that the school replace its bus system with something he called a PRT, or personal […]