Writings on the interconnections between science, technology and society
Case in point: an absurd article in the Wall Street Journal that compares Newton to the modern academic, claims autistic people cannot possibly behave in public, and asks if Newton would fit as he was in the 17th century into a 21st century university, and then concludes that no, he would not, because modern academia has gone to the dogs and also ‘something tells [the author] he wouldn’t’. Of…
My college at Cambridge e-mails its members notices regularly and I woke up to one today telling us they would be changing the signage on the toilets. The new EHRC guidance came into force in the UK last week stipulating that ‘ trans people should use either gender-neutral facilities or the ones that match their biological sex .’ I would not have chosen to write about this questionable piece of…
‘A convivial society should be designed to allow all its members the most autonomous action by means of tools least controlled by others.’ Ivan Illich, Tools for convivality What is the IndieWeb? I have been thinking of this question since I hosted the IndieWeb Carnival in December 2025 when quite a few contributions engaged with some form of this question. This is a rather difficult topic to…
It is my pleasure to host the August 2026 edition of the IndieWeb Book Club and my pick for the month is The Mulai by Spanish author Munir Hachemi (translated to English by Julia Sanches) and published just last month. This is also one of the few fiction books listed for reading as part of the IndieWeb Book Club, because I have long believed in the power of a good work of fiction to make us…
I never understood ‘weeknotes’. I am not against them, I am simply indifferent to them; and I have no strong opinions on them because I never understood them. It seems everyone is writing ‘weeknotes’ lately, and I once considered trying my hand at it as well. Instead of writing anything I soon found myself introspecting what it was about ‘weeknotes’ that kept making me feel averse to the idea. I…
‘Prohibition only drives drunkenness behind doors and into dark places, and does not cure it or even diminish it.’ Mark Twain Following in Australia’s footsteps, the United Kingdom has banned social media for under-16s . The ban will come into force in Spring 2027 ‘to give kids their childhood back’ – a phrase repeated five times in five different ways in the British government’s press release. I…
Philipp Lahm’s articles in The Athletic are one of my favourite perks of remaining subscribed to the New York Times . Having watched him as a midfielder for both Bayern and the German mannschaft , his tactical appreciation for the game and grounded philosophy come as no surprise to me. His recent article on Germany crashing out of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the knockout stages is one example. ‘The…
Shoreditch is about 45 min away from where I live and is the part of London I can access quickest, apart from the City of London. I enjoy making photographs in this area, often walking south along the high street, past Boxpark and down Bishopsgate, because of the excellent opportunities for street and documentary photography here against an especially recognisable London skyline. Some would tell…
‘At midnight, in the month of June, I stand beneath the mystic moon.’ Edgar Allan Poe (The Sleeper) June gets sunnier every year but two things ensure I look forward to this wonderful month despite the sweltering heat and unbearably hot nights: my birthday and my town’s annual carnival, both of which fall around the summer solstice, or midsummer, or – if you are either a Swede or just fancy –…
‘For he who leads the contemplative life cannot help influencing the active ... Philosophical and psychological theories, historical doctrines and all sorts of speculations and discoveries, have changed, and keep changing, the lives of countless millions ... in the process of shaping reality – of which fact the enemies of humanism are perhaps more keenly aware than its friends.’ Erwin Panofsky,…
Creative, quirky web projects are always a joy to see. I recently came across Daniel Janus’s old handwritten.blog which is (or would have been anyway) a blog that was entirely handwritten. And by ‘entirely’ I mean entirely , from the header to footer to every little thing you would see on the webpage; nothing was typed up, all of it was written on a reMarkable 2 e-ink tablet. As you might suspect,…
‘If an artist were to admit that he was uncertain as to what part of the content of his work answered to life and what part to art … we would probably consider him incompetent.’ John Szarkowski in ‘William Eggleston’s Guide’ Anyone who dabbles in any form of art will be quick to point out that they need a reliable, preferably bottomless, well of inspiration. The purpose of this inspiration is not…
NASA has plenty of fun little websites that make use of its functioning technologies, primarily intended for outreach. One of these is Your name in Landsat which takes pictures from Landsat that resemble latin alphabets and uses them to make up the letters in your name, or whatever word you choose. Here, for example, is V.H. Belvadi in Landsat, without the full stops and spaces: Landsat is a…
When Tim Cook took over from Steve Jobs nobody expected Apple to rise as it did during his 14-year tenure at the helm. I think he did a tremendous job on the whole. There were some low points, like maps and liquid glass, but Cook’s background as a supply chain guy showed in every success: it helped grow the company into a behemoth, it helped greatly in realising Apple's lofty goals towards…
After admitting that AI was going to cost jobs , Britain’s technology secretary Liz Kendall has now ‘asked the public to embrace AI ’ reports The Guardian . This is certainly an odd thing for government to do on the heels of Farage parotting talking points for Stack, a cryptocurrency firm in which Kwasi Kwarteng is involved. Mr Kwarteng was once chancellor to Liz Truss who had a famously…
It is perhaps because Lamorna Ash wrote this book after she started showing up regularly at church that its pages are coloured with the bias of someone who is convinced that following a religion is the right thing to do. I would not have had a problem with this had the blurb not made it sound like this would be a critical exploration undertaken by someone curious about the younger generation’s…
“…feminism, the feminist movement and gender equality, of the environmental movement and sustainable development, of peace and international solidarity, of human rights, humanism and antifascism, of progressive and liberal thinking, both nationally and internationally.” Attila Vajnai of the left-wing Workers’ Party of Hungary, which won nothing this election “By rejecting Russian and American…
Earlier this month Ofcom released their ‘Adults’ Media Use and Attitudes Report’ for the UK . Usually, when I sit down to flip through such reports, I prepare myself for an updated stream of disappointing statistics on how everyone is drowning in their social media feeds and how, as a species, humanity has probably has its last original thought. However, the latest Ofcom report carries pleasantly…
‘Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.’ Albert Einstein It should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me that I am sceptical of mediums, spirits, the undead and their ilk. However, I do enjoy things like ghost tours (of which the UK has plenty on offer) and relish the opportunity to watch people who claim they can communicate with the dead demonstrate…
The BBC ’s science correspondent, Pallab Ghosh, has an excellent article out today about the British government cutting funding for physics research. Specifically for blue-sky research, the sort of research that ‘asks questions to understand the universe, rather than design new products’. What is especially interesting is that the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) seems to be aware…