There is no "us"

Like so many technologies that came before, it seems to be here to stay; the question is not how to escape it but how to understand ourselves in its inescapable wake.

In his new book, “The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is,” Justin E. H. Smith, a professor of philosophy at the Université Paris Cité, argues that “the present situation is intolerab... See more

My big takeaway is that, for the most part, people are actually still excited about the internet. They may not be racing to download Threads or generate images on Midjourney, but we are all much more online than we used to be. And contrary to what you might see from tech critics on X or even in this newsletter, I have not encountered the supposed t... See more

As the internet evolves, especially for us “very online people,” there’s a deepening sense that we are, together, becoming something beyond the scope of our original intentions. We are rapidly approaching a sum far greater and more mysterious than what we often perceive as its cold, mechanistic parts.

While we conventionally think of ourselves as “u... See more