Technology
Low life
A dear friend came to stay for two nights. Could I be persuaded, wondered he and Catriona, on the first…
Is Russell Brand really so dangerous?
Once the dust has settled over the government’s mini-Budget, another big political battle looms: the Online Safety Bill. This is…
Chips with everything
Semiconductors are the latest battleground for China and the US
Chinese checkers
The threat our politicians don’t seem to have noticed
‘How can we be certain amachine isn’t conscious?’
Philosopher Nick Bostrom on the AI threat
End of the road
When my daughters learned to drive, I suggested they take their tests in automatics as driving manual cars would soon…
Real life
The girl wound down her window, stuck her mobile phone out into midair, and started to take pictures of the…
The Metaphor Map
‘What’s that?’ asked my husband, looking at my laptop. ‘Fibonacci fossilised?’ His question made no sense, but I saw what…
‘I’m old-school’
Nadine Dorries on online safety, the BBC and taking risks
Be a self-sacrificing ant
One day the writer and artist James Bridle rented a hatchback, taped a smartphone to the steering wheel and installed…
Art attack
Will AI change painting — or destroy it?
A Frankenstein device
For as long as we have been human we have looked for some way of telling when we are being…
Heart’s content
According to Pliny the Elder, Scipio Aemilianus was the first man to shave daily. The origin of the name Boeing…
Aesopian
To evade algorithms that hunt down forbidden words, users of platforms like TikTok employ cryptic synonyms. So deadbecomes unalive, and…
Gif
The man who invented gifs, Stephen Wilhite, has died, aged 74. Controversy survives him – over how to pronounce the…
Monopoly rules
Here’s a useful tip. Go to the Royal Mail websiteand you can ask your postman to collect letters or parcels…
End of the line
The premature death of the home phone
‘I fear people adapt too much’
The psychologist Gerd Gigerenzer on how to stay ahead of the algorithms
Two reasons not to let Sir Tony rest on his Garter laurels
I’m picturing Sir Tony Blair enjoying a fitting of his Garter robes after watching Boris Johnson stagger through PMQs. ‘I’m…
Real life
After launching an investigation into my missing phone, Vodafone informed me it could not deal with me any further until…
Will our future lives be like a video game?
A few years ago, the software company Owlchemy Labs released a computer game called Job Simulator. Its premise was simple.…
Old money
In defence of hard cash
Real life
‘Can I ask you why you don’t want a smart phone?’ said the chirpy manager, as I stood blinking in…
Sole traders
My strange encounter with the foot fetishists
Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Twitter ban is nothing to celebrate
Marjorie Taylor Greene is nuttier than M&M World. Not your garden-variety conservative, or even a conservative at all, but a…
